wet winter arrives

Everything is squelching underfoot and the water turbine is blocking every 30 minutes with twigs and leaves. Winter has arrived. In the last squeak of fine weather (and it was very fine) I got fourteen folk out along the track to help shift the really big rubbish that Campbell had left behind out. Of course there's still a mountain of small rubbish (cables! pipes! copper fittings! timers! radios!) to be sorted and removed but I can at least move them myself. The Colchester Student lathe was another matter entirely.

 The lathe is one of the more valuable bits of stuff but I had to get everything big out at once, valuable or not, because I at least have some chance of getting it all shifted. The fourteen folk were magnificent. Organised and motivated by the outstanding Luke and Cathy who came up from their farm in the borders to huff and puff with rusty bits of metal. I remain in awe.

Alas my awe for auctioneers remains limited. Having dragged a whole heap o' stuff over the six miles of track it remains where we left it. On the grass outside Drimnin Distillery. Looking out of place and waiting forlornly for the auctioneers (or anyone!) to come and pick it up.

So I'm celebrating what can be celebrated which is that we managed to shift:

* a yanmar tractor (with ridiculously complicated back actor)
* a colchester student lathe
* two 4m fibreglass dinghies
* a 3m aluminium dinghy
* a log splitter for the yanmar
* a 4m trailer (with bust jockey wheel)
* a hydraulic lift
* midge-eater, rotavator, bench saw et al

over six rough miles. There were a few casualties (a couple of flat tyres and the clutch on the series 1 landrover has gone - drat!) and some folk were definitely shocked at the state of the track but everyone made it out in one piece. If anyone happens to be in the neighbourhood with a massive lorry and a desire to shift stuff, do let me know.

The idea was that folk would be rewarded with copious food for their hard work so I had stacks of bread, cheese and casseroles on hand. I also had lots of pots of chocolate mousse having finally tracked down the recipe that my mum used. It's Julia Child's chocolate mousse from 'Mastering the Art of French Cookery' and I've still got some tinkering to do with the details. My mum (and Julia Child) used the egg yolk raw but I find it's got an odd metallic taste so I'm experimenting (see *) with cooking it with the coffee and sugar to produce a custard. The main problem I've got at the minute is the chocolate and butter mixture solidifying in grains rather than smooth chocolateyness. So here's the work in progress.

6 oz dark chocolate (the darker the better)
6 oz unsalted butter
1/4 cup strong coffee (using instant is the easiest)
4 eggs (seperated)
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons whisky
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mel the chocolate and butter together and leave to cool a bit*
Whisk the coffee, whisky, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks together. Heat gently in a double boiler til the mixture thickens then leave to cool a bit*
Whisk the egg whites 'til they form soft peaks
Fold* the chocolate, custard and egg whites together and refrigerate for a couple of hours or (ideally) overnight.

Serve with whipped cream if you're feeling fancy and just pouring cream if you're feeling impatient.