October 2018 & Michelham Priory

October was coming to an end, and with Halloween fast approaching, we made sure to get ready for it. I love Halloween, its so much more fun and less stressful than Christmas. I say lets get rid of Christmas and just have Halloween. It would enrich all of our lives.

We decided to go for a day out, first of all by walking along the beach at Eastbourne. We played some arcade games and the 2 penny sliders, and came away both poorer and with dirty fingers from the coins. 

We then headed up to Michelham Priory, a charming little place, with supposedly England's longest medieval moat. Its a nice place, retaining its history as a Priory, which was then converted to a country house, to now, where it has been restored to show off some of its former glory.

You can see in these pictures some of the original walls, arches and windows. The picture just above shows some of the archways you would have crossed through into the cloister. The Priory is situated in some beautiful gardens, with separate kitchen, herb and medicinal planted areas.

There's always friends to say hello, this duck knew what we were up to before I even opened the bag of bird seed!

Entry to the Priory is £13, which I thought was a little steep for what was there. We got in for free because we were members of Historic Houses at the time. Its a bit like a collective, similar to English Heritage and National Trust. You pay a yearly fee and it gives you unlimited access to all of their sites. We generally flip between the three, doing a year at each before changing to another one at the end of year, which works out well for us, particularly as doing all 3 can get very expensive very quickly.

A couple of days later, I tried out a coke boiled gammon. Yes thats right, you read that correctly, a coke boiled gammon. A friend of mine recommended it to me, and I was a little concerned that they had lost their minds completely. But, I thought as I'm trying new things, why not give this a try? I covered the gammon in coke, with some stock veg, lemongrass and bay leaves, and left it to boil for a few hours, before baking it in the oven.

                                                 

This was it, after what felt like an eternity of cooking. (Excuse the uneven slices, my knife skills are not very good) It was beautifully soft, and sort of melted into your mouth, and I didn't really taste the coke, just like a sweet sort of marinade flavour to the outside. I'm not sure I'm fully converted with the coke, but I have seen a recipe that uses cider and apple juice, which is going to be my next try.

This is October, and it felt a bit late for such a baby swan to still be so little! Never seen a baby black swan before though.

Gotta love amazon, anyone for a pot noodle?