Cathie Welch explains how to distinguish between the types of Cyclamens available
It’s that time of year again when the garden centres are bombarding us with a beautiful array of houseplants for the festive season. Every year it’s the same and I find myself having to clarify to students and clients how to distinguish between the types of Cyclamens available, so here goes…
Cyclamen hederifolium
These little beauties are 100% hardy and tolerate our climate outside. They’re fabulous for colonising shady areas particularly under trees. They grow from corms and ants help to disperse the seeds. Coming in various shades of pink and white and the leaves vary their variegation between plants. This species is fairly vigorous if it likes its location and flowers in late Summer and Autumn. Ivy is Hedera and these Cyclamen have leaves like ivy forming a beautiful green carpet once the flowers have finished.
Cyclamen coum
These are another species of hardy Cyclamen although a little less vigorous than hederifolium. They flower in the Spring followed by little round leaves, also varying slightly between plants. Shades of pink and white too and similar in their cultivation requirements. Grow the two species in separate swathes or you’ll find that the C. hederifoium takes over. You can see both types growing successfully in many public gardens.
Cyclamen persicum
These are the ones that are in the houseplant section. They can be grown outside briefly but aren’t frost hardy and don’t like our wet winters. Very rarely will they survive outside. I’m tempted by the gorgeous array of colours on offer but that can only be grown in cool conditions inside. A porch or protected area outside is perfect but water carefully!
It’s in the name!
I hope this helps to unravel the confusion. The clue is in the name. They are all in the Cyclamen genus, but the species differ.
Points of sale aren’t always specific but if you’re buying something from a greenhouse or polytunnel at this time of year, check before you plant it in the garden. The hardy Cyclamen will be outside with the perennials whatever the weather. They’re all gorgeous but like I say to my students, you need to do your homework! Happy shopping!
Cathie’s Gardening School Services
Pruning is the skill I am asked most about so I will be running pruning courses and master classes throughout the Summer and Autumn next year. Please come and meet me at Ashdene to discuss your gardening requirements and join in the learning, it’s addictive!
Shop with independent brands for gorgeous Christmas gifts while enjoying mulled wine and wreath making for an abundance of festive cheer on Saturday 26th November
Indulge in a festive shopping experience and buy impactful gifts that pair luxury with purpose, at Asthall Manor, Burford on Saturday, 26th November.
This curated shopping event from 10.30am-4pm, brings together a group of independent brands that believe positive impact can be achieved through good business, sustainable practices, and the value of time-honoured crafts. Expect lovely Christmas gifts, mulled wine and wreath making for an abundance of festive cheer.
Visitors will have the opportunity to shop exquisite glassware, jewellery and kills from ISHKAR, a social enterprise seeking to challenge one-sided narratives of conflict-affected countries through a unique blend of craftsmanship, storytelling and travel.
Artisan woven scarves, cosy knits and beanies from Thread Tales inspired by the experience of travel. Discovering more rare, beautiful, sustainably produced fabrics, handwoven by Artisans from around the world.
Handcrafted homeware by Goldfinger who craft bespoke furniture and homeware from reclaimed and sustainable materials. All Goldfinger products are designed to support the circular economy.
Tamay and Me creates sustainable clothing and homewares made in partnership with communities in North Vietnam using local textile traditions.
Artisanal home & lifestyle collections sourced throughout Africa from Hadeda a lifestyle brand collaborating with talented artisans across Africa to bring you one-of-a-kind ceramic, art, furniture and fashion pieces.
Luxurious organic soaps and skincare products from La Eva and organic underwear from Pico Goods with a focus on simplicity, traceability and comfort.
Cathy Gayner’s Recipes from Le Rouzet – An English Cook in France, is out now, in aid of Age Unlimited. Here’s a taster…
Walnut tart
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Serves: Four generously
Ingredients
For the pastry:
• 110g butter
• 140g flour
• 30g icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
For the filling:
• 20g butter
• 200g golden syrup
• 100g walnut halves
• A pinch of mixed spice
• 100g mixed peel
• Four madeleines (or soft amaretti), crumbled
• One egg, beaten
Method
This is very much part of Le Rouzet menus in the early autumn, when our walnuts are beginning to ripen and every tree seems to have a red squirrel perched in it, noisily eating our supply. It’s like a sophisticated treacle tart, but not heavy, and is really worth making, even if you don’t have large quantities of walnuts to use up.
Put all the ingredients for the pastry into a food processor and mix until the dough forms a ball. Press the dough into a 20cm tart tin with a removable base. Prick the pastry all over really thoroughly, even up the sides (this will prevent shrinkage), then chill in the fridge.
Cook in a preheated oven at 180C/ fan 160/ gas 4 until golden.
Melt the butter and syrup in a pan and stir in all the other ingredients. Pour into the pastry case and cook at 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 for 15 minutes.
Cool in the tin but as soon as you can, loosen the edges of the tart or it will get stuck. Serve with crème fraiche.
Cheese biscuits
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Makes: 40
Ingredients:
• 250g extra-mature Cheddar, cut into chunks
• 250g salted butter, straight from the fridge, cut into chunks
• 250g plain flour
• Tabasco
• Dijon mustard
• Salt & pepper
Method
I have dozens of recipes for cheese biscuits, but these are the ones the family insist on and I always have some in the freezer, ready to bake.
These amounts fit into my food processor perfectly; don’t be tempted to do more in one go, as it just won’t mix properly.
Put the cheese, butter and flour into the food processor and add 12 shakes of Tobasco, a heaped tablespoon of mustard, 25 grinds of pepper and two teaspoons of salt. (This is just a guide!).
Whizz all this up in the food processor and, as soon as the mixture forms a ball, stop and divide it into three parts.
Lay out three large bits of cling film and put a ball of cheese mixture on to each. With damp hands, roughly shape each ball into a sausage. Then roll up each parcel in the cling film and holding one end tightly, with the other hand, the thumb and first finger forming a circle, ease the dough along
the cling film, so you have a long, even sausage measuring about 30cm long
and 5cm across.
Freeze these parcels until you’re ready to use them (don’t attempt to cut them unless they are very cold; they will end up squashy). When you’re ready to cook, take the parcels out of the freezer and heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. By the time they have reached the right temperature, the cheese sausages will have thawed enough to cut into 2cm slices.
Line a tray with baking parchment and arrange the slices on it. Cook for about 10 minutes until golden brown; you can move them on to a serving plate straight from the oven without them coming to any harm.
They are best eaten on the day they are cooked, but if you have any left over, they freeze beautifully.
Enjoy our recipes? Show us your creations on social media with the tag #RArecipes
Well done to all the wildlife lovers who took part in the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) competition who snapped some beautiful sights at local nature reserves and green spaces and showed how nature can help our mental health
Winning entries include this stunning shot of a buzzard in flight, this pin-sharp picture of a tiny shield bug emerging from a garden flower and a portrait of a pensive kingfisher.
The winner of this year’s children’s category was eight-year-old Roly Lewis from Oxford. The North Hinksey Primary School pupil took his fantastic photo of a shield bug, poking its head out of a flower in his own front garden.
Roly said: “I wanted to enter the competition, so I took lots of wildlife pictures all spring and summer. I thought this photo was my best one because the blossom was a nice background, and the shield bug had an amazing colour and pattern. This made me look closely at shield bugs which are really amazing. My mum told me I had won when I came out of school, and I was so excited I jumped up and down. I really wanted to win but I thought there would be so many good photos that I wouldn’t.”
Children Winner – Roly Lewis (8) (Sheildbug)Children Runner Up – Hayden Denham (7) (Hummingbird Hawkmoth)
The Wildlife Trust restarted its popular photo competition this summer after a three-year break because of the pandemic. The charity, which manages more than 80 nature reserves across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, challenged everyone aged six and over to take fantastic photos of plants, animals and fungi at its sites, or to capture action for wildlife in their local area.
Roy McDonald took first place with his crystal-clear shot of a buzzard in mid-air at the Trust’s College Lake reserve near Tring. The 45-year-old former courier driver from Berkhamstead revealed after winning the contest that he has struggled with his mental health for some years, and that wildlife photography had helped. He said: “Nature helps me so much, it’s honest and calming and it doesn’t judge you, and just sometimes, if you are calm and patient, it will allow you to get up close into their world. I always take great pleasure when a creature trusts you enough to not scurry or fly away. But you don’t have to take photos: just being in nature and observing it can give you something to focus on.
“I had my encounter with a majestic buzzard on a cold and beautiful winter day. I had seconds to react once I spotted it, and just as my focus locked on, it spotted me and flew directly across my path. So close to me. I chose the first image of the sequence because it had the most amount of action and sense of place. It is by far and away the best shot of a buzzard I have ever managed. They have eluded me for years. I’m quite stunned and delighted to have won.”
Flora and fauna Winner (and overall winner) – Ray McDonald (buzzard in flight) taken at College LakeFlora and fauna Runner Up – Adrianna Bielobradek (Poppy seedhead) taken at Buckleberry Common)
As overall winner, Mr McDonald won a top-of-the-range Panasonic Lumix digital camera and a wildlife photography masterclass. As well as receiving a printed canvas of his picture and having it appear in BBOWT’s 2023 calendar.
This year’s contest had six new categories: flora and fauna; nature reserve landscapes; people in nature; children’s category (ages 6-12), teenagers (ages 13-19) and Team Wilder, for shots of action for nature in the community. Helen Touchard-Paxton, a mum who lives Buckinghamshire, won the Team Wilder category with a snap of a frog in a garden pond that she and her family dug during the coronavirus lockdown.
She said: “I believe this photo shows that you don’t need acres of land to create a successful wildlife area: if you are interested – no matter how small your space – just have a go and see what works. I don’t have high-end expensive equipment, and I have no idea how to use photo editing software – the photo is very much ‘as taken’. I was absolutely amazed to have won the Team Wilder category.”
Team Wilder Winner – Helen Touchard-Paxton (frog)Team Wilder Runner Up – Peter Massam (bug hotel)
The Trust received hundreds of entries, creating an extremely difficult job for this year’s judges. BBOWT communications officer Kate Titford, Trust magazine editor Ben Vanheems and professional photographer Steve Gozdz, who runs local nature safaris in Berkshire through his business GG Wildlife Experiences.
Teenagers Winner – Zachary Osbourne (14) Kingfisher Teenagers Runner Up – Lucy Colston (17) (marbled white on scabious)
Mr Vanheems said: “It’s been a really laborious process with lots of debate going on because we want to get it right, but the competition entrants haven’t exactly made it easy for us.”
People in Nature Winner – Petra Mohr (girl on decking) taken at Weston Turville ReserviorPeople in Nature Runner Up – Lorraine Clarke (man in hide) taken at College Lake
Mr Gozdz added: “What I was looking for was composition, good use of light – an action shot would have been fantastic. What we’ve found is something quite stunning. A real in-the-moment shot with perfect angles and perfect light, and actually something I would have been very happy to have taken myself. In fact, when I first saw it I was quite jealous.”
Landscape Winner – Charlotte Day (sunrise landscape) taken at Cholsey MarshLandscape Runner Up – John Kearns (Warburg trees) taken at Warburg
The trust is grateful to GG Wildlife Experiences, Panasonic and Chroma for sponsoring this year’s competition.
The new jazz scene comes to Guildford with a series of gigs by new exciting artists, starting on October 21st with Camilla George
Visionary saxophonist Camilla George kicks off the Beat series at the Boileroom with a heady mix of afrobeat, hip hop and jazz.
Expect an up-tempo feast of stunning jazz horns, polyrhythmic drums, guitar and keys and Camilla’s sax flying effortlessly between lush afrobeat and jazz melodies.
Camilla has carved out her own unique identity in the vibrant London scene, with her strong cultural roots and love of fusing African and Western Music. Following her critically acclaimed debut album Isang and much lauded follow up The People Could Fly in 2018 Camilla launches her third album Ibio, Ibio at London’s Jazz Café on 16th November.
Camilla studied with several jazz greats including sax giant Jean Toussaint. Her band have supported Courtney Pine and Femi Kuti and played many festivals including EFG London Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz and We Out Here. She has also been a member of celebrated group Jazz Jamaica since 2009.
Check it out and move to the beat
Over the last few years the UK has become home to a diverse, accessible and newly confident new jazz scene whose innovative sounds are liberating the genre for new audiences. That vibrant UK new jazz scene is now coming to Guildford as Guildford Jazz teams up with the Boileroom to present some of the best and hippest new UK jazz, funk, afro sound, and blues fusion artists.
The Beat series, which is co-funded by Arts Council England, kicks off on October 21st with visionary saxophonist Camilla George’s up tempo feast of afrobeat hip hop and jazz. Other artists appearing in the series are Mark Kavuma’s Banger Factory, Yolanda Charles Project Ph, Xhosa Cole, Alex Hitchcock and Rosie Frater -Taylor.
Make a wonderful selection of hanging and free-standing porcelain ornaments for your tree, home and as gifts this month
Enjoy a relaxing day making festively themed decorations using porcelain at Micklems Farm in Knowl Hill on Thursday, 27th October.
Tutor Debbie Page will guide you through the challenges of working with porcelain to produce a collection of festive decorations for your home which make lovely gifts too. These will include both hanging and free-standing decorations, as well as tea lights or lanterns.
You will learn how to roll out porcelain, join sections together, cut shapes using templates and make perfect holes for threading ribbons through for hanging decorations.Debbie will also show you how to enhance your decorations after they have been fired using sharpie pens and faux gold leaf.
Suitable for all levels of experience, including beginners.
Your work will be taken away for firing and available for collection at Micklems approx 4-5 weeks after the workshop.
Suitable for all levels of experience, including beginners. The maximum class size is 10 so there will be plenty of one to one guidance and support.
You should bring a packed lunch, a notebook and pencil or pen and Debbie highly recommends a good quality handcream too as the clay and water can be harsh on your hands.
Laugh with Harry Baker, marvel at the wit of The Noise Next Door and shout a resounding yes to YES PLEASE
The Phoenix Theatre & Arts Centre has plenty to tempt you out in October with comedy – and we all need a laugh now – and the sounds of a prog rock giant.
World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker’s heart and humour has been watched by millions online and allowed him to perform all over the world, until suddenly he couldn’t. From reviewing toilet seats online to writing falafel-based diss tracks for Chris Evans, he’s back on stage where he belongs with his most heartfelt, playful, unashamedly Harry Baker-y show yet, in fact he is totally Unashamed!
Catch him in action on Thursday, 13th October.
The following night it’s the turn of The Noise Next Door: Hometown Heroes. The quickest wits in comedy are coming to town with a side-splitting evening of hilarious off-the-cuff songs, scenes and characters. The stars of ‘Tonight at the Palladium’ (ITV1) will spin comedy gold out of all the things that YOU, the live audience, think are the best, worst and downright weirdest things about your hometown.
The Noise Next Door are 13-time sell-out veterans of The Edinburgh Fringe and have appeared on ‘The One Show’ (BBC One), ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (ITV1), and ‘Roast Battle’ (Comedy Central). They have also appeared alongside the likes of Michael McIntyre, Katherine Ryan, Romesh Ranganathan and Harry Hill.
The Phoenix Theatre & Arts Centre has plenty to tempt you out in October
Want some music? YES PLEASE you cry and luck for you YES PLEASE are up next on Saturday 15th. They are the UK’s leading tribute to YES, meticulously recreating the music of the Progressive-Rock giants. Their shows have received high praise from Yes fans and in 2019 they were honoured to be invited to perform at Roger Dean’s Exhibition of iconic Yes album artwork.
This year sees 50th anniversary celebrations of three ground-breaking albums which will be featured in the show including a complete performance of Close to the Edge.
Whether it’s hit singles like Owner of a Lonely Heart, Roundabout or Wonderous Stories, or an epic masterpiece, sit back and enjoy authentic sounds , full vocal harmonies and the rocky electricity of a vintage Yes performance!
Find out more
For more information or to book tickets for any of these shows go to www.phoenixarts.co.uk
The Amey Theatre, Abingdon, is holding a spectacular concert on October 7th to be live streamed supporting local charities
The Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society is holding a twin towns music concert in Abingdon’s Amey Theatre on Friday, 7th October.
This concert will also be live streamed over the internet to an audience in the twin towns of Lucca in Italy, Schongau in Germany, Colmar and Argentan in France, Sint-Niklaas in Belgium, Abingdon in Virginia, USA, and Thame in New Zealand.
The proceeds of the concert will support local charities, including the Ukraine, and for the mental health of young people in Abingdon.
The concert runs from 6.30pm to around 8.30pm and there will be an interval of around 20 minutes for you to get refreshments in the foyer bar.
Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society promotes sporting and cultural links between Abingdon and its twin towns.
The concert will include both classical and light music showcasing the rich musical talent that Abingdon and district has to offer, and includes performers, such as Abingdon Operatic Society, Abingdon Concert Band, Abingdon Town Band and performers from local schools, including Abingdon School, Larkmead School, Our Lady’s Abingdon, Radley College, and St. Helen and St. Katharine. In other words, this concert will have something for everybody.
Why not get a group together to come to the concert? We look forward to seeing you there!
Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society promotes sporting and cultural links between Abingdon and its twin towns.
Find out more
The very reasonably priced tickets are available online from the Amey Theatre – www.ameytheatre.co.uk and cost £10 each, with concession tickets at £5, and £20 for a family of four.
Round & About’s resident wine columnist gives his top picks for the new season – mellow wines for the mellow season!
Hello. As a wine lover, I’ve always liked autumn as a season. Unlike winter or summer, where the weather and food tend to prescribe reds or whites, autumn, with its early warmth and latter chill, offers a much broader palate to work with.
As Keats put it, doubtless, after a glass of wine (or something altogether stronger knowing what the Romantics were like), this is the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ and the following suggestions make for the perfect accompaniment to this golden transition.
First up is a white from Portugal, The Lisboa Valley Selection (The Wine Society £7.95). Portuguese reds have been a favourite of the wine trade for some time now, but the whites have never quite caught people’s attention. I tried this for the first time last year, and it’s become a regular in our house. Offering an intriguing combination of freshness – grapefruit, green apples, and watermelon – with a balancing richness – peaches and dried pears – it has a tang of Atlantic salt to the finish. Marvellous with seafood, it’s also lovely on its own.
As Keats put it, doubtless, after a glass of wine (or something altogether stronger knowing what the Romantics were like), this is the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’
Next is a wine from Sicily, a wine-producing island that has seen its fortunes soar in the last decade or so as winemakers have got to grips with the natural gifts they have been afforded. My recommendation is the Nostru Catarratto Lucido (Kwoff £12.49). This organic wine is made from the rare (I certainly had to look it up) Catarratto grape. Mid-gold in colour, it offers a complex nose of jasmine cut with almonds and peach stones. The palate is fresh and tangy with plenty of gooseberries and white currants, but this soon deepens as greengages, peaches, and apricots come in at the end.
And for my last white, we have one from another region whose fame lies with its reds. Abruzzo sits east of Rome, where its coast borders the Adriatic. Its Montepulciano is a great source of inexpensive, often highly drinkable reds, such as Tesco’s Finest Montepulciano (£7).
Whites are thinner on the ground, but wines such as the Contessa Abruzzo Pecorino (£9.95) are well worth seeking out. Pecorino gives fragrant wines with plenty of citrus freshness that also offer riper notes of apricots, Mirabelle plums, nuts, and dried herbs. The Contessa is an excellent example of this, and I found it went well with creamy cheese pasta – one that was loaded with pecorino cheese, funnily enough.
There will now be a short interval for a glass of Champagne.
I’m a huge fan of Champagne. Good as sparkling wines are, even the best cannot match the complexity, elegance, and depth of the greatest sparkling wine on Earth. While I am a fan of many houses, the one I keep coming back to is Taittinger. Across the range, their wines are the epitome of style, and their Prelude (John Lewis £55) is arguably the best sub-£100 Champagne on the market. But it’s to the Taittinger Brut Reserve (Tesco £39) I’d like to give a nod to. This is a show-stopping wine. Mid-gold, the tiny, even bubbles (‘bead’ if you want to get technical), lift notes of spring flowers, red apples, citrus, and yeast. In the mouth, it’s gentle yet persistent, and at its core is a glorious note of peaches in syrup that is offset by taut acidity and creamy yeastiness.
And so to the reds.
You can’t talk about wines that boast mellow fruitfulness and not mention Rioja. Rioja’s reputation is at an all-time high. A succession of good vintages coupled with innovation and investment from leading producers has made the wines of this fantastic region world-beaters.
One that’s been turning my head lately is the Cune Reserva 2017 (Majestic £12.99), and it’s autumn bottled. The nose is a smoky, rich mix of red and blackberries with highlights of citrus fruits and spices. The medium-bodied palate is loaded with crushed black fruits, vanilla, cranberries, and liquorice, and finishes with a fresh, fruits of the forest in cream flourish. Magnificent now with hearty tomato dishes or red meats, it will improve over the next three to five years.
South African wine has undergone a reinvention to match Australia’s over the past couple of decades. Their traditional ‘big is better’ approach has been replaced by the pursuit of perfection done their way. Like Australia, South Africa has a hugely diverse mix of soils and microclimates that lend themselves to the creation of truly fine wines. One of these is the Neil Ellis Cabernet Sauvignon (Cellar Door Wines £19.95). Cabernet Sauvignon is often said to be the king of red grapes, one that is capable of producing aristocratic wines that combine elegance, power, and longevity. The Neil Ellis shows these characteristics to the hilt. Inky black, the nose is an inviting mix of blackcurrants, prunes, and mint, while the palate offers a powerful mix of cassis, raspberries, chocolate, and a whiff of cigar smoke. I had this with a cheeseboard – and it was excellent – but with a fine steak or mushroom risotto, I think it would be even better.
And finally, a claret. I don’t recommend red Bordeaux that much these days because the good wines tend to be horribly expensive, and the cheap ones are just horrible. Stalwarts like Château Talbot – a wine I used to buy for under £30 – will now set you back over £60 a bottle. Great vintages, hysterical scores from critics, and wine investors have sent prices skyward and left drinkers out in the cold.
It was with deep joy then that I recently tasted the 2016 Caronne St. Gemme (Majestic Wines £16.99). The Nony family has worked wonders with this excellent estate, and the winemaker claims that the 2016 is the best wine he’s ever made. Classical nose of blackcurrants, smoke, cigars, and grilled meats, the medium-bodied palate is choc-full of plums, currants, blackberries, and chocolate, that lead to a long, well-integrated, satisfying finish. Just starting to open up, it will be fascinating to see how this develops.
Until next time...
Well, I hope that’s whetted your appetite. Next time out, I’ll look at some affordable fizz.
