Just Food Photos . Which is your favourite?
Sometimes it is nice to take a look at nice food items you have photographed. Here are a selection from the last few months. A mixture of foods ranging from exquisite Cod to piles of toast . 
Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the tag “wine”
Grapes of wrath – The resurgence of English Vineyards and Wine
English vineyards are making something of a resurgence now. Their major issue is the size of most vineyards being so small that wine amounts tend to be too small from most vineyards to be commercially sold to supermarket chains. A few years ago, one of the best UK vineyards, Three Choirs , in fact sold their whole annual wine crop to Eurostar, meaning that the only way to taste the wine was to have a 187ml bottle on the train.
Denbies vineyard is in Dorking and Painshill is a park in Cobham with a vineyard as part of the park. A few photographs to tempt you to sample English wine.
Painshill Park Cobham Grapes
Denbies is a wine estate or perhaps better termed, vineyard in Dorking, surrey established in 1986.The vineyards of Denbies Estate are situated on the North Downs with its famous chalky soil, in a protected valley of south facing slopes. In size it is the largest in the UK with 627 acres of land of which 265 acres have been planted representing more than 10 per cent of the plantings in the whole of the United Kingdom. This makes it three times the size of any other in the UK and the largest independent vineyard in Europe. Around 65% of the wine is sold at the visitor centre. From a good harvest around 400,000 bottles can be produced of different types from the 18 varieties of grape grown. The main grapes grown include : seyval blanc, reichensteiner, Muller-Thurgau, Bacchus, Ortega, Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Dornfelder.
Painshill Park Cobham Grapes
Painshill Park Cobham Grapes
Denbies Vineyard. Dorking
Denbies Vineyard. Dorking
Denbies Vineyard. Dorking
Denbies Vineyard. Dorking
The Shocking Cost of food at London City Airport
For anyone who does not know, LCY is an airport easily accesible from the centre of London and is used by many city types and those that inhabit Canary Wharf. Mere mortals like myself may use the airport when it is easier than travelling out to Heathrow. Tonight I was shocked beyond belief at the cost of meals on offer in essentially a bar area.
The layout of LCY is essentially open plan with a few barriers separating out a few areas. There is only one bar and that is in the main section of the deparature lounge and in fact one has to walk through the lounge with tables on either side to get to the departure gates 21-24. So there is a constant stream of people rushing past these tables to head off to the airport.
The cost of meals in this area is astonishing, ranging 20£ up to 35£ for a single main course. So for a couple with a bottle of wine eating a quick meal before flying off they will leave with their wallet emptied by potentially over 100£.
Prices of Food at London City airport
Benalmadena Costa. No signs of unemployment here in Spain.
Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish conservative prime minister, is duly announcing to those who will listen that despite unemployment rates of 27%, that rise to 57% amongst the youth, that the worst is over. What this translates to is that unemployment will fall to 25% by 2016. Not overly encouraging. Although not an expert on the economic aspects of Andalucia I have to report based on a week in Benalmadena that there was no evidence of massive unemployment. That observation has to be caveated by the fact that I was hardly looking for unemployed Spanish youth whilst lounging on the beach. There was a single eastern european beggar outside Mercadona ( the Spanish Tesco equivalent). What was obvious though was that there were far fewer British expats and tourists there than before, a linear annual decline. Fewer English type restaurants and bars, and where these had closed down they were replaced by Spanish bars. As a consequence presumably of all this, less tourists and more indigenous Spainish, prices have fallen considerably. A beer would cost 1-2 euros. In the best bar along the beach side Palm 5, a beer cost less than 2 euros. Glass of wine, and thats of a proper size, was 1-2 euros.
The only clear evidence of economic recession was the absence of building of flats and apartments. But frankly the rate they were building 5 years ago was ridiculous. Benalmadena costa may be a nice place but not that nice. But it is not Monaco! Outside our apartment there is a crane towering over a half finished block of apartments. This in itself is not exciting but when put into context that I have taken the same photograph now for 5 years. That crane has not moved in 5 years. The half finished block remains unfinished and I imagine will look just like that next year.
Benalmar Playa
Benalmadena Costa
British Airways First Class Lounge- Reflections in a wine glass
After a good many life years I have finally got to be allowed into a first-class lounge. I will not bore you with the details as to why but it is a curious place. Hundreds of bottles of wine and champagne but with hardly anyone drinking. Most travellers are sitting or lying around with varying degrees of pained expressions that suggest terminal constipation. Maybe there is a rule that ” though shalt not smile in first-class”. Or maybe the butler does it for one?
Big chairs, huge piles of newspapers and magazines, uncrowded ( but there again who in their right mind with a life to live wants to be flying out of Heathrow on a friday evening?), lots of biscuits ( few less now that I have arrived) but no smiles and eternal warmth .
Curiously there are two life size horse statues guarding the way in and numerous other artistic efforts.
How a Wine bottle can help find a missing person. This really amused me
This wonderful  cartoon was posted a few weeks ago on facebook so I can claim zero credit for sourcing it but it has had me chuckling ever since. And also with a few folks that i know totally true…….
Cold day in UK
Even the warmth of a few candles makes things seems a little warmer. What is interesting is the colour sequences that exist in the flame of a single candle. The glass of red wine did help but be warned. The wine is good but anyone buying The Forefather, an argentinian shiraz malbec will find that the corks are appalling.
A good Day and Innovation
today have been on a course learning about Innovation by an excellent expert Drew Boyd. Altogether a nice learning opportunity and a day to use some of those grey cells. This evening more cabaret in the road where I live. The gentleman opposite cannot be described as average. He seems to have regular run-ins with his builders over ” issues”, refuses to pay them and then there is shouting in the streeet. tonight it was the re-make of Romeo and juliet, with aforementioned slighted builder shouting in some foreign language up at a small window with neightbour hanging out. Eventually the police arrive and in fact came over to ask me a few questions and decided that slighted builder would be taken ” far enough away” that he would be unlikely to return and continue his vocal exercise. there was a similar sage a few weeks ago. We just get used to it! Had a major paper accepted in a major journal tonight so cue celebrations.
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 