The Glorious Twelfth

 

The Glorious Twelfth

                                    Red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica)
                                Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, was August 12^th, the Glorious Twelfth. It’s the traditional opening of the red grouse and ptarmigan shooting season. Some call it the New Year’s Day of hunting.

 Most game bird seasons open on 1^st September, though woodcock and pheasant start on 1^st October.  If August 12^th falls on a Sunday, the opening is delayed until August 13^th, because game bird shooting on a Sunday is prohibited by English law.

. This year the number of birds ‘bagged’ may be lower than usual because of poor grouse breeding conditions. The season extends to 10^th December, (30^th November in Northern Ireland) though some shoots may be abandoned or finish earlier, perhaps in September, if the weather is unfavourable or numbers of birds are low. In that case, restaurants may charge more for their grouse dishes!

Patrons may enjoy roast grouse with game chips, watercress and bread sauce, or with braised cabbage, celeriac purée and sauce Albert. Sauce Albert is a combination of horseradish, cream, egg yolks and mustard diluted in vinegar.

Otherwise, a chef may serve it with blackberries and a port wine jus. It might also be offered with any combination of haggis, neeps and tatties, elderberries, greengages, sweetcorn, black pudding, cobnuts, pancetta – there is no limit to the creativity of chefs.

All red grouse are wild but their habitat is managed by gamekeepers. Grouse are ground-dwelling, fast-flying birds and a challenge to hunters. They fly low to the ground, can change direction extremely quickly and can reach speeds of 70 miles per hour. As omnivores, they consume a variety of plants and animals, according to the season, including cones, seeds, berries, catkins, insects, small invertebrates, grasses and heather.

Red grouse in flight
 Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Grouse shoots are mainly located on moorlands in Scotland, northern England and Wales. Grouse shooting grew in popularity in the 1850s, when the advent of widespread railway travel made access to the moors very much easier.

My husband’s not a shooting man so the significance of the Glorious Twelfth is lost on him and it is unlikely that we shall be eating grouse in the coming weeks.

At some point, Barry will remember/realise/be reminded that the Glorious Twelfth is also our wedding anniversary. He’s not good on dates! Actually, that’s not true – if it’s an important date in history, he’s very sure of it. (Question: Is our wedding date not one such important date ‘in history’?) Anyway, he will then be extremely remorseful and I will reassure him, as I do every year, that it really doesn’t matter. I do remember, though, that on our 25^th anniversary, you know, the Silver one, we bought a new outboard motor for the tender just before we set off sailing.

 He can just about remember my birthday, though it took a few decades for him to get it right. He knows it’s in April, but the date still eludes him and wanders around between the 13^th and the 19^th.

Bless him! ❤

 

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Wedding Anniversary

It was our Wedding Anniversary last week (August 12^th, the Glorious Twelfth, start of the grouse shooting season – grouse is also a complaint, a grumble, a moan, a whinge – is there a message there for me??)

Anyway, it was forty-six years since we tied ourselves to each other and cemented the bond with four children (not all at once, you understand, like a litter of puppies – I fancied having twins but never quadruplets! In the end they were all singletons . . . )

We have never been hot on celebrations but when our Silver Wedding anniversary came round I arranged tickets for the ballet. Barry arranged a new outboard for the dinghy – we spent the actual day bombing between Gosport and Portsmouth to collect it!

Our Ruby anniversary came and went – we probably had a bottle of champagne. This year we celebrated with an inboard engine. Barry had gone sailing with Gillian and Callum earlier in the month but the winds were not favourable and he had had to resort to the engine which failed spectacularly and left them stranded not far from Poole. He called out Sea Start, the marine equivalent of the AA, who arrived promptly and towed them to safe harbour. The engine was irreparable so a new one had to be located and fitted and this was achieved before the next charter was due. The summer months are good for chartering and enable us to maintain the boat in good order and we didn’t want to lose any of the bookings.

I’m thinking of commissioning a miniature inboard engine in gold, platinum, emeralds and diamonds to hang from a fine chain around my neck . . . it would cost about the same as the full-scale version J

It would look rather fetching, don’t you think?

Saturday Centus #44 Wedding Anniversary

I discovered this meme at 'The Caterpillar Uprising'and thought it looked fun. Click here to read other responses.

Jenny Matlock gives a prompt at Saturday Centus  and the challenge is to write up to 100 words, not including the prompt.  This week's prompt is 'Everything depended upon this single card . . .'

It was their wedding anniversary. She sifted through the mail, recalling her giddy teenage years when everything had seemed possible.

She had met Tim - fallen head over heels in love. A fairy-tale romance, everyone said, a match made in heaven, love ever after. The following years brought happiness, a few tribulations - nothing they couldn’t deal with together.

Together!

Tim had gone away for a few days, ‘to think things over’. He would let her know as soon as he had decided. He had sent a card – but what did it say?

Everything depended upon this single card . . .

Champagne!

Today is the first day of the grouse-shooting season. It is also our Wedding Anniversary. We have been married for more years than I can believe possible. I have known Barry for most of my life and that is a very strange thought. We met in our late teens, married in our early twenties and brought up four children. He is my best friend, the only person in whom I can confide anything and everything and he makes me roar with laughter. He is honest and true and constantly surprises me with the breadth of his knowledge and his ability to retain sometimes obscure facts. This evening we shall have Champagne as a little celebration and it will be good because Gillian and Paul are here to share the bubbles. Marnie will probably have a little taster, Kiri and Callum a lot less. We shall eat together and laugh a lot and toast our good fortune and good health.