Such is the power of the internet and this newsgroup in particular, that just as we were about to start our Sunday morning Bacon & Eggs with Kipper walk at Blackdown, a chap armed with a thermos approached, saying "Is that a Short Haired English Geezer?"!
Thereafter we enjoyed a good breakfast, a couple of hours of great conversation and, as is always the case when you meet a real craftsman, I learned a few things about this and that.
So thanks all round.
Christopher W.
Taking you at your word literally, Kim, I certainly do have a pet project,
> and I shall be focussing on it for the first time this year tomorrow morning
> (Sunday morning) weather permitting.
>
> The project is called "Bacon & Eggs with Kipper" and it started exactly
> three years ago.
>
> Kipper is our dog. He's a terrier cross with a bit of Border in him and a
> bit of something slightly taller; he's three-and-a-half years old and he's a
> nice chap, good company, lots of fun. As an aside he's also very good
> looking - earlier this year he and I were enjoying a muddy walk around
> Blackdown after some heavy rain (Blackdown is close to the point where SW
> Surrey meets W Sussex and Hampshire) when we came across a Hooray Henry and
> his wife/girlfriend also out for a walk, and inappropriately dressed (by the
> time we came across them I reckoned they had done £50 worth of damage to
> their clothes!). The Henry looked at Kipper and said in a
pseudo-Sandhurst
accent: "I say, what a grand little dog - what breed is he?". I told him
> that Kipper was a Short Haired English Geezer, which the Henry wrote down
> carefully on a scrap of paper. I had wonderful visions of him ringing up
> dog breeders out of the Yellow Pages and asking "I say, do you have any
> Short Haired English Geezers?" You can imagine the reply: "Yes mate,
> you're talking about my husband, but he's not for sale and I'm certainly not
> putting him out to stud".
>
> Back to Bacon & Eggs with Kipper. Our lives have changed since Kipper came
> to us, and very much for the better. We are blessed with some wonderful
> places for walking in this part of the world. At the weekend, time
> permitting, I enjoy early morning walks. Some of the views are stunning -
> million dollar views that no travel agent in the world could send you to,
> especially at short notice. It occurred to me one morning that it would be
> great to have a million dollar breakfast looking at such a view, which is
> how the idea for Bacon & Eggs with Kipper was born.
>
> The challenge was to devise an ultra-lightweight kit for cooking and eating
> the best possible bacon & eggs with bread & butter, while sitting in comfort
> with a cup of tea or coffee, not too slowly otherwise Kipper might lose
> interest and wander off.
>
> So for three years I have experimented with different types of stove (solid,
> liquid, gas - has to be controllable otherwise the National Trust will ban
> me from their properties) and pan/plate/cutlery etc.. I have also tried all
> of the supermarket bacons together with those from local butchers, and
> likewise eggs. The objective with the kit is to reduce weight while
> maintaining quality; the objective with the food is that it should be of the
> highest quality, otherwise what's the point?
>
> As projects go, it offers a fair amount of scope with a little engineering
> thrown in, and plentyof fresh air. I had no idea, for example, that there
> are people out there for whom developing lightweight stoves is a life's > mission.
>
> Phase two of Bacon & Eggs with Kipper will be photographic. The idea is to
> photograph million dollar views and include Bacon & Eggs with Kipper in the
> frame.
>
> So Kim - is that what you meant by "Pet project"!
>
> Yours,
>
> Christopher W.
>
> PS If anyone would like to join Kipper, myself, my friend and colleague
> Johnson and his lurcher Josie, we'll be at Blackdown tomorrow morning from
> around 08.00 for an hour or so. Bring your own bacon. If it's raining, we
> won't be there. Johnson's from Birkenhead, so you had better bring some
> earplugs as well.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I'm away Saxon house building this weekend.
> >
> > It's been really quiet here for several days - no-one got a pet project
> > they're working on? We'd all like to hear about it, you know, our wit is
> > only exceeded by our nosiness!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Kim Siddorn.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>