SHAFTESBURY-born private chef Philippa Davis will be back in the West Country for Christmas, but in the run-up to the festive season she has been cooking in the south of France … Chilled milky blue light rested over the Alpilles mountains as I drove towards my final pre Christmas job down in the south of…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has been working in Israel and her latest postcard recipes reflect the delicious cuisine of this ancient land where so many culinary and religious traditions meet … My first adventure out was a food tour of Jerusalem. Taking the road from Tel Aviv we travelled down the same paths…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis can find herself anywhere from Provence to the isle of Skye, from deer-stalking in the Highlands to the watery landscape of Chichester Harbour where she was catering for a shooting party … “There is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats…….” so Ratty exclaimed to Mole…
JANET Wood from Mere travelled to Mongolia during the summer to take part in an expedition with Col John Blashford-Snell of the Scientific Exploration Society. In the second extract from her diary, Janet describes the experience of arriving in the capital, Ulan Bator … We arrived at Ulan Bator Airport in the early hours having…
IN these days when, in spite of rapidly increasing air fares, many of us are lucky enough to travel to distant continents more than once in our lives, the concept of the “trip of a lifetime” is more an advertising cliché than a reality. But there are some plans that are so difficult to bring…
TYNEHAM, Dorset’s famous ‘ghost village’ close to the coast in Purbeck, has been described as the community that died for D-Day. In November 1943 notice was given to the village’s 225 residents ordering them to leave within 28 days as the area was needed for forces’ training. On 17th December the last villagers left believing…
ONE of the joys of an English autumn is the game and we are lucky in the Wessex area with the number of excellent independent butchers and game specialists from whom we can buy local pheasants, partridge and venison. If you don’t have a good local specialist, ask at Somerset or Dorset Farmers Markets (see…
FINDING somewhere to stay for a pre-Christmas London shopping or theatre break can be quite a challenge – so we want to share a real find! There are the great hotels, but these are outside the price range of most people; there are basic chains, which are OK for the quick overnight stay if all…
THERE is something special about autumn, that “season of mellow fruitfulness” before the razzle-dazzle and expense of Christmas and the long cold grey months till spring. Partly it is the gorgeous colours but also it is that slightly melancholy time of saying goodbye to migrating birds, seeing the cows go back into their winter quarters…
ATHELHAMPTON House, just outside Puddletown, must surely be one of Dorset’s most beautiful manor houses. Comparatively unsung, it is a place of under-stated but pure beauty and stands in the most breathtaking gardens. Built by Sir William Martyn, the earliest parts of the house are Tudor, and it was restored and transformed in the late…