Welcome

Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Tuesday, 24 April 2007


Peacocks to me are very magical. When my mum was ill a few years ago, a peacock suddenly appeared in her garden and stayed there until she got well again when it promptly left. Since then I have had a natural affinity with them. Sadly this is not an affinity which my husband shares! Our neighbours have peacocks and they regularly roost in the tree in our garden at night - it is quite spectacular to watch a peacock fly with its large tail trailing behind it and I have no idea how they manage to take off the ground! It is mating season at the moment and wilfred (pictured sitting on our garden fence) is being particularly noisy, normally waking us around 5am every morning with his eery mating call! There are some disadvantages to living in the countryside but I wouldn't swap it for the world!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a gorgeous photograph.

Actually this may sound a bit odd, but my grandparents are both buried in a nice cemetary not too far away from my house, and at this cemetary there are two or three peacocks as well.
I used to think they were a bit scary (because they are so big) but because I have seen them many times now - and always at the cemetary, I actually think they are quite magical too now. Once when there was a fresh grave with lots of flowers on top, two peacocks sat by it, either side. I thought it was an amazing sight, and so beautiful - alsmost as if they were watching over it.

Sorry by the way if this is a rather odd comment to leave (graves, cemetaries...) on your blog.

Love, Erica x

Twelfthknit said...

I really like peacocks but have an unhappy history with them - aged 8 on a school trip to Scone Palace, a friend and I were chased by a very teritorial one, and we had done nothing more provocative than walk in it's general vicinty.
Then , about 3 years ago, we were parking our car very gingerly as a peacock decided it wanted to stay at the side of the space - we didn't realise that a wheel was on a feather....poor bird must've had a very sore backside, having left the feather under the wheel. I still feel bad about that.
India

Anonymous said...

Wow, you managed to write a ton all at once so I am only commenting on this last one, but about all the others! Glad the party went well, but I knew it would. How exciting to be able to attend those awards! I can remember how thrilled I was to meet Jean Christophe Novelli so I can totally see how exciting all that would have been! I'll have to look for the horseradish in my local Tesco's. Hopefully I'll find it and last but not least ... beautiful picture of the peacock! We dont' have anything like that near us... just woodpigeons, pheasants and the occasional raven, which are quite exciting to see as well, not as pretty though!