I felt a curry season coming on. Time to spread the Kotlich wings and show everyone how totally versatile it really is. Not just for paprikash.

Where do you go when you want to learn some thing new.  Well these days you go on line, but I didn't need to because I had already met the lovely Rayeesa at our local WIRE group.  So eventually we chose a date and here I am on my first cooking lesson since my O Levels!!  Aprons on, hands washed a quick health and safety briefing and we are off. 

Every extreme catering event must be in an inaccessible place, the top of a hill, down on the beach or in the depths of a forest.

This one evening passed the test with flying colours, one and a half hours walk and steep scramble onto Hanter Hill.  A two wheeled stable barrow and a small garden barrow provided us with the main means of carting enough food and drink plus cooking kit and wood, up onto the hill of choice.  Each of us managed a full ruck sack and the sun shone. After an after-noon of food prep, always vital when heading off to cook in the wild, we set of.  The larger barrow needed a puller as well as a pusher and even the dog helped.

Tom MacCurrach wins Bronze. Tom the timber framer from Taunton, is exhibiting for the first time at the Bath and West Show this year. 

You will find Tom MacCurrach timber Framing in the Woodlands and Wildlife section which is a small wooded area at the southern end of the showground.The bare bones of a Douglas Fir frame were errected in two hours the previouse night in pouring rain.

Those two hours had been preceeded by a frantic week to 10 days of planning, cutting, shaping and hewing.  Tom designs his cabins using the CAD system of computerised drawings.  The Douglas Fir, from a North Devon plantation is felled, brought to the work yard on a trailer, measured, sawn and each joint hand cut to fit its partner. Several pieces are carefully chosen for their visible position within the design.  There are two arched braces where the grain of the wood is following the arch.  The wood seems fairly fresh and scented with a mixture of pale pinks, creams and beige.