Bristol is not famous for its big sky views. We live in a town of hills and narrow streets and it’s fairly hard to find a good place to watch the sun go down. Yesterday on a very cold afternoon, we drove out of the city to Portishead, where the Severn opens out beyond the Second Severn Crossing, the excuse being that we were going to see if we could see a pair of Purple Sandpipers which are usually present on the rocks below Battery Point at high tide. Here is a link to Paul’s birding blog which has some great photos of them.
We didn’t see them, we were a bit late for high tide which is when they would have been closest into the shore, but we stayed a while as there was hardly any wind and watched the sky…
Then we came home and made a big pot of red Ezo the Bride soup, which has a base of onion, roasted red peppers, chillis and garlic, seasoned with cumin and paprika, and contains a mix of red lentils, bulgar wheat and rice. We followed this up with Cumberland Sausage from Cockermouth and Yorkshire Puddings which stuck to the tin but were still fabulous. Cold weather is a great excuse to eat hearty food.
Looking towards the Second Severn Crossing
Battery Point Light, marks the rocks
Zeb waits in the winter sun
Sunset 15.57
Zeb Bakes 
Nice pictures, Joanna, Zeb looks as though he’s enjoying his outing too! I have sent the link to Paul’s blog to my son who lives in Bath, he is a keen birdwatcher so I imagine he will enjoy looking at it.
We were out again today a lot nearer the bridge at a place called Severn Beach, pebbles and scrub and flotsam and jetsam. Not so golden, skies full of dramatic clouds and crepuscular rays and a rainbow for some reason. Saw redshank and shelduck and found lots of sticks for the dogs to chase. We are sort of looking for waxwings (but not on the beach – the dogs needed a stretch so we gave up scrutinising rowan trees and hawthorn bushes in supermarket carparks). These particular dogs are not good at patience :)
Lovely pics, what a day you had, love zeb wee coat and that soup sounds awesome, even its name is cool! c
The soup is given apparently to new brides to fortify them for their life to come. It’s a traditional Turkish soup named after a real woman called Ezo.
i did wonder about the name… how about a soup for old brides.. we need fortification too! .. c
I read that every Turkish restaurant has a version of this soup on the menu, it is famed for its restorative powers, a hangover soup ! So I am guessing that old brides, grooms and happy single people eat it too with great enjoyment. I forgot to mention the garnish of dried peppermint and even more paprika fried in a little butter and the wedge of lemon….
Sunny but cold – hopefully not too cold! Lovely views Joanna, and dinner sounds delicious, although I’m curious about the name of the soup! :)
Freezing actually and I think going to get colder still the next few days. Brrrrrr…… Hence the perfect excuse to eat carbs!
I love your sky pictures- that last one is almost pure gold!
Love that you went for the birds and stayed for the sky- and your whole outing sounds like it was good for you all. I am also wondering about your soup?
Thank you for looking at my pictures, I wish I could stand with you and look, as the photos don’t really show the vastness ever do they?
The good thing about going for the birds is that there is always lots more to look at, you just put yourself in looking mode; you see plants in flower that you don’t know, clouds and rainbows and listen to the roar of the Severn tides as they race inland. I can write out the recipe for the soup and post it here, but there are lots of blog posts about it. I have folllowed the vegetarian version in a book called Veggiestan by Sally Butcher, but you can also make it of course with chicken stock. Most of the recipes I have seen on the net are very similar, for example http://witchininthekitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/ezo-bride-and-her-soup.html
We do lots of soups, and I’m on a ‘pureed’ soup kick – recently, we had a nice creamed soup at a restaurant, and when I asked what was in it, I was told there was no cream at all – just pureed vegetables. So ever since, I’ve been looking for things I can use to make a pureed soup. This last one was left over bulb fennel, onions, and some winter squash from the garden. Really nice.
We too have just the climate for lots of soup and bread. Why not?
Can you get jars of red peppers, or pimentons they puree fabulously. Make a great soup with butternut squash and a swirl of sour dairy. We like traditional soups like leek and potato and pea and ham, as well as chunky minestrone …
What a great idea – I’ve got a jar of roasted red peppers in the fridge right now, hopefully, it’s not already over the top – I shall add it to my last soup (the leftovers) for added flavor – thanks for the idea.
I got about a dozen or so of kabocha type squash this year. I love planting the winter squashes – I just plant them in a row, and then leave them alone all summer, where they grow so thick that you can’t get in there anyway – it’s great fun at the end of the summer to discover what’s there as the plants die back revealing their treasures.
These are such beautiful and peaceful photos.. and that soup sounds just wonderfully hearty!
Thank you Smidge! We have been eating it for days, it’s one of the great soups of the world I reckon :)
Love the sound of the soup but we are more in vichysoisse season here. I sometimes do a rather nice version with celery in it.
Great photos – Zeb looks so proud sitting there with his jacket on! I am just waiting for a thunderstorm to clear up so that I take Spot for his walk. Luckily he is not afraid of thunder. His predecessor used to run out into the garden to bark back at the big dog in the sky!
You must be in high summer by now, I imagine sizzling bbqs and shorts everywhere :) Zeb hates wearing his jacket, I have given up the last couple of days and the temp is barely crawling above freezing this week. Brrrrrr…..
Lovely pictures! I drive past Bristol all the time on my way to and from Somerset and so rarely take the time to visit. I really must do so.