Pinvin!

Designing this sated my desire to actually have it

Pinvin, it turns out, is most surprisingly a real village and its website makes me want to go there more than I've ever wanted to go any place (except possibly Lancefield. And Jenolan). It is so full of amazing content. I have wasted the whole evening reading all of it. I am now in love with everyone and everything in Pinvin. 

Here is Nature Notes from the April edition of Pinpoint (the Pinvin newsletter):

A few tiny gnats whirl in the shaft of sunlight while a solitary Brimstone, usually the first spring butterfly to appear, flaps by in a businesslike manner. Patches of blossom appear on isolated bushes where there is some shelter from the still chill wind. Blackbirds are busy nest building and an early casualty of one of their eggs stolen by a jackdaw lies on the path. An equally industrious long-tailed tit bustles about harvesting loose feathers to add to the moss and cobweb nest slung somewhere on a fir tree bough. There is a particularly territorial dove defending his food supply who drives off even a pair of much larger wood pigeons, who stand tall to appear brave, but give in for a quiet life and leave. The hedgehog which hibernated in an artificial home in the garden hedge has reappeared this week and is very hungry indeed, as no molluscs have appeared in the prevailing dry conditions. Hopefully the promise of Easter snow seems less threatening and may pass by. The daffodils can withstand some cold but nothing copes well with seesaw temperature changes.

If that doesn't grab you then your heart is hard indeed. In fact are you sure you aren't dead? Have you been dead for hundreds of years and are you completely shrivelled up and stiff? Well, the only way to find out is to try thinking about this recipe for Easter Cornflakes Nest (from the same source):

100 g / 4 oz butter 

200 g / 8 oz chocolate (milk or plain) 

6 Tbsp golden syrup 200 g / 8 oz cornflakes 

Mini chocolate eggs, or 3-4 cream eggs or 3 plastic “Easter egg hunt” eggs for decoration only 

1. Put butter in a saucepan, brake chocolate into chunks and add to butter; add golden syrup. 2. Warm over a low heat until melted. 3. Pour chocolate mixture over cornflakes and stir well. 4. Line a flan case or small casserole dish with cling film, spoon the mixture into it and press into a nest shape. 5. Place nest in ‘fridge for an hour to set. Turn it out onto a serving plate and fill with eggs.

Did that stir something inside? If not, give up there is no hope for you.

I am 100% making this for the August essay club meeting, which is about Anthony Bourdain.