This is a recipe for a vegetarian version of Leopard Pie, or “Timballo del Gattopardo”, a classic but obscure Italian dish that could reasonably be called a “macaroni pie”, though it’s very different from the Scottish or West Indies versions. The original Leopard Pie is described by Giuseppe di Tomasi di Lampedusa in his book, The Leopard, and... read more

I submitted this recipe recently for “Choristers’ Cookbook”, which doesn’t seem to have materialised, so now pushing it up to my blog for Sarah Ward Clavier: this is what meat-eaters need when they go veggie for a month.It’s a Brecon Cathedral take on the famous Turkish dish "Imam Bayildi", which translates as "The Imam swooned". One variant of... read more

Another emailed report to Westies, shortly after we moved to Brecon when I was still running under the “W”. This was possibly my worst ever fell race, in terms of injury, abysmal performance, and general misery! And that shoulder still gives me gyp now.3 Peaks (too many in my opinion) Still no word of Gordon R… hope you finished all right.But... read more

Another emailed report to Westies.Rigby goes supersonic at the Brecon Beacons ‘On yer marks’…‘get set’……………133 runners start to shuffle…‘hang on!!’…133 runners stumble and start tripping over each other, but some are 20 yards down the road…133 runners are all thinking ‘What, is this going to be the first ever false start in 3000 years of fell... read more

And another of my emails to Westies:Good ? – oh yesRich ? – plenty of prizesFell Race? – not really, but a cheeky 6 miler on tracks with 900 feet of ascent. Forest of Dean, near Symonds Yat.A slightly longer course than of old (in the days when this was Damon’s stomping ground), had us stumbling through a field for a few hundred frantic metres,... read more

And another letter to the Westies:A beautiful epic Bob Smith Traverse (all six 800m summits of S Wales), in bright sun snow and ice on saturday. 20 miles run, 25 miles bike, with 2635m ascent. Decided and planned late friday evening!Some bits very difficult, plenty slides and falls, all quite slow. For those with maps (Chris) … Started at the last ... read more

Another of my missives to Westies, after moving down to Brecon, recovered from their website.Lending weight to the 15-20 mile/per week training philosophy advocated recently by Rodwell/Gallagher, I just ripped 5 mins off my marathon PB in Cardiff this morning, after preparation that made last year’s last minute dash to Belfast look like a... read more

Another recovered post from the Westies site, though this was more of an email to a few members than a report.Just checked the results for Westies….Mark Forrest (have we met?) sorry I didn’t say hi !!OK I ran the second half with my eyes shut, after passing the pooey man with the brown smeary legs, but I thought I’d spot a big W if there was one.... read more

And another recovered post from the Westies site, though by this time I’d joined MDC! Note that at the time such race reports were written for an email list of members, and I certainly wasn’t expecting my silly write-ups for a Scottish audience to become public. The current bout of excess wind contributed greatly to the jollity of Ffordd y... read more

Another ancient race write-up recovered from the Westies site…3rd youngest comes 4th at Nant Y Moch Skyline.Last saturday in Wales, 30 lined up to the wild cheering of a couple of local shepherds and set off to traverse the Nant y Moch Skyline (12.5m,3900′)….After about a mile (and tripping one guy up) I found myself in the very unexpected... read more