This week I went to see some wolves...

I’ve been fascinated by wolves for a long time.  Somehow, we have imbued them with a sense of the mystical.  The predator, lurking in the forest, stealing and killing.  The spirit-guide.  The werewolf.  The killer, masquerading as the grandmother.  The mother, raising the lost human infant as one of her own pack.  Contradictory.  Fascinating.  Dangerous.

They may look like a little like dogs, but that is where the resemblance ends.  Wolves are wild, and they have to be handled in special ways.  Even when you think they are friendly, that glint in their eyes may be hunger instead...

Does the werewolf legend recognise the wolfishness within man?  Is there something behind those yellow eyes that speaks to us and calls us kin?  The predator, lurking in the forest; the spirit-guide; the werewolf; the killer; the mother – contradictory, fascinating and dangerous.  Never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle, so the legend goes.  Or, perhaps, a wolf with blue eyes...

The UK Wolf Conservation Trust  is a non-profit organisation working to keep wolves in the wild; part of its mission is to educate people about how the wolf really is and to challenge misconceptions.  I visited on an open day, and saw both wolf packs, as well as birds of prey and huskies!   I hope to go back for a full-on wolfie experience one of these days.  No wolves turned into men or vice versa while I was there (or at least, not while I was watching).  I couldn’t tell whether they had blue eyes or not...

Next week – look out for a special guest blog from Craig Hallam, author of Greaveburn, and ‘Man of Words’ at the upcoming Steampunk Doncaster festival...  I have checked neither his eyebrows nor his eyes...

Today I am pondering on Angel Delight.

Specifically, butterscotch Angel Delight.

If you don’t know what it is, then I’m sorry, but you have significantly missed out. As a child, it was a treat to be relished. Angel Delight was almost certainly not made from angels, although it might have been ground from their ethereal wings. It was produced by the famous Bird’s manufactory in Birmingham (almost certainly not made from birds), also renowned for custard powder and blancmange – the factory has now metamorphosed into the city cultural hot-spot known as the Custard Factory (almost certainly not made from custard).

It came – comes - in a range of flavours. Banana, chocolate, strawberry... but butterscotch was/ is by far the best. Butterscotch was always a bit of a mystery. Clearly bananas and strawberries are fruits, while chocolate has origins somehow in beans, more or less... butterscotch, however, is almost certainly not made from scotch (although that now gives me an idea). According to wikipedia, “butterscotch is similar to toffee, but for butterscotch the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage, and not hard crack as with toffee”. I can now take pride in knowing that I have eaten Angel Delight flavoured to the soft crack (ahem).

The Bird’s manufactory may be no more, but Angel Delight – and indeed butterscotch Angel Delight still exists. I suspect that I may have to try some this weekend, to see if that soft crack is still the same....

PS - if you're tempted having read this, don't get the stuff with chocolate bits added.  They do nothing, honest.  And this from a self-confessed chocolate addict...