Grand Estate

Was it what! We went to Ickworth Estate, near Bury St Edmonds, where they have miles and miles of lovely grounds. Some are well maintained gardens, while others are beautiful tracks through english woodlands. We were lucky enough to see some wild red deer, the spotted deer too and of course heaps of sheep. We took the 3.5 mile walk though there are a number of others, the longest being 7 miles. I believe my favorite spot would have to be the wooded area were we found a carpet of snow drops on the forest floor, just the sweetest little bulbs.



During our walk we went along a lovely river, though at some spots could be considered a creek. We looked over a walled kitchen garden which was created in the early 18th century. There was a lovely old church, though not in use anymore. The place was created by the fourth Earl of Bristol, Frederick Hervey 1730-1803. The rotunda found near the old church was based on the designs of Mario Asprucci, an Italian architect, the architects who adapted the design and oversaw construction were Francis Sandys and his brother Joseph Sandys. Begun for the eccentric 4th Earl of Bristol in 1795, the house was still unfinished when the Earl died in 1803 and was completed by the 5th Earl of Bristol (later 1st Marquess of Bristol).



The Grand place also has the usual of tourist type shop and a very nice restaurant overlooking the gardens. We stopped in for a hot chocolate, of course and then had our picnic of custard filled Croissants, sandwiches, chocolate and sweeties, oh and some fruit for good measure.

IT SNOWED

Yipppy! It looks like winter here now. We are so lucky and it does look just beautiful. Upon awaking on Wednesday morning we discovered our little village had been transformed. So as soon as we could we put on our ski gloves and charged out into the wild. We walked around the village and tried our hand at making snow balls. It was very groovy.

First flower

Yes it is midwinter and no it shouldn't be flowering but then the weather is a bit weird everywhere!

Oooo isn't he cute

The animals, not to mention our garden, are a bit confused with all the weird weather we are having. And people said it was cold in England, I laugh at their suggestion. It has only been down to -5 once before Christmas. Apart from this we have balmy weather around 10-13 degrees each day. Anyway the poor animals don't know what season it is and so we get this little fellow as well as some very confused deer, hedgehogs etc.



Our garden has its spring blubs already launching their flowers, we have daffodils here peoples, pics to come....

Tummy for Two

Update of size

Walkies

Check out this very English countryside. It was a lovely walk through Dedham though it was very muddy.

Knitting experiments

Creating for the critter. The hat worked but alas I think the booties will only work if we had one child with a huge foot and another with small. Though credit where credit is due, Ben knitted both and was trying very hard for a first try. I think the knitting is lovely though my assemble of them is left much to be desired. I guess we should have tried using a Pattern :P

Partying for Two

It is a Happy New Year for more than one. It looks to be a bumper crop of kids this year. Erica and Simon are the happy expecting couple for 11th June. We are so happy for then and it was wonderful to experience the news first hand with their visit over Christmas. It is very exciting to experience something like this at the same time as friends, so I am sure there will be lots of swapped info in the months to come. We also add our congrats to our cousins Erik and Ainhoa expecting in July I believe and to Amy and Drew who are also expecting early June. Congrads and good luck to all.

Here we are at home comparing tummies :P

Bringing the new year in with fun

The eve and the actually new years day, Ben and I decided it was such lovely weather we would explore. Alas we were to tired to go driving around Wales after our trip to Lille so it was adventure near not far. We went on a lovely walk around the Wicken Fen. This was very muddly and quite cold though pretty in a winter England look. The Fen has been allowed to return to its natural state which is swampy. There are wild ponys, deer and many varies of lovely little birds. We treated ourselves afterwards with a quick trip up the road to Ely where we got a chocolate and cake and finally brought some lego to play with.



Ely Cathedral


New years day we decided to track into town, think the wind would not be so pesky in there. Alas it was a little bit to robust for Ben's little plane though I had fun with my kite. We followed these lovely activities up with another hot chocolate and cheese cake, yummy. New years eve night we had a lovely dinner designed to use up some left over turkey, I include recipe below to assist anyone else that finds themselves in this situation.

Here is Cromwell's house though we didn't go in



And me with my kite



Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely chopped/ or I just had leek and onion so this did just as well
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 tbsp green curry paste
½ vegetable stock cube, crumbled
150ml pint boiling water
150g flat rice noodles or the thin egg noodles work well too
1 cooked turkey, shredded
50ml/2fl oz double cream
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil


Method
1. Heat the oil in a small saucepan, add the shallots and saute until soft. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the curry paste and cook for another minute.
2. Add the stock cube, water and noodles and cook until the noodles are soft. Add the chicken and double cream and half the herbs, season well and cook for one minute or until the chicken is completely heated through.
3. To serve, pour into a bowl and sprinkle with the rest of the herbs.

Receipe curtisy of the lovely and talented BBC's 'Ready, Steady, Cook' with the lovely Anisley. Check out website, it has some great receipes and they are all quick to cook, of course! www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/readysteadycook_index.shtml

Boxing Day, Lille in France

Adventuring we do go, adventuring we do go, hi ho we got up very early the next day. We had arranged a very nice taxi company to collect us at 7am to drive us to the bus stop in Cambridge. Where we were to catch a bus to London at 7.45am and get a train to Lille at around midday. True we did have an hour or so to kill once we reached London but we wanted to allow time to get lost and found again before the train left. The experience really was quite interesting, to compare it with flight. I must say I found it a bit more relaxing, sure you still have customs etc but it was easier and not so many people. We just walked through, got a new stamp in our passport (yippy) and sat in the lounge area having hot chocolate.



The train was also very nice, only an hour and forty minutes to Lille. Ben and I watched the scenery go by and when we were in the tunnel we watched his new Red Dwarf dvd. All very pleasant. After arriving at Lille train station we walked to the hotel, a mere few blocks away and found that Mecure hotels up to standard yet again. Very nice and it included yummy french breakfast as well. Our first adventuring in Lille was to locate the Christmas markets, of course which we did and shop. We enjoyed the lovely hot drinks on offer, I had hot apple juice, super warming and boy did we need it. Ben had the spiced wine. It was all very magical with the darkness, twinkling lights, carols and smells of roasting chesnuts. I did my very transaction with the french and it went well, well not the language as such but we got what we paid for. Ben, who can at least read the french and has a better understanding of how it should sound did not want to enter into this world as he did not want to appear the dreadful tourist with no ability to speak the language. So it was up to me to be the bold and unbashful tourist and it was amazing, quite liberating really. I now feel I could fluffy my way through an language transaction for snacks as you basically know what they are saying anyway, do you want a bag with that etc and you just smile and shake your head. Though I must say we are going to try our hardest to get some German into our head before adventuring again.



The second day of our tour we walked and walked. We looked at the architecture, gardens and markets and even went into an art gallery before surcoming to the cold and going back to the hotel. That night was spent at the Christmas markets also where we went on the fairess wheel. Boy does it go very high into the sky and it make a terrible noise as well and swung in the wind. We were pleased to find the ground after that though it was fun in some odd way. We also brought some snacks this night as well, Ben had a crepe with hazel nut chocolate filling and I had a fruit dipped in chocolate. I was going to have the waffles but we had eaten quite a lot of cheese and bread already.



Our other discoveries during this trip included the oldest bakery in Lille where Ben had a real chocolate eclair and I had a custard pastry thing with raspberries on top, yummy. We also checked out the chocolate shops which appeared to be almost as numerous as the bakeries. This was also very tasty stop. We went to the biggest market as well which was very odd. Think paddy's market but about three times as big and outside. The stalls sometimes didn't even have tables. One was a frenzy of all this women going through a huge pile of lose sheets. It was quite incredible and I did try out my buying power here as well and we got Ben some nice warm gloves. After this we were a bit tired out and so we went to wait for our train. This trip has definitely helped us in our approach to travel in Europe. We have learn a lot and will never under estimate the cold again, it was very hard going as we don't spend nearly that much time outside in England so 3 degrees was much colder than home. All fun though and we look forward to our next adventure which we believe will be Lyon.