Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
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....
Our garden has its spring blubs already launching their flowers, we have daffodils here peoples, pics to come....
Monday, January 15, 2007
Walkies
Check out this very English countryside. It was a lovely walk through Dedham though it was very muddy.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
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
Here we are at home comparing tummies :P
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
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
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.
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.
Christmas Day
Merry Christmas to all. I do hope you all had a wonderful day like ours. We were up naturally quite early what with santa's visit and all the presents under the tree. Santa and family were very generous this year and we must thank everybody for their lovely gifts, cards and calls. After our lovely presents we scrumped up a lovely darellea's pudding before jumping onto skype for a bit of a chat. Next it was a hasty get ready to go to town. We were off to Kings College for their Christmas day service, and it was magic. We lined up about and hour or so before it started and we were about 15th in line. Another hundred or so people joined the queue to get in too. It was well worth the wait and you wouldn't believe the number they can fit in. We were extra lucky as we got to go up to the front of the church where the choir and the three strings were set up. They started with Bach on the organ before the service and then the choir came in singing 'Ding dong merrily on the high'. There was lots of stuff sung in Latin and we sung all the classic carols for Christmas day. The string section was beyond reproach and went well with the whole proceedings.
All to soon it was all over and it was back home to put the turkey on. We cooked up a traditional hot turkey bake with real gravy, followed by pudding with custard and ice cream. We went for a walk in the village while the turkey cooked so we could fly Ben's new remote control plane, this was great fun and the horses in the paddock thought it most curious. After we went back and had our amazing meal and spent some more time on skype with family. Below are pictures of both.
All in all and excellent Christmas
All to soon it was all over and it was back home to put the turkey on. We cooked up a traditional hot turkey bake with real gravy, followed by pudding with custard and ice cream. We went for a walk in the village while the turkey cooked so we could fly Ben's new remote control plane, this was great fun and the horses in the paddock thought it most curious. After we went back and had our amazing meal and spent some more time on skype with family. Below are pictures of both.
All in all and excellent Christmas
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