Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Sun, sandcastles and seals, what more can you ask for on your first trip to the seaside?  At 3 months old baby Esme was blissfully unaware of all of these of course?

We rented a fabulous cottage in Wells Next the sea on the Norfolk coast, it was booked through cottages.com (this is not a sponsored post) using the deal though Tesco clubcard by using £30.00 of clubcard points we changed it up to a voucher worth £100 off our weekend away.

I think we must have visited Wells pretty much every year for the last 10 years or so and we still want to return for more.  It is very laid back, has a beautiful big beach, enough pubs, bars and restaurants to give you a bit of choice and is well positioned for travelling to other attractions around the area.

There is still a working harbour and the evidence of this is clearly seen along the quayside.

The tide was a long way out when we took our leisurely stroll down to the beach, but that gave me plenty of opportunities to snap away

I took rather a lot of photos of this boat as I was captivated by its' reflection  and I think I could take a hundred or so more and still not get just exactly what I wanted.

The beach was full of visitors enjoying the fine weather and getting a chance to blow away the cobwebs.

There were plenty of happy dogs enjoying a paddle and feeding my obsession for the day of trying to capture reflections.

A section of the beach had been cordoned off to allow these seals some protection. It is such a thrill to see these lovely creatures at close quarters, they are so clumsy on land and yet so graceful in the water.

This little one was swimming about and I was really hoping it would come up on land so I could get a better shot but it kept coming towards the shore then turning round and swimming away.

The sun was starting to cast long shadows and a baby lead timetable meant we were soon heading back to the cottage for tea and dairy free cake.

What is your favorite place for a chilled out Saturday with the family?

Adventures in Dairy Free baking and other nonsense

My creative weekend ended up more with me being a domestic goddess than a creative genius.  I still found time to have fun with my chalkboard though, we are off to Norfolk later in the month and these are some of the things that remind me of our past trips there, judging by the size of the fish and chips I was rather hungry when I drew this!

I treated myself to a small bunch of spring flowers as I was keen to use my latest charity shop find of this little fat jug. The hyacinths smell amazing although they do tickle my nose a little bit.

 

I ventured into a new avenue with my baking this weekend - dairy free.   My granddaughter has been diagnosed as having an allergy to cow proteins in milk so to support my breastfeeding daughter I picked out a couple of dairy free cake recipes to make to show her a bit of support.

My first was this vintage carrot cake recipe from the "Flour on my face" blog, as the recipe is from the USA it uses cups for measuring.  This involved a bit of guessing on my part such as, how may carrots make 2 and a 1/2 cups the answer was three medium ones, do I have enough of all the ingredients, the answer was no not enough sunflower oil but I topped it up with olive oil and it was OK.  The biggest problem I encountered was that after 30 minutes the middle was still runny! this was due to my baking tin being 8x8 so not the same as the one advised,  A quick Google suggested reduce the heat and cook for a bit longer and eventually it was cooked.  Tastes great but I didn't make any icing to go on the top which I think it needed.  For a non-dairy free cake the usual cream cheese topping would be scrummy,  I failed to take any pics of this but hopefully you all know what a carrot cake looks like.

The second cake I baked needed a little forward planning as it was a tea loaf so I had to soak the fruit over night.  I used this recipe from "Kitchen delights" blog and they have provided some excellent notes. Note to self on this one, make sure you pick up raisins in the supermarket and not currants you ninny!  I must confess that I made a bit of a mistake when baking this, a slightly over hot oven resulted in a bit of a dark top, I dropped the temperature and covered the top with foil and continued to cook it for far too long. The result is a little bit drier than I would have liked but it is still a very nice cake and I will give the recipe another go.

So how has everyone been spending their weekends this February? and can anyone recommend any good dairy free blogs to read?

Blimey it February already!

Well January slipped into February without me really registering, I have still not got back into my creative groove.  However, I do have some free time this weekend and I have got a couple of ideas to play around with.

I have been very busy with Granny duties which I love, she has just started smiling, kicking her legs and gurgling in a way that only babies can so I am still walking round with a huge grin plastered on my face.

I just wanted to pop something up to let you know that I am still around x

Finding treasure in the spare room

On a high from sorting out the pantry I tackled the other dumping ground in our home - the little box room and what a good idea I found treasure that I had squirrelled away in the form of some old shop pricing tickets.  I knew they were somewhere in the house but the location had slipped from my conscience and they were just the touch I needed to help redress the Welsh dresser post Christmas.

I found them in a little junk shop in Cromer on the North Norfolk coast, it is an area that we love to visit and we have booked a family weekend away in February.  It will be baby Esme's first holiday, at 3 months old I doubt she will be too aware of her changed surroundings, however, I am sure that her Mum and Dad will appreciate the beautiful beaches, the big skies and the open countryside that the area has to offer so long as they can get some sleep in between the night feeds.

We are struggling to book or main summer holiday, I had picked a week in July that worked well with my Hubbys shift pattern but my colleague got in first and booked that very week for her holiday! next year I need to be a bit quicker off the mark. So we are now looking at going away in August, I almost made the mistake of booking something that left the day before my friends wedding! (sorry J) Looking out of the window on a rainy grey day the promise of a week of sunshine is definitely needed to lift the spirits.

Have you started booking in events for the new year or do you prefer to leave it all to the last minute?

Its January so lets tidy the pantry!

With the first "proper" week of January under my belt the festivities are well and truly over and the routine of work has settled us back down into our usual patterns.

The weather has been a bit on the chilly side and snuggling on the sofa in front of the log burner has been pretty much our favorite occupation.

My pre-Christmas to do list was never completed and anything relating to sending cards and wrapping presents has been confined to the bin but there was one job that still needed to be picked up.  Sorting out the pantry!  It is a convenient place to "tuck things away" so becomes something of a dumping ground.  After a few hours of taking everything out, throwing away a few odd bits that have gone out of date, wondering why we have so many packs of olives, knowing that there are several boxes of stuffing because I ran out last May and my family can't function without a regular input and I don't want that to happen again.  I finally got round to putting everything back and it all looks nice and organised.............. for now.

As you can see I have no loyalty to any one supermarket and Sainsburys Morrisons  Tesco Aldi and Lidl all get a look in.

We did see a bit of winter sun this morning and I was keen to capture the shadows it was casting as the bunting was blowing around

I was quite happy to see the snowdrops making an appearance, it is almost like they have waited until the new year to pop up and say hello

I haven't made anything this week, not even a cake which is not like me at all, maybe I just need a break after all my Christmas makes!

How was your return to work?  Have you had a cleaning splurge or are you happily tucked up in front of the fire?

Exploring Hygge - how hygge is your life?

Hygge – (Hoo-gah)

I  was poking about on Pinterest for inspirational quotes to put on my blackboard to celebrate 2017 when I came across this hygge challenge.  I have very little knowledge of hygge so I set about investigating further.  This link to the Danish tourist board has a lovely little short film where the reporter visits Copenhagen to learn more about hygge and the  BBC of course had their own contribution.

It seems to be about chilling out with your friends, being cosy with candle light and snuggly blankets, stepping away from technology and keeping things simple. Embracing the dark nights and finding the light and enjoyment in them.  I tend to find January a bit of a glum month, the weather is uninviting, the days are short and the excitement and fun of Christmas and New Year are fast fading memories. In fact there are some days where I feel like I am sleepwalking around and my mood is low.  The sky is an uninviting shade of grey and there seems to be nothing on the horizon to brighten things up.

So how hygge is my life

• Candles and fairy lights are present in my home all year round, we have switched to battery operated candles as they are cleaner and safer but they still offer soft ambient lighting.  We had a log burner installed a couple of years ago (this was a step up from the open fire we had put in about 30 years ago when we moved into our home) this scores very highly in creating the hygge vibe.

• Unplugging from technology, I have got into a bad habit of watching TV with my laptop on my knee or my phone in hand, giving neither my full attention so therefore not being in the moment an important hygge element. So I am trying to be more aware of this and making a choice to do one or the other but not both.

• I spend quite a lot of my leisure time with my family especially now I am Granny to baby Esme. With Hubby working shifts it can be more tricky to find time for meet ups with friends this an area that I need to make more effort in.

• Being alone and reading a book - I love reading and for some reason tend to only give time over to it when I go on my summer holiday. I treated myself to a book in the January sales, "The year of living Danishly" by Helen Russell in pursuit of learning more about hygge and seeing it in context of the Danish lifestyle. Helen and her husband move to Denmark for a year when he gets a job at Lego HQ, in the book she investigates various aspects of Danish life and queries if these pursuits and cultural references make them the happiest nation.  I am making time to read a chapter a day with a cup of tea and the TV turned off. 

• Living in the moment, to some extent this is something that we all do and don't even think about.  However, I am very much a planner and sometimes I don't give myself over to an experience as I am already calculating how to do things better next time.   I will try and be aware of this and make more of an effort to go with the flow and immerse myself in the moment.

• Connecting with nature - I alway feel a bit brighter after a walk, mother nature usually has something to show us we just need to take the time to look for it. Not to mention that walking helps to burn off some of those Christmas calories! But given a choice reading a book curled up on the sofa is going to be the first choice on a grim winter day, I think a bit more effort is needed from me in this area.

My conclusion is that I already have some hygge in my life and there is room for more and that can't be a bad thing if hygge encompasses feelings of wellbeing.

When I have been trying to learn more about hygge I am a little bit disappointed that it has been hijacked as an opportunity to sell cushions, throws and all manner of other things!  I think hygge is something you feel and not something you buy.

Now it is over to you, how hygge is your lifestyle?  Do you agree with my interpretation or have I got it all wrong? What do you do to beat the January blues?

12th night - taking down the Christmas decs

I have been quite active on Instagram over the Twixtmas period, I found it a good outlet to post a few pics and not have to provide any context other than a few #hashtags.  I was a bit surprised by the number of people posting pics of their Christmas Decs getting put away, some even before the 31st of December.  I am a traditionalist and to me the decs stay up until the 5th of December and only then do we take them down.  I am not saying they all survive to the end, we have already had a few drop off the Christmas tree and the tree itself has some distinct bald patches!  For various reasons it has been a few years since we had a real tree and I had forgotten just how much they drop the needles combined with we haven't taken the correct care of it. The accompanying photos were taken when it freshly decorated, so no bald patches should be visible!

An ex- colleague always had a family party on 12th night to mark the end of the Christmas period and everyone brought all the odds and ends of leftover  food and booze to use them up. There seem to be such a hurry of social arrangements in the run up to Christmas so it makes a nice opportunity to catch up with everyone. Although I believe there was one uncle who needed to be steered firmly towards the door at the end of the night as he had something of a reputation for outstaying his welcome!

I am quite please with my lack of Christmas leftovers, 1/2 a packet of ginger spiced biscuits and an unopened box of biscuits for cheese, this was not due to some carefully thought out plan as such.  My daughter hosted us for Christmas dinner, however, I ended up buying the food and cooking it on her new swanky range cooker (the rest of the room was like a building site and the only running water was in the utility room next door).  She had booked an online shopping slot and shoved a few items in the basket to "save the slot", we had gone through together and worked out what we needed, unfortunately, when she went in to update the basket the next day the order had already been sent to the despatchers and couldn't be replaced so had to be cancelled. It was Mum and Dad to the rescue and we battled our way round the supermarket, I focused just on what we needed for Lunch, snacks for the evening and a good old full english for brekkie on Boxing day with enough turkey left over for sarnies it would be criminal to waste the cranberry sauce.

I hope you had the Christmas that you wanted and said goodbye to 2016 taking the good stuff with you and leaving the bad stuff behind.

I would love to hear if you have already packed Christmas away or are you waiting to take it all down on the 5th Jan,