Animals - The Gallery

Being a half South African family we have a large range of unusual "animal" photos (along side the normal pet ones!) I couldnt really decide on one so I've included a few.....


ok couldnt resist one of the dog........
Shes a little bigger now!

Bank Holiday Rain Day Play

With this bank holiday lining up to be raining everywhere have your plans been scuppered? We tend to go out in all weathers in this house but there are times when you’ve puddle jumped and its still before 10am! So here is a quick list in case you run out of ideas. While there are only a few listed below I have posted before on this and you should be able to find a range of stuff such as cooking, making a rain gauge etc here  Free Stuff   and here    Boredom Busters

 

A sandless sand pit.

Rather having find grains of sand around the house why not create the same effect with either some cheap rice or cheap oats. Chuck in a couple of jugs and saucepans and you have a sand free sandpit.

Day out at gym

A lot of gyms tend offer families one day trips/visits. Why not take advantage of that this weekend. With it being bank holiday most of the main pools etc will be packed. So why not pop along to your local gym and use their quieter one – some even have a crèche if you need 5 mins peace and quiet!

Build a fortress.

As long as you don’t mind! Ours take the cushions off the sofa, use the dining room chairs and in seconds have two forts and a cushion fight (or soft balls) going on.

Go for a wet wood ramble.

Throw on your waterproofs, chuck on your wellies and pack some soup into your flasks and head off and out. You’ll see all kind of different things and animals when the rain is pelting down (obviously if its torrential and thundering maybe skip this one!!) plus you have the added bonus of jumping in the puddles and normally the place to yourself and the hardened dog walkers. Follow the little streams of water and see where they end up....you might discover a huge lake or a small stream.

Indoor ball games

Balloons don’t do nearly as much damage round the house as balls! Blow some up and stretch a blanket or towel between some chairs and play volleyball or hand tennis.

Theatre/X factor

Why not ask your kids to put on a talent show or a theatre. You can give them a theme and even let them loose in your wardrobes for costumes. This can keep them happy all afternoon and gives you 5 minutes to put your feet up to!

Playdough!

Make your own and maybe chuck some glitter in for a different effect!

No Cook Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of boiling water
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
a half cup of salt
1 tablespoon of oil

Directions:

Simply mix all the ingredients together! Be careful as it can be quite hot.

Or check out this website for many more! PlayDough Recipes

(our rain walks!)

The Gallery: World Photography Day

A picture is worth a thousand words. A snapshot of a moment in time never to be repeated. You can capture so much with the click of a finger these days. Family meets, your childs first footsteps, the yawn of a lion. If you can see it you can capture it. Where before we use to be reliant on our memory we can now look back through photo books to refresh it.

With it being World Photograhy day therefore its no surprise that Tara Cain choose is for these weeks theme. Mine photos is snapshot in time this week. I barely saw it my my clever camera captured it perfectly!

Shopping.....In the name of "research"

 I love shopping (which girl doesn’t) but since having kids I hate it! Most of my birthday/Christmas presents etc  are bought online. However last week I was lucky enough to be invited along with some great bloggers to  the Bentalls Centre  in Kingston for a tour.

Normally these days by the time I arrive just at the car park I’m stressed. There’s no child friendly parking, you’ve had to negotiate town and its up five stairs and two lifts to get to the shops! However I was pleasantly surprised by Bentalls. Lovely signage displayed not only which levels had spaces but also which level the walkway and the parent and child parking were on (both level 8 for future reference!) Having piled the kids out the car we were given the option to drop the kids off at their Creche I know right?! Child free shopping and they tire them out for you!! Unfortunately my youngest was teething and was not going to go off and enjoy himself under any circumstances so thankfully his grandfather whisked him around for me so I could enjoy the shopping  tour in comfort. But we did have to have a quick stop at their parent and child room which is HUGE and for a change nice and clean!

The Bentalls centre was established around  Bentalls Department Store (my grandma worked there!) 18 years on and is a haven for shoppers. With over 80 shops (plus the department store) in 3 compact layers its not as spread out as some er better known ones. It even has a gym with swimming pool tucked away on the top level!

We started the tour at my mother ship – Waterstones!!! (you can leave me in store all day!) It has recently gone under a bit of a makeover and now has a child friendly area so you can let your littles ones play while you browse or you can put your feet up for a bit and look through the childrens books.

Having gone round the gym and taking discreet note of the where all the coffee shops were (one on each floor – I’m lazy!) we did partake of a bit of shopping research at the lovely Polarn O Pyret ( a rather nice Swedish good quality clothes shop (nice boys clothes!!)

I have to admit by then Harry was in need of a sleep so we didn’t take the opportunity to put my feet in the piranna tank   fish pedicure but I can assure you even though this is a sponsored tweet (amazing amazing goodie bag) I will going back to visit very very soon! (beats trawling up and down the hills at the shops locally by far!)

A Gluttony Of Blackberries

With the hedgerows and shops full of blackberries around at the moment I thought I would share with you some great recipes to make

Blackberry Brandy!!

 Ingredients

1 bottle of brandy

Enough blackberries to half fill a bottle

Cloves

Cinnamon to taste

90g sugar

1 bottle with a screw cap

Method

 Crush the blackberries lightly in a glass bowl. Half-fill the bottles with the crushed blackberries. Add the cinnamon, cloves and sugar then fill the bottle with brandy. Screw the cap on tightly and leave for 3-4 months. Shake the bottle every day for 2 weeks and then once a month afterwards. You now have the choice of straining your blackberry brandy into another bottle, or keeping the fruit in the bottle as a talking point.

Blackberry Crumble!

Just a quick note on this but I would add more sugar than they state as we found ours rather sharp and had to drown it in cream! IF you have any left over take a tub of soft ice cream and mix it little chunks of the crumble for a fantastic dessert later on in the week (put ice cream back in freezer after mixing lumps in!)

Ingredients

4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into big chunks

1 tbsp water

3 tbsp sugar

225 g fresh or frozen blackberries, or mixed berries

For the crumble:

170 g plain flour

75 g butter

75 g demerara sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Put the apple chunks, water and sugar into a saucepan over a lowish heat and cook until the apples are soft and mushy; this should take about 10 minutes. While cooking, stir it every minute or so to prevent sticking. Taste and add more sugar if it needs it.

Transfer the apple pulp into individual bowls or one big pie dish and allow to cool slightly. Stir the berries into the apples.

To make the crumble, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles very coarse breadcrumbs. However, if you rub it too much the crumble will not be crunchy. Combine with the sugar. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the slightly cooled apple and bake for 15 mins for small crumbles or 30-45 mins for larger crumbles. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Black & White Lions

Over at the Sticky Fingers blog today the theme is black & white so my photos are from one of trips back to SA where the animals blended in so much with the back ground I had to use black and white to bring out the details.

Thankfully just eaten or I dont think we'd have managed to get so close.

In colour though you could barely see her!

Gorgeous zebra who had just had a long drink and paddle in the swimming pool!

Another Chocolate Cake!

Another gluten free chocolate cake for you and this time I promise no veggies!

This is more a gateau than chocolate cake but is very very yummy and tastes devine with a bit of cream.

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate  250g

Unsalted Butter  100g

Large free-range eggs 6 separated

Caster Sugar  75g

Ground Almonds  100g

Flour or Matzo meal for dusting

Method

Preheat the overn to 180 degrees and grease a 23cm non-stick cake tin then dust with flour/meal.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water, set aside to cool.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the ground almonds, the melted chocolate and butter and mix thoroughly.

In a large clean bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff then fold into mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-45 mins or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.

(butter is optional in this recipe)

The start of foraging?

After a night of rain this week I ended up going for a long stroll down by the local river and woodland and was amazed to see the number of people foraging! I’ve always had it down as a west country or real countryside pursuit so to see rows of people pouring over the side of the stream and down the hedge rows was a startling sight. I first discovered it while watching  the Great British Banquet last year when the Cornish chef produced an array of fruit he had gathered by the river. However with organic and local food fast becoming the norm for fruit and veg it’s no real surprise that more and more people are turning to this past time.

I think most people have passed an afternoon or two picking the odd blackberry from hedges on late summer walks. And yet it stretches to more than just blackberries. With England offering up a wild feast of bilberries, sloes (great for gin!!) beech nuts, damsons, wild plums,  elderflowers and even mushrooms its worth keeping your eyes peeled. Personally with young kids and not being very experienced I wouldn’t dare try any other berry than blackberries and I don’t fancy tripping the light fantastic after I’d tackled the wrong sort of mushroom however a few friends have assured me this doesn’t limit the harvest. With sorrel and borage being expensive and only in certain shops the ability to create culinary delights with boutique herbs and vegetables for free is remarkable.

So after asking a fair few people on twitter who forage they have all agreed on one book in particular – A lovely little pocket book by Collins called “food for free” so this weekend I’m off to hunt this down and give it a go! I’ll report back next week to let you know how I get on.

However if you can’t wait I would recommend checking out this website which has all the laws and etiquette and is a great place to start!

Guide to Foraging

and for those who want to do a course

The Hedgerow Harvest Team

Splosh

Having watched for ages Tara Cains blog Sticky Fingers and everyones weekly "Gallery" I have at long last decided to join in so heres my first entry!

The theme this week is water and like Ratty in The Wind In The Willows I find nothing better than playing in or on or just being near the water!

I could resist adding these wave shots!

Summer Fruit Soup

I saw this slightly different soup online and having tried it felt I had to share. What better soup is there for summer days?  Tastes just as lovely warm or chilled!

Ingredients 500 g cooking apples, peeled, cored, sliced 4  peaches, peeled 750 ml water 1  juice of 1 lemon   zest of 1 lemon, grated 2 tbsp cornflour 80 g sugar 2 tsp cinnamon powder 1 sprig(s) watercress for decoration 125 ml sour cream for decoration 4 slice(s) lemon for decoration

Method

Place sliced peaches and apples to a saucepan together with the water and lemon zest. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until the fruit is tender (about 40 minutes).

Pass the fruit pulp through a sieve and transfer the purée into a fresh saucepan.

In another bowl blend the cornflour with the lemon juice until smooth and add to the fruit purée. Continue cooking the mixture until thickened then add in the cinnamon and sugar.

Gradually add this mixture to the pan with the fruit soup and stop before the soup gets to be too sweet.

Serve in soup bowls, garnished with a little swirl of cream, a slice of lemon and a sprig of watercress.



What I'm reading this month....

A little section of what I'm reading this month. For some reason I tend to read more in the summer so hopefully I'll be adding to this list later on in the month. 

If you watched the Halcyon Diaries last year then this is the book for you. The background to how they get there. Fabulous reading!

One of the lovely books about KoKo & Yum Yum two crime solving siamese. A gentle crime reader.

The tales of a london bobby who has now moved to yorkshire. Great reading and a big must!

Not my reading as such buy my son was given this book for his birthday and adores it! We read it every day!

Kids go free 2!

Just to let you all know there’s another great Kid’s go free running at the moment. The RHS are offering two free children (under 16) with any accompanying adult at any of their gardens until the end of august. Well worth a visit I would recommend them all to any one of any age group. I take my youngest at 1 and stay the same length of time as I do with my teenage nieces and nephews and my grandma!

They offer great garden activities and explorations – pick up a rucksack at reception full of ideas and equipment to help you discover the gardens more. They also offer fabulous restaurants and cafes. So if you have one near you go and visit!

Ps their websites great for ideas to!

RHS - Childrens activities

Free Day Out

With the sun being so glorious this week you aren’t going to want to stay home. Why not take advantage of National Trusts summer offer of kids going free at hundreds of their amazing places this August. Even if we have a spot of rain why not go and explore a castle or old house with resident ghosts. Most properties as well have events running throughout the whole summer to help entertain your kids and if property doesn’t appeal why not discover some hidden woodland or a new stretch of coast?  

Here’s the link to the offer and I do recommend taking it. Many of my childhood memories are of the various house and gardens local to me. Why not create some new ones for your kids!

Kids Go Free