Cousin time

Hello blog!  Wow, so much to blog about and I'm struggling to find time - that's how good the Easter holidays are :-)  I will start off a few posts now and fill them in when I have time.

On Easter Monday Grandma G and Auntie L and my girl cousins came to stay with Mum and I.  We have started a sort of tradition of seeing them at Easter time and have some amazing Easter egg hunts!  Love it - I am definitely still a child as far as that is concerned.  We had a great time while they were visiting.  They stayed for longer than normal (3 nights) and we did quite a few specific things which I think made it more enjoyable.

Feast your eyes on these pics (you can click on them to enlarge if you like)


Monday - Easter egg hunt.

Look at all the eggs we had to hunt.

 Dividing up the eggs and writing our lists so we knew what to find!

 Photos in my room while waiting for the eggs to be hidden.  Can you work out who the shadowy figure is?!

Sisterly help to find the last eggs.

 Champion egg hunter 2010 - speediest find of the day.

Tuesday- Slimbridge Wetlands and Wildfoul Centre
Mum suggested we visit Slimbridge for the day.  I hadn't heard of it or looked it up but was game to go and it really impressed.  There was more to do than I was maybe expecting and we spent all day there.  It was just about warm enough to be out in the open, I was definitely tired at the end of the day - it was great to be tired due to being outside rather than from the classroom! 

My girl cousins by the daffodils.  

We (the children!) hired paddle boats!  That was our main aim as soon as we found out about the canoe safari.  And it was totally great and one of the things that made the day.

The adults watching us while we were on our hour safari.

The other awesome bit of the day - getting to hand feed the ducks!  Above right is me feeding the rarest goose in the world - the nene goose from Hawaii.  Slimbridge has a successful breeding programme for them.

Above you can see the smallest swans which were cool with a pink beak and feet.  The emperor goose - quite majestic (that's my hand feeding it).  A coot returning to its nest of eggs.

Wednesday - Croome Park
We stuck closer to home and headed to Croome.  It was the first time I had been that the house was open.  There wasn't really any furniture in it, just empty rooms open on the ground floor and basement which is what I like.  Am not that interested in furniture or art work.  It's all about the rooms, their arrangements, windows, staircases.

I think the sky looks interesting on the left.  Grandma to the Manor born.  The back of Croome.

Can you work out what we are saying with our fans? - great entertainment!

This was one impressive tree.  Definite highlight of the day.  Very good job there weren't any more cousins there.  Check out photo of the day for the piece de resistance!


Thursday - Hills and W
As some family left we headed onto the hills on a beautifully sunny day - spring is here.

And our little friend came round for a visit and we got to experience what it's like to lay the Easter Egg hunt!  Even better we got to enjoy it outisde.

Friday - London
Just the two of us we set out on our London adventure - what a great day it was!

 Picnic lunch in Hyde Park.  Walk to Buckingham Palace, along the Mall to Trafalgar Square.

Such excitement which didn't disappoint!  Dirty Dancing the musical at the Aldwych theatre.

Ceilidh Club in Camden - original purpose of the day.

Posting the London postcard to Grandma to thank her for her contribution to the day.

Good times, eh?!  
(finished Saturday 17th April, 5pm)

Blueberry Buckle

So on some blogs I read people post recipes.  I find that really boring and hardly ever read them.  And yet here I am about to post a recipe!

This is a recipe that a friend sent me on 27th May 2008 and I have only just finally tried!  This is someone in the Chemistry group I was part of for my last year at uni from Canada and she baked loads which was fantastic for the rest of us!  One day she made this Blueberry Buckle which was like a muffin but in a cake tin.  Delicious! 

And mine didn't turn out bad either ;-)

Greatly helped by my able assistants in the kitchen.

sorry i only know the imperial measurements, not the metric ones!
 
---blueberry buckle----
 
combine 2 cups flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 3/4 cup sugar
 
with two knifes or hands, mix 1/2 cup butter into this until it resembles coarse crumbs
 
take out 1/2 cup of this crumb mixture and place in small bowl. stir in an additional 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. set aside
 
with the rest of the crumb mixture, add 3/4 cup milk and 1 beaten egg. stir until just combined (up to 1/4 cup more milk may be required - batter should be thick).
 
take about 1 cup of blueberries or any other berry and place in small bowl. add a handful of flour to berries and shake to coat. dump these into the batter and stir just a little bit until mixed in.
 
butter an 8 x 8 cake pan and spoon in the batter. smooth the surface. pour 2 tbsp melted butter over the cake top, and then sprinkle the cinnamon crumb mixture evenly over top.
 
bake at 350 deg F (175 deg C) for about 35 min.
 
eat and enjoy!
 
L
 
notes - i made mine with 1 cup wholemeal flour, 1 cup white flour, and 1/2 cup fake sugar (splenda) and 1/2 cup real sugar. turned out fine i think

Still enjoying on it's second night out!

Photos of the year - week 8

Monday 29th March

Bonus dinner out with Ma at Fire and Stone before Monday night date with Flash Forward.

Tuesday 30th March

For some reason there was a need to dive into the drawer to find the emergency chocolate bar at the for a square or two!  Not sure why quite needed, had an IEP review, had been painting our papier mache islands... maybe just gearing up for the date!

Wednesday 31st March

Thought I had forgotten to take a photo this day but I found this one had been taken on the day - phew - as I wouldn't have had an excuse for today :-)  This is me giving my mentor a gift of appreciation.

Thursday 1st April

Awesome - Easter hoard from the kids :-)  Definite perk of the job - can't be denied!

Friday 2nd April

First lambs of the year.  Was driving back home across the Cotswolds and spotted them in the field so turned around and drove back to get the photo!

Saturday 3rd April

Totally in awe of the dessert trolley at the Thai at Colwall!  I had the meringue one.

Sunday 4th April

Brushing malting meadow in the garden.

Have been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks on the reason for my photos of the year and the 'rules'.  I'm a funny one really.  All it comes down to is that this is a thing that I have chosen to do so it's up to me and whatever I do, that's ok because it's what I have done.  Anyone reading this would think I am completely loopy and has a very peculiar brain for thinking these things!  Oh well.  So basically, I think you can think of this as a photography project and trying to take high quality photos that would be interesting to look at, or as a diary project recording the things you do during the course of a year.  So for me I am 'allowing' myself to think of it as either and both depending on the photo I take.  I think it's predominantly the diary one.  Also, I am saying that it doesn't matter if it's not me taking the photo (i.e. I can be in the photos) as long as I am involved somehow - even just knowing it's been taken is enough.  My biggest dilemma at the moment (weirdo) is whether I can take a photo on a different day but referencing something that happened on that day.  For example, when I thought I hadn't taken a photo on Wednesday, I took one on Thursday morning of our spotless lounge that we had spent Wednesday night cleaning ready for the house inspection on Thursday.  I would feel reluctant to let that photo count as Wednesday's photo even though that is what it is referencing.  I guess as the year goes on and I forget more, the situation may arise where it's needed and then I will be forced to ok it!

If anyone ever reads that last paragraph, please leave a note in the comments section so I can make sure to personally apologise to you for one of the most boring pieces of writing ever!  I'm definitely not even going to reread it myself!

Malaysia

Lap 13 - Not an epic so far.  Not like last week in australia and not wet (yet) like yesterday.  But there do seem to be a fair few cars just randomly dropping out - including Schuey!

Lap 20 - still not a lot to record.  The other Lotus just unobtrusively retires.  McLaren's winning the battle of carving through the field.  Hamilton up to 6th, Massa 7th, Alonso 8th, Button 9th but pitted once.

Lap 34 - 9.55 - bizarreness that we have just had to change to BBC2 becuase of the Easter service.  I have just eaten some lovely white Lindor bunny chocolate from the Southerns.  We also just gave ma some easter gifts that I think went down well.  Hamilton has come out of the pits ahead of Button.

Lap 39 - Massa is all over the back of Button in 7th.  Hamilton just up the road on the back of Sutil.

Lap 55 - penultimate - Alsonso goes for Button (Massa is long past) and he gets him but then runs wide and then loses his engine!  oops!


Lap 56 - Vettel finally gets the win after 2 poles.  And acceptable for the McLarens given their starting positions.

Tried to get a screen shot of the finishing list on TV but failed to get the first one.  So here's the formula1.com timing screens and page 2 of the TV coverage:

Aquaplaning

Malaysia Qualifying! Oh it's good again. Plenty of rain. All but the top 8ish drivers went straight out in Q1 while it was raining to get in a banker lap. And what a good choice. By the time the big men came out it was to slippery and we have had plenty of people aquaplaning - just love that word. They used to use it a lot in my early days, can remember Murray saying it plenty, but then it seemed to go out of fashion. But Button has just said over the radio that he aquaplaned off and he's ended up in the gravel trap and stuck. He's 13th at the moment but with plenty guys behind him hoping to improve. Alonso just 'pirouetted' according to Jonathan Ledger! Replay shows it was 3 times round!

"I love those races where the grid's all mixed up." Well said Martin!

Oh dear: it's Alonso 19th, Hamilton 20th, Massa 21st!! And Button is going to be 17th because he won't be able to take part in Q2!

Button and  Hamilton aquaplaning off. (I'm loving print screening)

Just had a shot of team principals (have tried spelling it both ways - I'm just not sure which one it is here...) leaning away from their computers on the pit wall and sticking their arms out to see if it's raining again - teehee!

"Race control - indefinite delay"  How epic!!

Was a good one - Weber got pole going out on inters for the last moment.  Looking forward to tomorrow morning!

Photos of the year - week 7

A little late but here goes:

Monday 22nd March

Happy skies from my bedroom window - Spring still coming.

Tuesday 23rd March

Bought myself some flowers.  Oops, should have tried to remember what they are.  I was brought some flowers at half term but Mum ended up with them so she gave me some money to buy more.  They have been looking fab, still today - 2nd April.

Wednesday 24th March

Our poet visiting school - a family friend.  It was a great day though shattered by the end!

Thursday 25th March

Papier mache islands!  Woah what an afternoon!

Friday 26th March

Surprised to spot these flowers by the bin when I was taking rubbish out.

Saturday 27th March

Lunch at the trout, despite the rain there were sunny times.  Date number 2!

Sunday 28th March

A rumbly minus one lunch.  Lovely!