Sandringham Estate

We live less than 20 miles from Sandringham but in almost four years had never visited. Friends kept telling us that it was a lovely place for a walk but we just never got there, we always drove past on the way to the beach. But on a recent  cold, frosty day we wrapped up warmly, threw Mortimer in the car and headed off.

It was really lovely to be in woods again, although we're surrounded by trees and are in the orchards every day it's not the same as walk in an English woodland. The Queen has 600 acres in the country park and you are allowed to wander in most of it. We elected to follow one of the marked paths, just to make our life a little easier. Most of the ground was dry although there were a couple of muddy areas to negotiate. Mortimer was in his element, charging around investigating everything. We finished the afternoon with a hot chocolate and a piece of shortbread and promised ourselves another visit soon.

Low winter's light

Andrew & Mortimer playing hide and seek. Mortimer always wins.

Part of the Scenic Drive

You may remember Andrew has a log fetish - he took this shot

I love the colour of the bark

New scents

A frosty path

One of the few muddy sections

Andrew using some weird photo effect on me -just can't trust him & a camera

They could almost be shelves

Mortimer taking a break

Onward to hot chocolate!

An English bank holiday

Having spent the last few weeks gadding about and enjoying ourselves we thought we'd better knuckle down to some work during the latest bank holiday. Lawns were mown, borders weeded, an over-flowing laundry basket was emptied and so much dust was vacuumed that the Dyson over-heated and had to have an overnight rest.

Mortimer was delighted to be reacquainted with trainee guide dog Buddy who he hadn't seen for a month.

Hello!

Sharing

I won!

I started a new project, restoring this old filing cabinet that will be perfect for t-shirts, scarves and other assorted apparel.

I tried out a new recipe on Andrew - Middle Eastern falling apart lamb. The photograph is courtesy of The Times as it was a race between my camera and Andrew's fork. I lost.

Middle Eastern falling apart lamb - courtesy of The Times

Andrew laid the carpet in our bedroom, with a little help.

Supervising

But all work and no play...

So late on Monday afternoon we downed tools and headed for the beach. It was a good time to go as all the traffic was leaving Old Hunstanton as we arrived. Evidence showed it had been a busy day.

Footprints in the sand

But by the time we arrived it was much quieter.

Space

 
There were quite a few sandcastles.

Very decorative

Hoping for a bone burial site

We ended the day with fish & chips on the green, complete with a seaview.

A typical British bank holiday (without the rain!).

The bee auction

It's been an usually active social life here at Nelson House over the last couple of weeks. Easter saw us in London, followed by Andrew's birthday and then last weekend visiting friends in Surrey. Roger is an amateur bee keeper and Saturday coincided with the annual West Sussex Beekeepers bee auction. Now I have always had a soft spot for bees and have secretly harboured a desire to keep them, so thought this would be an ideal opportunity to learn more.

The auction was held at the Brinsbury campus, part of  Chichester College, near Pulborough. There were over 300 lots, all spread out over the car park. Lots were varied as you can see from the photographs (apologies to any apiarists if I've used the wrong terms!)

Smokers

Bee hives

Skeps - used for collecting swarms

Used for melting bees wax

Bee hive 'extensions'

Inspecting the lots

Mortimer on bee look out duty

The auction underway

In the end we bought nothing, apart from a lovely pub lunch and some honey flapjack, but I was quite enthused about bee keeping and had a good look at Roger's bee hives. He also kindly sent me away with a bee book and some catalogues.

Roger's hives (and yes their garden is gorgeous)

Apart from bee related activities we did a lot of walking with the dogs. Ben was happy (almost) to share his space with Mortimer.

Move over!

And yet again Mortimer found more water to splash about in.

Water dog

So once we returned home I did some bee related searches and have put our names down for a taster day in the summer. Watch this space!

Easter

When Andrew's sister kindly invited us to stay with her for a couple of nights over Easter we jumped at the chance. Living in the country is wonderful but it's nice to get a city fix now and again. Being the season of chocolate gifts we thought it would be the perfect excuse to make the pigs in mud cake, something I'd beem dying to do  since I first saw photographs on the internet.

I won't give a recipe as there are dozens out there and basically it's just a chocolate sponge with a layer of ganache. Andrew was chief pig maker although I was responsible for wielding the cocktail stick for nostrils & navels.

Making the pigs

The hardest part was getting the kit kats to stay upright. You have to smooth the outside of the cake with ganache, not too much that it oozes through but enough to make them stick. It was easier with two people and eventually we were happy and tied the ribbon. The ganache is then poured on top, if you gently push it to the edges, when it hardens it helps the kit kats stay in place. Then in go the pigs.

Not bad for a first attempt

Mortimer and Dexter were delighted at being reunited.

Back in the pond

Dexter's swimming has come along in leaps in bounds but Mortimer had the most reach when it came to shaking.

Advanced doggy paddle

Who needs a towel?

Saturday afternoon we went to Liberty. When I worked in central London, many years ago, this store was a regular haunt and it hasn't changed much. Opened  by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875, it sold objects and fabrics from Japan and the East. Hugely supportive of both the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, Liberty still specialises in antiques of these periods as well as carrying beautiful stock from the Far & Middle East.

Timbers from HMS Impregnable & HMS Hindustan were used in the 1920's rebuild

The store is built around three light wells

Andrew & his neice lost in admiration

I nearly succombed to this beautiful Middle Eastern pottery...

but Andrew's sister did buy some of these stunning glass dishes.

Relunctantly I left the store empty-handed, as I did after a look round Choccywoccydodah's. Forget the elegant chocolatieres of France, this shop is a full visual onslaught. First the decor.

And then these fabulous, over the top chocolate creations.

Rachael (our neice & Andrew's god-daughter) has many skills but our favourite is that she is a trained mixologist (she can make great cocktails). So in need of a pick me up after walking the pavements of London, she volunteered to make us mojitos. There was a bit of a discussion between her & Andrew as to the ingredients of the aforementioned cocktail, you should have seen the look of disgust when he said he uses soda water. Oh how wrong he is! The 'lengthener' (what I would call the mixer element) is not soda or tonic but crushed ice. I have to say they were the best mojitos we had ever tasted.

Mojitos

We took an extra day off over Easter to celebrate Andrew's birthday and went to Holt for the day. Holt is a beautiful small town in Norfolk, known for it's art galleries and independent shops. We had a lovely lunch in The Folly Tearoom and next time will definitely indulge in their afternoon tea. They are building a conservatory extension which will open on to their beautiful courtyard garden.

Courtyard at The Folly

And finally home, where Mortimer helped Andrew to unwrap his presents.

Expert unwrapper

Who needs southern Europe?

So call me fickle but when you get a day as glorious as last Saturday then why move at all? Fortunately it coincided with a visit by Andrew's sister and puppy Dexter. So we threw the dogs in the car and set off to Old Hunstanton beach.

Everyone had the same idea but as the beach goes on for miles it wasn't a problem. Dexter remembered that he loved the sea and both dogs were fascinated by the kite surfers.

Dexter (the black dog) went straight to the sea

It didn't take Mortimer long to join him

C'mon Dexter!

Andrew took photographs of the kite surfers...

And I took photos of dogs and textures...

Tucked behind the sand dunes by the lifeboat station is a great café, really dog friendly. The garden was so sheltered and the sun so warm we ate lunch outside (yep in February. In Norfolk.) They bake dog biscuits and sell them at 3 for a £1. Mortimer decided that, as the biggest dog, he should have the third one.

I'm sure that's mine

After a hearty lunch we walked some more and decided that a good day was had by all. And not a squeak from the dogs on the way home.

End of the day