Category Archives: Uncategorized

Quite when we last had any rainfall, I’m not sure. We encountered a terrible thunder storm when we were in France seven weeks ago, but that didn’t fall on East Anglia. Happily we have three water butts/barrels and they still have water in them so I can keep some of the most needy plants watered,Continue reading “Rain please!”

It’s been a hectic week, with the Latitude Festival last weekend, regular commitments to be fulfilled and a birthday for one of our young friends which involved a zero at the end 😉 So we simply had to try their favourite gastro pub in Norfolk – the Gunton Arms which was a bit of aContinue reading “A Wednesday wander.”

Many years ago hubby took a job in Milan. We took a weeks’ language course, known as “total immersion”, Pickfords packed everything including the kitchen sink plug and we were off. The HR department had been really helpful, finding us a house to rent and organising the permesso di sogiorna and residenza even though theContinue reading “Hot enough?”

Whilst we prefer raspberries, the recipe for strawberry tarts is very popular here. At this point of the summer I find strawbs to be vey variable and using them in this way improves the flavour. It’s simply smallish circles of puff pastry with a disc of marzipan, then the halved fruits laid pointed end intoContinue reading “Strawberry Tarts.”

This is a headline I came across today and it’s true in more ways than one. It’s still very hot so we’re baking in our homes without a through flow of air – don’t mention air conditioning…! But even in all this heat I’ve been baking – cakes of course. Whilst each Friday I prepareContinue reading ““Britain Bakes””

Our short trip to France has reawakened my French vocabulary! Having tried to tidy my equipment cupboards and subsequently made the Sponge Flan video, I’ve been considering the pieces of “kit” that I could dispose of. Much more difficult than I thought, to be honest. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not going toContinue reading “Batterie de Cuisine.”

What a week this has been – we were hot in France last weekend but the heat here has become more intense as the days have gone by. There has been a slight breeze in the garden so it’s been pleasant to sit out under a garden umbrella, usually accompanied by the cat, who’s findingContinue reading “Phew!”

… is a favourite phrase of mine. This time we’ve just got home from a long weekend in France with some of our favourite young people. I firmly believe that you really don’t have to travel very far to be able to immerse yourself in the food and culture of the country, so we wentContinue reading “Just back…”

Our weather has been crazy this week. It started off so cold that the central heating came on, a friend resorted to a hot water bottle to stay warm and we’ve had so much rain that our “butts”/barrels were overflowing. The hail stones were huge and the strong winds have ruined my peonies…. In spiteContinue reading “What a week!”

How refreshing to hear Gareth Southgate talking to Amol Rajan this morning. He was saying what many of us have known for the longest time – that not every young person needs to go to University (and leave with massive debts), that boys need to be taught differently from girls, that the curriculum of todayContinue reading “Words of wisdom.”