Brighton Outing

On Sunday we took a day trip to Brighton.  My first time there.  We only arrived there just after mid-day, with a horribly slow 2 1/2hr drive to get there.  But the sky was blue and there was plenty of sunshine to enjoy...it was a bit windy, but that didn't stop our enjoyment.

Lots of steps to jump off of.

Yummy fish and chips (and not so nice mushy peas) to share for lunch.  With delicious soft serve afterwards.

Some 4x4 manoeuvring on the pebbly beach - far too difficult for this wobbly nut to walk on!  The pram was pretty much only used to carry the backpack!

If this building is the actual museum, I sure as nuts hope that admission is free!  Looky how small it is!

Searching for the perfect pebble takes a lot of concentration.

Sweet little purple feet.  I love that Chloe is now walking.

And finally...we arrived at the pier.  Not that the "amusements" were any attraction...

S-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Enjoying the view and the *breeze* in her face.  It was so windy that we did not even make it to the end of the pier.

Back on the beach and swinging her bag full of pebbles around rather dangerously.

Sweet colourful huts.  Only one was open, with its occupants huddling inside away from the wind.  Ava's favourite was the purple one (of course!)...and Chloe kept trying to disappear between the huts...

After a long day, everyone was still happy.  Now off to find some supper and head on home.

It was a speedy trip home, about 1 1/2hrs, but we only arrived home at 10pm!  It was a loooong, but very enjoyable day watching the girls have fun.  

Now I just can't wait to take them to a proper sandy beach...to build sand castles with them.

Easy Cheesy Mielie Bread {Recipe} & A Little Outing

We went for a little walk around Harpenden at the weekend.  It isn't too far from home and we hadn't been there before.  It was a lovely outing, especially as the sun made an appearance.

 So much beautiful green space.

 Loads of flags and bunting flying in the breeze.

 A lovely Continental feel - awnings, colourful paintwork...

 A fun shop front display.

 More green space and bunting - Ava was quite beside herself with all the "flags" (bunting).

 Pavement jumping fun with Flower Daddy.

And yet more green space!  With humongous trees!

The garlicky aroma wafting in this vicinity was almost too much for us. 

Love those pretty terraced cottages.

Pretty leaf colours.

At the last minute before we left home I decided that we needed some yummy mielie bread.  To take with for all of us to snack on.  This 'bread' isn't really 'bread' - more like a savoury loaf or cake.  I make this for braai's...and we have a seriously big IOU outstanding with a certain friend - who I like to thank for help (moving fridges, assembling crazy heavy solid oak dining table, moving house, etc, etc, etc) by 'paying' with mielie bread.

A few pertinent South African-ism's...just in case you were confused about anything...

Mielie = corn
braai = bbq

I warn you, this bread is Seriously More-ish!!  I always make sure that we have at least one can of creamed sweetcorn in our cupboard.  When we need this bread, we NEED this bread.

If you are on food.com, you can also find the recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-cheesy-mielie-bread-100512.  I have since made a few minor modifications.

Easy Cheesy Mielie Bread

480g self raising flour (or +/- 3tsp baking powder in 480g flour)

salt
50ml sugar
30ml cooking oil
2 eggs
200ml milk
1 (410g) can cream-style sweet corn
100g strong cheese, grated (we like red leicester and a fair bit more than 100g!)
Grated or chopped onion
Chopped parsley (I don't always add this, but either dry or fresh will do)

* Mix flour, salt & sugar
* Beat oil, eggs & milk
* Add to the flour mixture
* Add the sweet corn, half the cheese and half the onion and half the parsley, mix and place in well greased circular pot, or loaf tin, or giant muffin tins
* Sprinkle remaining cheese, onion and parsley over
* Bake at 180°C for 45-60mins - until a skewer looks dry
* Spread with butter and enjoy

We can highly recommend a slathering of apricot jam on the warm bread!

A Little Outing

A friend and I went off to the Spring Country Living Fair in London yesterday, with Chloe tagging along for a ride in our back pack.  I had been counting the Sleeps until our day out.  I obviously don't get out very much.  It was worth the anticipation!  I want More!

I took a few pics - there was So Very Much to See, and just no way to take photo's of everything that brought on the Wanties.

Beyond Fabrics: they had some fun geometric prints.  I had to peel myself away from their booth!  I have wayyyyy too much fabric already.  Having surfed their website, it seems that they design some of their own prints. 

Bill Brown bags: love the earthy stripes and teeny bags!! 

Bread and Jam: the retro prints were just gorgeous.

  

Hogben Pottery:  was sooooo tempting

  

So very Very tempting...all those chickens and birdies and dogs...

 

Indigo and Rose - such lovely countrified snuggly goodies

These blankets were so soft and I love that you can flip them over as your mood changes - stripes on one side birdies on the other...or...or....or!!

Luca Designs: love this tyre-horse-swing!

The New Eden: gotta confess that one of those bunnies came home with us!  Ava has decided that it is a boy bunny...the name, we are not quite clear on yet, but the not-so-word "buzzy" is in there somewhere.  Every time I ask what the bunnies name is, it changes a little.  Buzzy has taken up residence in the garden and is keeping watch.

I don't remember who this booth was, but the work in there was just amazing.  The 2nd hanging quilt from the right had a price tag of £725 on it.  It looked like silk with hand embroidery.  Just beautiful.

Miss Patisserie: these are not edible cupcakes!  They are fizzy bubble bath bombs.  Ava just had one in her bath tonight.  They smell delicious and we had a lot of fun catching the floating gold stars.

Peppe: Oooooh boy!  A Serious case of the wanties here!  I have been wanting a garden seat swing for years - ideally with an arbour over it...but I am not fussy, an A-frame will do just fine too!  I know exactly where it would park in our garden....sigh.....  This one is especially lovely - a 3 seater, so enough length to lie down if the opportunity arose.

But...I would take a 2 seater too.....

Chloe was as good as gold.  My friend generously helped carry her at bit - 10kg baby plus back pack weight is a bit sore on the back and shoulders after a while.

We were at the fair for about 4 hours which included a lunch break and a crawl break for Chloe.  {We just let her loose in a quiet corner!  You should have seen the exhibitors face - they had a bunch of pot plants all neatly lined up - guess who made a bee-line for them!!  Little rascal.  Thankfully no damage was done.}  It would have been nice to have had an extra hour or so.  My friend had to fetch her little girl from nursery at a set time, so there were some booths that we just whizzed past.  Either way, I don't think that we missed too much.

My brain was totally fried after the trip.  My eyeballs were overdosed on eye-candy.  My legs were aching.  My back was sore.  It was a lovely day.

Have you been to the CL fair?  Who was your favourite exhibitor?  What did you buy?  Share, share, share!!

.....Hmmm...I need to plan another outing like that...

Enjoy!