Beautiful bouquets

There is nothing better than a fresh bouquet to brighten up a room and lift your mood. I often can't resist taking a photo of the beautiful bunches of flowers I occasionally treat myself to, it doesn't capture their beauty entirely but here are a few of my favourites:

Using up the courgette glut

The unusually warm, long summer has paved the way for glut of courgettes. This year I've stuck to growing my yellow courgette plants in containers, but even so, up until recently they were producing more courgettes than I could keep up with. At first I was roasting courgette slices to add to dinners and vegetable skewers when we had barbecues, but after looking on line for some inspiration a few recipes caught my eye.

The first one I tried was courgette, potato and cheddar soup. This recipe was so simple and quick to make. I peeled one large potatoe and chopped it into cubes and added it to a pan with enough water to cover the potatoes. I crumbled in a stock cube and left it to simmer for five minutes before adding about 4 medium courgettes, again chopped into cubes. I let it simmer for a further 5 minutes before added a bunch of finely chopped spring onions and letting it simmer for a final 5 minutes.

Once cooked through, I removed the soup from the heat and added a small handful of grated cheddar cheese and mixed it, before blending it into a smooth soup. 

I added a sprinkle of grated cheese and a couple of spring onions on top to serve. It tasted so good! I thought the combination could be a little bland but the flavours all worked together to make a nutritious and filling soup. I've made this a few times since as an easy way to use up a growing stock of courgettes and I particularly like using yellow courgettes as ithe bright colours give it a nice summer feel. 

The next recipe I was keen to try was for courgette cake. For this I found an American recipe online and converted all of the measurements to make a loaf cake. I was surprised by the flavour of courgette cake, having never tried it before, it was very light and almost floral. The cake was a hit and I've made it a couple of times since.

Finally I wanted to try making courgette fritters, as I'd bought them ready made a couple of years ago from a supermarket and really enjoyed them. They are so simple to make! You just need a bowl of milk and a bowl of plain flour to start. Cut the courgettes into batons, dip them in milk and coat them in the flour before frying them. 

These were a hit too, simple and quick to make and a great accompaniment to summer dishes. The courgette plants have slowed down a lot now so I don't think there will be too many more to pick before the end of the season, but hopefully there'll be enough for another cake or batch of soup!

Mayfield Lavender Fields

Last week I went to Mayfield Lavender fields, which is just outside of London. I had read about the fields last year, but they are only open for a short period between June and September before the flowers are harvested and I couldn't get there in time.

I read online that due to the prolonged heatwave the harvesting was likely to take place sooner this year as the flowers were starting to fade earlier than usual, so I decided to go as soon as I could. 

As soon as you arrive type are engulfed in the most relaxing lavender fragrance and you look out over a see of purple. As I walked around I noticed how relaxed and calm I felt and how tranquil the setting was. There were hundreds of bees flying around but they were focused on collecting pollen and didn't seem to bother anyone. 

After walking around, taking in the beautiful scenery and of course taking plenty of photos, we stopped in the cafe for a snack and I called in to the gift shop for some lavender bags to put in my wardrobe to hopefully deter moths as well as a couple of tasty treats. 

It was a lovely morning and I could have stayed longer, especially on such a lovely summer's day and I would definitely recommend as visit. 

Snow storm

It has been snowing for five days and the last two days the snow has been so deep we have been stuck indoors. It looked pretty and festive at first, but now we are running low on food so I can't wait to get to the supermarket and stock up! 

I've never seen such extreme snow drifts before, some of them are about four feet high. Parts of the garden have patchy snow and then the patio looks as though a truck has dumped a delivery of snow there, it's a small mountain! We braved the cold earlier for a walk but we couldn't go far before the cold was biting at our toes.

We've also been feeding the few birds that have ventured out. Yesterday the resident robin was taking shelter in the honeysuckle plant, occasionally darting out to get the seeds and nuts we'd put out and today the blackbird has been for his lunch too. 

Bird prints in the snow:

Lush Christmas Sweater bath bomb

I dipped into my Lush sale stash a few days ago and tried out the Christmas Sweater bath bomb. It had a festive spicy clove and citrus scent, which reminded me of mulled wine and left orange and red swirls in the water. The scent did not fade whilst I was in the bath but it did leave some red marks which I rinsed off and would recommend rinsing the bath after use to avoid the colours staining.

I'm looking forward to trying the other bath bombs over the next few weeks.

Lush Sale 2017

This year my mum and I decided to go to a nearby city for some retail therapy on Boxing Day. Overall the sales were quite disappointing; most years we spend Christmas money and vouchers we received as gifts, but this year I only came away with a few things from Lush.

I spotted a queue outside lush at 9.55 and naively hoped the store would be opening at 10, but unfortunately it wasn't open until 10.30 so I waited in the cold for half an hour, trying to decide what I wanted to look for. I mostly buy bath products from lush but I still have enough bubble bars for now, so I decided to look for a few bath bombs and bath melts. 

When the store eventually opened the whole queue, which was by now snaked around the block, was let into the store and although I had reached the bath section, so many people were in the tiny store that it was impossible to move. I had picked up a couple of bath bombs and found the Christmas tree bath melts I wanted to buy and decided to just pay and leave the overcrowded store as the atmosphere was quite unpleasant.

In the end I only spent around £11, but I was pleased as although the Christmas items were all half price, I still think they are a luxury which will be used up in just one bath so I didn't want to get caught up in the hype and spend a lot, I prefer to use them as a treat.

I purchased a Christmas sweater bath bomb, a thundersnow bath bomb and three tree-D bath melts. For Christmas I also received another thundersnow bath bomb, a shoot for the stars bath bomb and a bath melt, so I am looking forward to trying them out.

December London weekend and Brussels Christmas Market trip

I don't know where December has gone, it has passed by so quickly much like the rest of the year. That said, we did have a couple of festive days out and a quick trip to Brussels for the Christmas Markets. 

On the first weekend in December my mum and I went to a local castle that was holding a Christmas fair. We went last year too and the place is decked out with greenery and lights so it looks very pretty. We did a little Christmas shopping but our favourite part is stopping for a mulled wine and mince pies in the cafe - they have the best mince pies! 

The following day my mum and I met my dad in London. Whilst he was working my mum and I did a little Christmas shopping on Kensington high street and we discovered Whole Foods! Whilst we were in there my mum entered a competition at a soup tasting and a few days later received a case of fresh soups! That evening we met my dad and went to pizza express for dinner. I indulged in my favourite dessert, their snowball dough balls. 

The following day I met my boyfriend bright and early at St Pancras for our trip to the Brussels Christmas Markets. We grabbed a coffee and croissant before boarding our train and a couple of hours later we arrived. 

As we arrived at lunch time and it was freezing cold, our first stop was a Belgian frites shop for authentic and tasty frites! Once we were full and warm we were on our way and first stop was a beautiful arcade mainly full of chocolate shops. We spent some time browsing the lovely displays and picking some nice chocolates to take home. 

One of the chocolate shops had a moving 'ski lift' display which was fun.

Next we went to the main square which had beautiful architecture and a lovely Christmas tree which we stopped to take a few pictures by, before picking up a hot chocolate from another chocolate shop to keep us warm. 

After a little more walking we reached the Christmas markets. We browsed the stalls which were mostly clothing or food related and after a while we stopped for gluhwein. We found a stall selling intricate laser cut cards and picked up our Christmas cards. 

The afternoon flew by so after a little more browsing we heading back to catch our train, stopping en route for waffles (we ate a lot that day!).

On our way back we had standard premier tickets as they were only £10 more than standard class, so we had a light dinner on the train and snoozed for much of the journey back.

We arrived back in to St Pancras station around 8pm and had both enjoyed our day in Brussels.

I've heard the Christmas markets in Germany are very good so I would like to visit those too.