Stomping Ground

Back in the shire for the bank holiday, and ended up having a bit of an adventure on Monday. I thought I would go for a little walk and find the sea using only my own two feet, and slightly underestimated the distance (15 miles!). Legs are a little achey today but it was worth it. Here then is the story in photos - to the sea and back again through the wilds of the Dorset countryside.

To the sea!

The hobbit way...

A whole field of redheads :)

Hmmm, seems like 5 million people also decided to go see the sea...

...10 minutes further down the coast, my own private beach!

Time to head back... What goes down must come up...

Aerial Supermodels

Pretty pretty! Although there were of course some big and exciting animals at Longleat, some of the most spectacular were also some of the smallest. Here are the supermodels of the insect world :) Happy Saturday everyone!

And a pretty flower...

Hello There...

As promised, some actual animals from Longleat, no more boring furniture pictures. I really enjoyed the safari park, plenty of the animals were out and about close to the cars, apart from the big cats, playing sleeping lions of course! Feeding the deer was fun, they certainly know the score. Of course the monkeys were very entertaining, they seem to have a thing about Renault Scenics, they made a beeline for the one in from to us and did a good job of removing all the trim!

Happy Sunday :)

Always Look Up

Having spent the last few years driving straight past Longleat on my way between home and uni, it was a bit tragic that I had never actually paid a visit. That was finally rectified last week, when I had a brilliant day out with my Aunt (skiving off work, me?!). It was pretty busy as of course we are in the thick of the school holidays, but the park is well designed to space people out. The beautiful house was also a good place to escape from the hoards-only a few ambitious parents were dragging their offspring around. The house is stunning, and there are many rooms open to the public. The collections of furniture and art are particularly impressive, and of course the ceilings! I love the effort that went in to ceilings in stately homes, surely having a decadent ceiling is the epitome of opulence.

Can I have a library like this please?! There seemed to be a particular oriental influence to a lot of the furniture choices. There were many beautiful cabinets with ornate paintwork and inlays, and one of the bedrooms had what looked to be hand painted oriental floral wallpaper.

The ceilings!

Animals to follow :)

Shut Up and Ride

The power of a quick spin through the countryside never fails to impress me. I step out of the door in an advanced state of grumpiness, full of annoyance at all people. 15 minutes down the track in the evening light and I am smiling and saying 'hello' to everyone I pass, full of the joys of life. That fresh air is heady stuff indeed.

Julia's 15 Minute Meals

Actually it probably takes less than 10 mins, and that is a win in my very lazy book. This is some sort of egg-fried noodle concoction, and it tastes pretty damn fine, even if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:
Noodles - Any will do but I used dried Nikko egg ones from the oriental shop near me, they take 3.5 mins to cook
Veg of choice - today I had 1 carrot and half a courgette, cut into thin strips using a peeler
Egg
Soy sauce
Roasted sesame oil
Fresh ginger
Garlic (I have the lazy stuff in a jar)
Coriander to garnish (oooh fancy), I also added in some radishes because I had some to use up and why the hell not? :)

1. Bring some water to a boil for noodles
2. Meanwhile, prep veg, and pre-heat frying pan/wok with a bit of sesame oil
3. Add noodles to the water
4. Fry up the veg in the sesame oil for a couple of mins, then add a generous slosh of soy sauce
5. Into the veg grate a bit of fresh ginger and add a bit of garlic, however much you like, and stir, cook for another couple of mins
6. Drain noodles once they are cooked, add to veg
7. Stir together well, then crack in the egg
8. Allow the egg to cook for a few seconds then break it up and mix it in with the noodles and veg
9. Mix in fresh radishes and lots coriander
10. Done! Although I would highly recommend adding a drizzle of this stuff, it is immense:

Pay Out

I'm not going to claim any great success with this gardening thing, but some things have actually grown! I am very excited about even the smallest harvest, and everything definitely tastes better when it  is eaten only minutes (or seconds!) after being plucked from the plant. I will persevere :)