Loads of Friends

If I could sum up the past couple of weeks, it would be friends, friends and more friends... and it's great!

Two weeks ago Bron, Kari and Inna (friends from Munich) came to stay with me for a couple of nights. Though I had to work, we still got to see each other and catch up in the evenings.

Last weekend, we drove over to Buckinghamshire to attend the Colborne-Baber children's, Christening. Steve and Caroline are friends of Jeff's from university. Their children, Oliver and Amy, are 2 and 10 weeks, respectively. Additionally Rob Gooch (another friend from university) and his daughter, Lucy, were also at the Christening. Steve and Caroline have invited us to stay with them whenever we want, so we may just take them up on the offer in the autumn!

Sunday evening, James Hyslop, a Munich friend who now lives in Atlanta, emailed to see if he could stay with us on Thursday evening... of course! So I picked him up at the train station Thursday afternoon, and after Jeff got home, we went to the Bumble Bee pub for supper. James caught the train the next morning to head down to Cardiff, but it was nice to see him, even if it was for a short time.

Yesterday, Ally, Paul and 6-month old Charis stopped by on their way up to Manchester. We haven't seen them since late February when Charis was only a week old. She is such a sweetie-pie. Since they live down in Bristol and we'll be moving up to Shrewsbury in a couple of weeks, we don't know the next time we'll see them, but we'll have to make the effort to do so.
On Wednesday, Jeff and I are flying up to Belfast to spend 5 days in Garvagh. Jeff's cousin, Mark, is getting married on Thursday. We plan to see more friends, including our "Belfast friends" when we're there, since we didn't have a chance to see them in October. More friends!

Blackberry Heaven

Just before Jeff and I walked out the door to take a walk, I asked Jeff whether I should bring a container with us "just in case"... meaning in case we came across any blackberries. We drove to a car park in Quedgeley just along the canal, pulled in and saw a bush of blackberries right in front of the car. So we picked some and were quite excited by our findings. We strolled along the canal path being ever vigilant for any deep purple berries, but most were still green and young... I'll have to come back in a few days.

But then we turned off the path into a field and just as we were about to turn right to walk along the field, I took a look to the left and... drum roll... saw a hedge FILLED with HUGE beautifully dark-purple blackberries... jackpot! We were giggling with complete delight at finding such a berry-loaded spot. We filled the container to almost overflowing then filled our bellies. It was worth every prick of the thorns and each scratch of the thistles. With berry-stained fingers and a bowl full of free fruit, we walked back to the car. Now... should I make a blackberry pie or blackberry cobbler... what a tough decision!

Lessons learnt:
#1: Whenever taking a leisurely stroll in the countryside, take along a BUCKET, not a small container.
#2: Carry along a ladder or step stool to reach the fruit that's out of reach from ground level.
#3: Don't tell ANYONE where you find your treasures... okay, that's being slightly selfish... perhaps.

Weekend with Bron

Bron came to visit over the weekend! She arrived Thursday late afternoon on a bus from London. We just hung out and caught up that evening... since we haven't seen each other since October, there was plenty to talk about... and we practically didn't stop talking the whole weekend!

On Friday, after a lazy morning, we drove up to Hereford, about 33 miles northwest of Gloucester. Hereford is a cathedral city that lies on the banks of the Wye River in the county of Herefordshire. We started out our visit at The Antique Tea Room for lunch... very us!
Then we walked down to the cathedral that dates from the 1079AD.
Then we strolled along the banks of the Wye River overlooking the cityscape.
We crossed back over the Wye River on the pedestrian-only Victoria Bridge, built in 1989.We only spent a few hours in all in Hereford, since I wanted to get home before Jeff arrived home, but it was still a fun day out.

On Saturday, the three of us drove up to our favourite village in the Cotswolds, Stow-on-the-Wold. The day was filled with browsing in boutiques... luckily we didn't do too much damage on our wallets. We also ate lunch at The Old Bakery Tea Room ran by a Christian couple.
We then spent an hour in Bourton-on-the-Water.

On Sunday we went to the Gloucester Food Show... not to eat or buy food... but to feast my eyes on the gorgeous James Martin. He is a (gorgeous) professional chef and host of Saturday Morning Kitchen, which airs live for an hour and a half on Saturday mornings. (Yes, Jeff is very aware of my crush.) Get this! Just as we walked in and turned into a row of stalls, James and his entourage were headed our direction. I couldn't believe it. Our eyes met.... twice!... and my knees melted! I seriously became dizzy and needed to brace myself against Bronnie... she says I was being dramatic... whatever. We had tickets to see gorgeous James in the kitchen theatre where he cooked for about 45 minutes. He is so much more relaxed and funny in person than on Saturday Morning Kitchen.
These are the different foods he cooked: fish goujons, fish rarebit, a soft-boiled egg on something (I forget... guess I wasn't concentrating too hard on the food this time), medium-cooked beef tenderloin and a quick summer pudding topped with a sugar nest.

Giving James a quick peck... hey, at least I can pretend!

Le Creuset... a must have in any kitchen... yet to buy mine, but I will... as soon as I finally decide which colour to buy!

Sadly, Bronnie's visit quickly came to an end. We took her to the bus station to catch the 13:00 bus back to London. However, I'll probably get to see her again in a few weeks... along with two other Munich friends, Kari and Inna.

The First Day of Summer

The calendar says it's officially the first day of summer, but the thermometer tells a different story. When I think of summer, I think of sun and heat. Though the sun has peaked through the clouds every now and then the past few days, the heat just isn't there. When I came out of work going on 5pm, it was 21°C or 69.8°F, which is not exactly summer weather. It became considerably cooler, though, within a couple of hours with the increase of clouds.

But I have to say this is one of my favourite days of the year... not necessarily because I have to remember my brother's birthday on this day every year, but because it is the day with the most sunlight. At 9:15pm I took these pictures:

(No, I'm not showing you the roofs of houses... look closely.)

It amazed me that there was a rainbow so late in the day. It was a full rainbow, too! However, by the time I got my camera out and ran upstairs to get a better shot out the top window, it had already begun to fade... oh, well... in a land of cool temperatures and plenty of rain, I'm sure there'll be many more rainbows this summer.

Chocolate Diet Coke Cake

"Seriously? Diet Coke in a cake?" is what I thought when I saw the recipe on the Weight Watcher website, "I've got to try this." So I did yesterday, and because it is so chocolatey and yummy, I thought I'd share the recipe with you. (Sorry, it's in metric measures since it's from the UK website.)

Ingredients

	250 g Flour, Wheat, White, Self Raising
	45 g Cocoa Powder
	1 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
	150 g Sugar, Light Brown
	150 g Butter
	200 ml Coca Cola Company Diet Coke
	150 ml Buttermilk (I used Light Fromage Frais, since Sainsbury's was out)
	2 medium Egg, Whole
	1 teaspoons (level) Vanilla Extract Frosting
	100 g Chocolate, Plain, (70% cocoa), broken into pieces (a great excuse to buy a tablet of Lindt!)
	45 ml Coca Cola Company Diet Coke
	45 ml Buttermilk (I used Greek Yogurt with Honey that I had in the fridge, again since I didn't have buttermilk)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F. Grease a 20.5cm loose-bottomed, spring release cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
  
  
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate into a bowl. Stir in the sugar.
  
  
• Put the butter in a saucepan and melt over gentle heat. Add the Diet Coke to the butter and stir to mix, making sure mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat.
  
  
• Beat together the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract.
  
  
• Quickly whisk the cola mixture into the dry ingredients, then whisk in the buttermilk mixture. Mix gently but thoroughly.
  
  
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  
  
• Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
  
  
• To make frosting, place the chocolate and Diet Coke in a saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the chocolate has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. Place the cake on a plate and spoon over the chocolate mixture. Allow to set.

I added strawberries and blackberries to the cake since I had them in the fridge.

A rose on our rosebush just after the rain (I made the cake while a storm came through.)

Wells

To check off another place from our "Must See Before We Move to Telford" list, we drove down to Wells which is south of Bristol in Somerset (link). But this was only after me having taken the Life in the UK test required for my "indefinite leave to remain" Visa... I still wonder how one leaves to remain... anyway... I passed! So at the end of June I can apply for the Visa, which will hopefully be the last one I'll ever have to apply for.

So, back to Wells. We first got lunch at a pub. Jeff had the prettiest-plated full English breakfast we'd ever seen... perhaps we were just really hungry!
The streets and cathedral in Wells, even the pub left of where Jeff is standing, were the backdrop to the movie Hot Fuzz. Jason would love to go there (perhaps one day, Brae)!
Walking up the street to the Cathedral, there was a market, which of course we had to browse... but not for long, though.

The west front of the Cathedral faces an open green surrounded by houses and buildings. "Built between 1175 and 1490, Wells Cathedral has been described as the most poetic of the English Cathedrals."
I particularly like this picture due to the various houses around the green, the arched gate with room on top (right of the picture), the lighting, but most of all because of the joy we had watching the father play football with his children.
The facade of the Cathedral was very intricate "with niches for more than 500 medieval figure sculptures of which 300 survive.""A unique feature in the crossing are the double pointed inverted arches, known as owl-eyed strainer arches. This unorthodox solution was found by the cathedral mason, William Joy in 1338 to stop the central tower from collapsing when another stage and spire were added to the tower which had been begun in the 13th century.""Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England.""The Wells clock, an astronomical clock, is located in the north transept. The surviving mechanism, dated to between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century, and was eventually moved to the Science Museum in London, where it continues to operate. It is the second-oldest surviving clock in England." (I've seen the oldest clock in Strasbourg, France!)
We weren't able to stay in the Cathedral or in the town too long because our parking ticket was only valid for 3 hours, but on the way back to the car I spotted quaint, but pretty "almshouses" still in use by needy families today.

Wye Valley Walk

Yesterday was a very nice day - a nice walk with nice scenery with nice people. Our friend Emma, who lives in Cardiff, invited us to join her and some international students from Spain, France and Sweden. We met at Tintern Abbey located just over the Welsh border; in fact, we crossed in and out of England and Wales during the 7.5-mile walk!

Tintern Abbey from above.
A very unusual flower.

We ate lunch in this field on a hill overlooking the Wye Valley.

Emma (in the middle) and her friends walking along the Wye River.
A field of dandelions with remains of a bridge over the Wye River.

Once back at Tintern Abbey a few of us decided to walk through the ruins of the abbey. As it says on the website, "The Cistercian abbey of Tintern is one of the greatest monastic ruins of Wales. It was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales, and was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, lord of Chepstow."


Later in the afternoon, after an ice cream and a cold drink, most of us went to a very nice pub restaurant near the abbey, then called it a day... a very nice one, indeed!