My Sunday Photo Red Squirrel

  

Big Prawns

Surf and turf for dinner with a bit of pink fizz you should of seen the size of the turf if you think these prawns are big 

Despicable Me 2

Horray Despicable Me 2 has made a long awaited return.  After the last adventure where we met the criminal mind of Gru as he hatches a plan to capture the moon then looses the moon and gains a family.  This time we revisit Gru and his girls and as Gru is now a family man with his three girls Edith, Margo, Agnes he has gone straight leaving the criminal life behind him and is planning a new retail range in Jams and Jellies, whilst dealing with the trials of being a parent even having to fend off the first boyfriend and annoying neighbors.

How does your garden grow June week 4

 Finally a bit of sunshine has popped its head out from behind the grey clouds and this has tempted the roses to start to bloom we have 2 roses in our garden a faithful rose tree with large white headed roses and a rambling climbing rose on our pergola that has smaller scented pink roses.

Brilliant Bournemouth

We have just come back from Bournemouth a week after i gave birth to baby Ella how well traveled is she already. A bucket and spade holiday was just what we all needed, as daddies holiday had been used for paternity so Sophie wouldn't of had a chance of a holiday this year.  The weather was a mix bag of sun, grey and showers and didn't put us off as the bright beach huts along the seafront were really cheerful.

My Sunday Photo Beach huts

  

Gardening in June

Finally our Elderflower tree in the garden has bloomed no thanks to the pigeons who have been nibbling at the flowers.  Elderflowers are really great for making cordial and sorbet with i have attached some links below for recipes.

Elderflower cordial
Elderflower Sorbet


Our garden is blooming with clematis's at the moment and we have 3 types this lovely purple one which is a new feature for the garden, a Monanta which is is the pale pink one and we have a very old clematis that covers pergola which is the white one.

Another new feature for this year are these Red hot pokers but we have got the purple variety instead of the orange.

 These young blue iris are two years old now and are start spread and have gone from 1 head to 4 this year lets hope we get 8 heads next year.

 Another established plant in the garden is the spreading geranium Rozanna which is now starting to self seed over the garden.

In a weeder (on purpose)  part of the garden buttercups are going mad raising up bright yellow heads searching out that missing sunshine 

Butterfly world gardens

Not only does Butterfly world have a great Tropical hot house full of butterflies but it has 20 acres of wild flower meadows and gardens that attracted lots of butterflies and the plants were covered in mystical white webs full of wriggling caterpillars, Sophie was a wonder at the writhing webs. 

Butterfly world the insect hut

 Our journey continues around Butterfly world and we head for the insect huts full of creepy crawlies,  Sophie was excited to see them and even more excited that she could handle them .....YUK but mummy and daddy kept a straight face and let her touch all the creepy crawlies.

Butterfly world The Hot house

We took a trip to Butterfly world at St Albans as a treat for Sophie as she loves butterflies and anything nature related, it was a grey day and mid week and the afternoon which was just brilliant as it was not crowed at all in fact we didn't really bump into anyone for most of the day, but there was 20 acres of meadows and grounds to walk about.

My Sunday Photo Pearl bath

  

Beer candied bacon

Fathers day is upon us and of course we will be spoiling our daddy with lots of treats and gifts, hugs and kisses to let him know how much we love him so.  We will also be in the kitchen whipping up a batch of beer candied bacon, they say the way to a mans heart is through his stomach and what man doesn't like bacon, Daddy just loves his rashers so we thought we would try this recipe out from tide and thyme.  If your interested in curing your own bacon have a look at this link on home curing 

With only 3 ingredients and very little effort your daddy could be supping down an ice cold beer and snacking on a tasty bacon snack.

All you need is 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of beer or stout , we used Mackeson stout as it has a nice deep rich flavour.  mix these up into a bowl to make a syrup ready to coat the bacon.

 We choose some good quality streaky bacon and laid this out over a wire rack that we had placed over a tray wrapped in foil as the tray can get a bit sticky and messy plus you can scoop up some of the spilled syrup and paste this on the bacon as it tends to thicken and is good for coating the bacon.

 Put the bacon in the oven coated in syrup and cook at 200c for 10 mins then flip coat and cook for 10 mins after the second 10 mins the bacon may need another coating and 5-10 mins in the oven.

 Once cooked allow to cool where the bacon will go hard and crispy, present to your daddy with a nice cold beverage and let him enjoy.

Getting ready for new siblins

As you know by now Baby Ella was born on the 5th June only a week ago but Sophie has been getting ready for the new baby since week 12 of the pregnancy, when we told her all about the baby in mummies tummy.  Sophie is 3 years old and i was so impressed with her as she totally got the concept of babies in tummies straight away and she was very caring around me making sure that she didn't do rough housing with me but instead saved  it all up for poor old daddy who became her wrestling partner.  Sophie has also made sure that we wont be getting any more siblings, due to daddy being head butted and kneed in the family jewels.

How does your garden grown June

 The peony has burst into flower and im so happy as i have waited 3 years for this sulky plant to make its entrance in our garden since i planted so many years ago.

Elective C section birth story

I had opted for a Elective C section as when i had Sophie she could not pass through my pelvis, as we had started out as a natural birth and after almost an eternity of trying i was whisked off to have an emergency c section.  

So our special day came that had booked in advance as i had gestation diabetes that had been pretty bad in the pregnancy so we were first up for the c section.  We were shown to our ward and bed and had to change into a gown and the midwife did their tests so i was ready for the operating theater.  My poor old feet were really swollen the last few days before going in.

My Sunday Photo Bell tent at sunset