Sunday, December 19, 2010

A white Christmas is coming!

Snow, snow and more snow! Which means cancelled and delayed trains, icy footpaths and being snowed in at home for two days! Not such a bad thing seeing as they were work days ;) The weather man had been predicting snow for over a week with none in sight, so when they said we would get heavy snow overnight I of course didn't believe them. Oh how wrong I was, a good 10inches or so fell over the next day or two as it snowed constantly. Our grocery delivery truck couldn't get through and we couldn't go anywhere in the car as it was snowed in, so it was a trek to the supermarket on foot to stock up on some food. I was surprised to see people buying up like the world was ending! We were lucky to get one of the last loaves of bread and cartons of eggs, some milk and some frozen goodies as everyone had trolley loads of food and were buying up big!

A few days later the snow began to melt and the slush ran away and things got back to normal, until last night. Got home and we had a little dusting of snow, but woke up this morning thinking it felt very bright only to open the windows and see a good 4 or 5 inches of snow in the backyard. Our cheeky neighbourhood foxes were out and about looking for food and were up to their knees in the snow. We headed out for a walk today as cabin fever had set in and this is what we found!







If you look closely in this one you can see the fox on top of the neighbours back shed.

The snow from a couple of weeks ago.




Neighbours down the road made a slightly freaky igloo!

Preparing for Christmas....testing out Christmas cookie recipes. Unfortunately did this a little too early and they are now all gone, had to make a second batch!

The second batch of cookies on the tree...my first real Christmas tree! Some remnants of which are still in the back seat of the car. It may have had a slightly traumatic journey from the store ;)

Birthday Jaunt Around Soho...

For my birthday we did a little tour around Soho, stopping off at the Marks & Stencils gallery to check out the Banksy exhibition, then a small detour to Hummingbird Bakery to pick up some of my favourite Red Velvet cupcakes. A spot of Christmas shopping and a wander along Oxford Street later and we arrived at the Langham for high tea. Departed a while later feeling ill (but happy!) from all the food and sugar!




Sunday, November 14, 2010

Life Begins At....

James celebrated his 40th birthday a few weeks ago, with good friends, good wine and good cake!


The Jaguar car cake made for me by Boola's Bakery in Sutton, highly recommended!


James is his birthday present, a lovely new suit from Ben Sherman.







The aftermath...


Shame about the wine bottle in the photo!


The halloween pumpkin I carved for the weekend, not a bad effort for my first
time (even if I do say so myself).

On Safari

James has promised to take me to Longleat Safari Park ever since we arrived in the UK, and a few weeks back we made the trip. We stayed at a gorgeous little B&B that was a converted Victorian school house. It was in Frome, about 20 minutes south of Bath so we took the opportunity to head there for dinner and a look around before going to the safari park the next day.





The gorgeous grounds at Longleat. It is owned by eccentric Lord Bath and is a little like a Michael Jackson neverland in the UK!


Driving through the lion and tiger enclosures.

I'm sure this is a smirk on his face, as moments before he had stuck his head through the window and stolen a cup of food out of my lap!



Bath
Royal Crescent in Bath

Our cute little room at the B&B, with stairs up to the breakfast room through a secret door in the bookcase!

Amsterdam!