Sunday 6 June 2010

Pasties and Holidays

Another month has flown by! Em made Ham and Cheese pasties, delicious! But the dairy free homemade pastry was a disaster so she had to make them with bought pastry that she couldn't eat. Em also made a salad which had to be high in protein and vitamins; she used lettuce, anchovies, sundried tomatoes, smoked salmon, cashew nuts, raisins and olives with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had it with new potaoes for our evening meal and it was delicious (just a bit on the salty side). With the Rangers/Girl Guides we went to visit our local RSPB reserve and spent the evening pond dipping and looking at moths. With the pond dipping each team of four had to see how many species they could find. In our tray there are 16 species! This week was half term which we spent in the Cotwolds. We stayed in a National Trust property on the edge of the Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate. It was a very peaceful place to stay, we had a comfortable two bedroom lodge cottage with beautiful views across open countryside in front of the property. Blue Tits were nesting in the cottage wall, chaffinches, greenfinches and blackbirds nesting in the hedges and deer walking in the fields down to the woods. We visited The Cotswold Wildlife Park which was brilliant, Cheltenham, Upton House and Gardens (N.T.), Burford, Bourton on the Water, Stow in the Wold, Cirencester and Bibury. Bibury is very picturesque, like Stow and Bourton, with a stream full of trout and a row of beautiful stone cottages and busy with tourists during the day but peaceful and lovely in the evening which was when we visited. The lanes back to the cottage were festooned with blossom and the occasional baby rabbit dashed away into the long grass. We also saw a pair of Partridge (Mr & Mrs) crossing the lane. Back to school on Monday! I hope you have a good week. Jane x