A sign of Spring

I have said before that I love spring, it has to be my favourite season or maybe the sunny Summers, oh but Autumn is beautiful. No I think spring, it is the season of new beginnings, the days get longer, it is no longer dark when I get up for work. The weather gets warmer (sometimes) and gardens look green and lush. On Sunday Joe and I went to Kew Gardens to see the final day of the Henry Moore exhibition. I have wanted to go to Kew for a while but did not think Joe would want to (for the record he did say he would have been happy to go with me any time) but when he heard about the exhibition he was keen. As we were in London anyway we went. I loved it. The gardens were so beautiful with all the spring flowers out, having the sculptures dotted around made it even more interesting and the old green houses are just so cool. It was a very relaxing afternoon wondering around the gardens and searching the palm house for plants from Cameroon (of which I did find one!)

So here are a few pictures to enjoy. Followed by the photos as promised of our garden. Not quite as impressive as Kew but nice. Including the pond complete with tadpoles!

Sweet like Chocolate

For Christmas I bought my Mum and Chocolate making experience for 2 and being the cheeky daughter I am invited myself along to make up the 2! We spent the day shopping in Oxford Street before arriving at My Chocolate to start the experience. We were taken in to great kitchen surrounded with chocolate and offered tea or coffee where our Chocolatier introduced some chocolate tasters for us to sample and explained to us the history of chocolate. Then he set about showing us hot to make vanilla cream truffles, dark chocolate caramel fudge, nut brittle and Gianduja.

After this the fun began and we moved in to the cut and dipping room. Here we had a slab of fudge, a slap of Gianduja, some nut brittle, some truffles and some bowls of melted chocolate and various bits to decorate with. And we set about cutting, dipping and decorating our chocolate. We both had great fun getting covered in chocolate and trying really hard not to lick our fingers.

I am not very artistic so my chocolates ended up looking like a mess of chocolate but some people around the table were very talented making very professional looking chocolates. We then got to bag and box up our chocolates and tie ribbons around them and bring them home.

I was very pleased to be able to bring some chocolate to reward my Dad who had spend the whole day obliterating the orange paint in the dining room - thank you so much Dad.

So now I have a rather delicious set of chocolates in the fridge even if they do look rather messy they taste gooooooood!

Terracotta Army

On Monday I had a great day out with Mum and Dad, we went to London to see the Terracotta army. Joe and I would love to go to China to see the army in all its vastness but for now this is all we can do. The British Museum had about 12 whole figures, some horses and a few extra bits. Every face different it must be amazing to see the whole army. The display showed you how the First Emperor of China took over the nation and then prepared for his death by building his temple for his tomb and organising his protection. Not only did the army contain warriors but also civil servants to keep the paper work in the after life and some entertainment was also organised in heavy weight men and aerobatic artists. The man thought of everything no surprise he became the first emperor.

the queues were huge and it took ages to get round, and that was having booked the tickets in the Summer. It was well worth it though and I would love to have the opportunity to travel to China and see it for real.

Tell me a story

I have lived in Oxford for 10 years now and it that 10 years I never visited the Oxford Story. The Oxford story is a ride along thing telling the history of Oxford. How it grew as a University city and telling stories of all the famous alumni. From the literature from Oxford - Lewis Carroll, C S Lewis and T R R Tolkien to name a few. To the 25 Prime ministers and the first use of Penicillin.

The attraction has had to close after being open for 20 years as it needs so much renovation. I could choose to have commentary from Timmy Mallet or Magnus Magnerson as we rode through the back streets of historic Oxford. It was fun and I can see that every school child in Oxfordshire must have gone on a school trip there at some point. It is quite sad it is closing really, not that I ever went until the last day but at least I knew it was there!

Not so secret nuclear bunker

The other week while Joe and I were in Suffolk we decided to have a day out. We went to the secret nuclear bunker. The bunker is in Essex quite close to the M25.

It is a three story structure all under a big hill, the entrance is disguised as an old farm house. Designed for up to 600 military and civilian personnel, possibly even the Prime Minister, their collective task being to organise the survival of the population in the awful aftermath of a nuclear war.

The bunker was only fully decommissioned in 1994 and supposedly can be reactivated if required. There was loads to see and unfortunately we had to pay to take photos inside. I particularly liked the sick bay with the cardboard fold-away coffins and the toilet roll asking you to 'use both sides'