Rudders at Home

Well, I’m finally getting around to enlightening everyone on our trip to the Southeast coast of England. We went in April, for our anniversary.

Now, we didn’t go to Dover, but went to a place just outside of the town, in the country. We’ve been to Dover before, and it’s not a spectacular town. It’s a port, and so it isn’t the best, certainly not much to write home about. But, you can’t beat the idea of seeing the White Cliffs and so we stayed a lovely hotel outside of town in the countryside. The hotel was Wallet’s Court, a hotel and spa. We didn’t do much except get away from home on the Saturday. I think we spent the majority of the day eating. We had a nice cream tea when we arrived, and then because we weren’t going into town, we had a wonderful dinner there. Seriously, the dinner was gorgeous, and we were able to take our time with it. Normally when we go out to eat, we always are rushed through the meal, only to have to wait ages for the check to come. It was actually refreshing to be able to take our time, especially when the whole point of the evening was to spend some actual real time with one another. It was lovely.

The next day, we drove down the road and had a lovely view of Dover Castle. We didn’t visit the castle on this trip. However, we did walk by the cliffs, and I was able to get some pictures, which I’ve been wanting to do for ages. This walk, I have to say was breathtaking, and a big highlight. We live so close to Dover, and I’ve seen the cliffs from the ferry, but to see them so close was amazing. The walk takes you right along the top of them, all the way to a lighthouse.

The weather, as usual in England, was a bit unpredictable. When we started the weekend out, it was sunny and just warm enough to get away with a heavy sweater. Then, it cooled down quite a bit while we were away. It started to snow (of all things!) while we were walking, so we turned back after we were about halfway. Paul had left his coat in the car, thinking his sweatshirt would keep him warm enough. Unfortunately, he was wrong, and we had to turn around so we could go get him warm again.

It didn’t help that we had just cut his hair, so he had nothing on his head to keep him warm either!

And that just about sums up our trip to Dover. It made for a very nice weekend trip away, and it was a very happy anniversary for us.

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Paul and I have been out and about this lovely Sunday afternoon. The weather here has broken a bit – meaning we’ve seen some sun today. So, unable to bear being cooped up in the flat when the promise of sunshine is around, I made Paul take me for a drive today. We ended up at the National Trust property, Knole. In addition to a nice property, there is a deer park at Knole, and it seems that it would be a nice place to have a picnic. We had a nice wander around the park, and that’s where I took a picture of this pretty animal.

Initially, Paul thought these were roe deer, but the National Trust says that there are fallow and sika deer found in the deer park. Either way, it was pretty nice to see them there, and further pictures from the day can be found here in the gallery.

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I’ve been hungry for home recently. With the small spurt of warm weather here, I’m really in the mood for a picnic. I’ve also been yearning for a cookout. Really yearning. A warm summer afternoon up on top of the hill, with a fire, hot dogs and marshmallows. I can almost close my eyes and imagine opening a cooler and setting things out on the picnic table – isn’t that crazy? Give me a bar of Hershey’s, some graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows and we’re all set for some s’mores.

I was browsing through some food blogs the other day and when I stumbled across this S’more pie recipe at Smitten Kitchen, I knew I had to make it. If nothing else I thought it might curb my hunger for the sweet treat.

It turned out pretty well, and it was definitely well received by Paul. I used a combination of digestive biscuits and ginger snaps for the graham cracker crust, and in place of the corn syrup, I used golden syrup, which worked as well. Next time I might split my chocolate and do half milk and half dark. I used all dark this time, and it was just a bit too strong and overpowered the other parts.

If I get a hankerin’ for s’mores again, this will definitely be a good option. Now, I think next weekend I might just fry some chicken and make potato salad.

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This is a picture of the ruins of St. Andrew’s cathedral. I’ve been here several times over the last five years, and it happens to be one of my favorite spots in the UK.

Why is it one of my favorite spots, you ask? Well, it just so happens that not only is it a beautiful ruin in a lovely town, but also one of the first places in Scotland I visited way back in December 2002. Oh, and did I mention this is where Paul proposed and I accepted?

St. Andrews is located on Scotland’s east coast in the Kingdom of Fife. I asked Paul innocently enough one time why he wasn’t from the Kingdom of Tay then, and he told me to stop picking and making fun of him. I just don’t understand why he always thinks I’m making fun of him.

In all seriousness, though, St. Andrews is a wonderful place to see if you’re making a trip to Scotland. It’s a lovely town, with a beautiful ruin right next to the sea. I just hope your weather is as good as ours was when I took this photo.

I should also point out that he didn’t propose to me in a cemetery. The actual deed was done to the right of this photo, nearer the cloister of the ruins.

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They’ve found a bomb in East London. No, not the kind you’re thinking of. They’ve found an unexploded World War II bomb in a place called Bromley-by-Bow. (No, this is nowhere near where I live, folks – closer to where I work!) This has, of course, disrupted travel in the city. And, in true London style, the news isn’t about the fact that a 60+ year old bomb has been found, but about the fact that travel has been disrupted.

Tonight, they’re trying to difuse the thing – which seems to be a good thing because reports say that it’s been ticking.  “They” are the Royal Engineers. Apparently, they seem to have a bit of experience with this sort of thing. There seem to be any number of left over unexploded bombs in London. It’s good to keep in mind that some of those on that list have been taken care of since it was produced, so it isn’t definitive. So, why are these bombs all over London? Well, they are all a consequence of The Blitz.

When you start to think about this, you begin to realize that there’s a bit more to the reason why people are constantly bringing up “The War.” Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite so out of touch to me now.

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