apple cake

I don't know if it's the dark evenings, the cold weather or just that we have an abundance of apples (I mentioned them here) but I have a new desire to bake. I love cooking and always have but I've never been much of a cake maker. I was first spurred on by Anabelle's delicious looking French apple cake recipe, which I followed last weekend, unfortunately in our greediness I forgot to take photographs of my cake which was delicious but not quite as beautiful looking as Anabelle's. 


Then again this weekend I had the baking bug! I tried Alexis' recipe, as I was beating my batter I kept saying to D how I didn't think this was going to work, was my batter too stiff? Worry worry went my little head! But after the oven had cast it's magic it came out looking OK I think. Not quite like Alexis' but it's delicious and that's all that really matters.

So thank you Anabelle and Alexis for your yummy recipes!

sunday stroll

On Sunday morning we usually go to the car boot, but not this week. We fancied a change, our Sunday morning trip to the car boot was becoming a bit of a routine and I hate routine. Plus last week had been a bit of a disappointment as we came away empty handed - both of us! 

So instead we got up made bacon sandwiches using our own home-baked bread, then with full tummies we set off by foot for a little stroll around our neck of the wood. Well actually no woods at all, but plenty of trees, fields, hedgerows, railway line, a ford, and a river. We completed a big circuit chatting all the way, a lovely start to Sunday, a great way to spend time together, and discover a bit more of where we live.

It's funny when we lived in London we often went for lovely walks over the weekends and I guess we thought moving to the countryside we'd do more walking. Instead we normally find ourselves getting on with things; gardening, DIY - that sort of thing which of course we still found time for when we got back!