Chocolate Beetroot Cake

We have finally found a way to get Ben to eat beetroot.

Not entirely sure it is that healthy though !

But it is yummy !!!

Here is the recipe we use.

KERRANG !

Ben has just been to a concert at the UEA (University of East Anglia) - he went on his own as either his friends weren't yet 14 or they weren't into that type of music (don't ask me what type of music it is !!)

He really enjoyed himself - so I guess it wont be the last concert he goes to.

A Wintery Walk At Blickling Hall

Today was a beautiful crisp wintery day - so we drove to Blickling Hall (claimed birthplace of Anne Boleyn) and had a walk around the lake and finished off in the coffee shop for drinks and cake !

There are some amazingly large trees in the grounds.

This is Ben standing next to a tree !

It had been so cold that a large part of the lake surface was frozen - so Julian & Ben spent ages throwing stones over the top to see how far they would skim and how big a hole they could make - BOYS !

When we got back to the car, a robin came and sat on the wing mirror waiting to have it's photo taken.

Our Christmas Present

We have decided that we are going to keep some chickens in our garden for egg laying. So just after Christmas we went onto eBay and bought a chicken house & run.

Julian has spent a few hours today putting it all together in our dining room - all the time I kept asking if it would fit through the back door - THANK GOODNESS IT DID !!

We have also chosen which chickens we would like but they are out of stock at the moment - so figures crossed it wont be too long before they arrive.

Here is their new house :-

Happy New Year !

We had Julian's sister Nicola & her husband Peter round last night for a meal - it was lovely to see them. We don't see enough of them and they don't live very far away - but we all live very busy lives and time just flies by so quickly.

Ben's ipod nano recently broke - he took it on a Scout group hike (Don't ask me why !!), and someone dropped it in a puddle. I took it to a local shop to see if it could be repaired, but sadly no.

So on Monday this week we went onto Amazon and ordered a new ipod classic, with a staggering 120GB memory !!!!! Ben paid for it with his christmas money and his wages from his after school job.

Anyway it arrived yesterday while Ben was out, so I put it away because I knew if I gave it to him before Nicola & Peter arrived we wouldn't see him all evening.

So this morning I went through to his bedroom to tell him it had arrived -

but I had to fight my way through this :-

Then I had to wake him !! Isn't he cute ?

I think he was very pleased with it !