Celebrating Valentines Day

Hi all, sorry my blog has been lacking somewhat. I haven't been doing anything exciting or new and the things that I am doing are just a repeat of the mundane.

That being said, we did manage to get out and go somewhere this weekend as Hever Castle opened their gardens for the snowdrop walk. I have been feeling like a caged animal lately so, despite the freezing winds, Mr Poachie and I headed out for a change of scenery if you would like to see...

I had booked tickets online during the week and went for an early slot to hopefully avoid crowds, which thankfully worked. The first thing we did when we got there was to order some campachoochoo's (that's a cappuccino to anyone who doesn't follow Bob Mortimer on Insta) and we sat in the sunshine out of the wind and had a good old chin wag.

For a moment it did feel like we were on a wintry city break, perhaps Prague? I have spent most of my lunch breaks listening to the Conde Nast travel podcasts, which have been my escapism, so I spend a lot of time pretending I am in a foreign place. I have also been trying to forget that I was meant to be flying to Tulum today. Sob.

I was hoping to get some photo's of the snow drops but it was either too early for them or the snow had squashed them. Either way, I didn't come back with the money shot. 

We had a slow wonder around but the cold winds got the better of us so, after about an hour, we decided to head home. The gardens are definitely better in the summer when all of the statues are uncovered and the roses are in bloom. I have written a summer's post on it here

It was great to see it whilst it was so empty, yes I am that miserable old bag who hates crowds of people.

As some of you may know, I am far happier behind the camera but, when we go to places like this, I really like the photo's from the back,  especially if I'm wearing a cute bow or hair accessory. I spend ages trying to get my hair to behave, which it seldom does. I must ask Mr Poachie 100 times if my hair looks ok when he is taking pictures and he always says 'Yep, it looks fine' and then, when I see the photos afterwards, I realise it looks a mess in most of them.

I simply cannot style my hair. I have always disliked my barnet, its naturally got a bonkers frizzy wave so I have to style it and this means, with the added bleaching, my hair is dry. A few years ago I was going through a very stressful time and a lot of my hair fell out. I feel it's never been the same since so, in these photo's, I actually have clip-in extensions, to make it look a bit thicker.

I must have tried everything to get it to grow, using sulphate free shampoo's, castor oil, hair masks, scalp massages, supplements/vitamins. I try not to have it coloured too often and pre lockdown I would have it cut regularly but I swear nothing works so if you have any good recommendations please let me know?!

Anyway, as this was Valentines weekend we decided to make an effort and prepare a three course dinner. Our go to is usually a fishy starter followed by a beef welly I had seen a simple desert recipe from The Ivy that I wanted to try, which was frozen raspberries with a hot white chocolate sauce, so this is what we did.

Following on from my last post about dry January (you can read that here) I am still off the booze. I have mostly been drinking the Belvoir range but I knew I would want a glass or two of fizz so I found this alcohol free pink prosecco and thankfully it was really great. 

This was a tiny bit sweeter than I'd usually drink, as I prefer my wine dry, but this was still really tasty. I felt like I was having a treat but it meant I didn't get squiffy, forget the evening, wake up at 4am or feel terrible today! I truly feel like I have found the best of both worlds.

Like I mentioned before, I am not going to be tee total forever but whilst there is no real need to be drinking, I am going to abstain.

So we spent the afternoon with Mr Poachie prepping the beef welly and he also made the most delicious crab and crayfish tail starter.  

I felt like doing something crafty so I wrapped some twine around a cardboard heart, as one does.

I'm so glad we made the effort to do a nice dinner, If it had been normal times we wouldn't have gone out for dinner as I think for Valentines it can be a bit forced (and I prefer to stay in!) but I love to cook and this was so delicious. We were too full for pudding and, in truth,  the pud didn't turn out the way I wanted it to when we had it today.

I made a biscuit base, to make the desert a bit more exciting, and then added a handful of frozen raspberries over which I poured melted white chocolate; thinking that the chocolate would warm the raspberries and create magic.

Instead, the chocolate set on the raspberries, which didn't thaw, and it became a solid lump! So we blitzed it in the meecro-warvay (as Nigella would say), which did the job but it wasn't worth a photo!

You live and learn. Tasted nice though.

Today (actual Valentine's day) we exchanged gifts and had a lazy breakfast in bed of warm croissants, cappuccino's and fresh orange juice. 

I bought Mr Poachie a double clay pigeon trap, as he loves shooting clays, and I couldn't resist ordering him this cute biccie from Biscuiteers. I don't like biscuits with icing but I am a sucker for packaging and Mr Poachie and I have a long list of nauseating nicknames for each other and one of them is that we are peas. 

I got totally spoilt and received some lingerie, a bottle of Charlotte Tilbury 'Scent of a Dream' perfume, as I stupidly left mine at a hotel, back in a lifetime when you could stay in hotels. He also bought me some of my favourite chocolates from Hotel Chocolat and a lavender candle from Daylesford farm. 

He's such a sausage!

What a wonderful Valentines weekend! I hope you all had a super weekend too!