Spontaneously Unspontaneous.

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When I was contacted by lastminute.com to take part in their 'Spontaneity Champion' Campaign, I must admit that while I was quite excited, I was also left feeling pretty stumped.

Firstly, I never really get fun emails like that so that was nice, and secondly I'm really not all that spontaneous - I like nights in watching bad films with massive mugs of tea and most aspects of routine are pretty satisfying to me. Spontaneity to me is all about running off and not really caring much, but I think I always care - then again, the way I've settled down to my cosy boring life is probably one of the more spontaneous things I've done...

Once Moon got his first 'proper' job after we finished Uni, he had to move out - it was in Andover and as close as that is for nipping back to Dorking for a weekend, to commute over an hour every day is a bit much. So he basically plucked Newbury out of thin air as somewhere that wasn't too small, was cheap for rent (not the case anymore) and was close to bigger towns for jobs for me and places to go.
Aside from a few internships, I still hadn't had a job out of university yet but he asked me to come with him and with the savings I had left and my mum's blessing, that's exactly what I did. I guess part of it was because I couldn't really be doing with the long-distance thing again and the other part of it was a real need for independence again. It was a little scary, once we moved in I spent a lot of time on my own watching 'Real Housewives of Orange County' but I soon landed a job at the local cinema a few weeks later and have been able to look after myself ever since. It's not quite running off to Paris to be a painter but all of that happened in the space of just a month which seems crazy to me now!

Post-uni days you're probably not going to find me out on the tiles and I don't really have the money (the balls) to just up and leave my stable job for travelling around the world - even though I still hope to dip into that at some point - I'm currently thinking about mortgages so I don't know what that says...

But I guess spontaneity comes in lots of different forms and taking the plunge to move out of my mum's house and make my own home is one of biggest decisions I've made and 18 months later, I'm definitely glad I did.

Winter Warmer: Apple & Blackberry Crumble.

After our brunch at La Campagna at the Drove Orchards in Norfolk, we ended up having a quick nose around the wonderful farm shop there. Eating local seems to be my new thing in more recent months and I love a good farm shop. Being on an orchard meant that the shop was full to the brim with apples. With all different sizes and varieties to choose from, we went for the 'seconds' barrow and were able to fill up a whole carrier bag for just £1, I only filled half a bag but was offered to add more once I'd paid (such lovely Norfolkian hospitality).





Thanks to a few over-enthusiastic blackberry picking trips, the Drove Orchards' farm shop and that silly storm, last week was the perfect time to get to work on perfecting an apple and blackberry crumble.

Usually, I'll put my hands up and readily admit to just picking up a packet of crumble mix, but I was feeling a little more ambitious and figured it couldn't be that hard to make it from scratch, so that's exactly what I did.

Good ol' Pinterest is to thank for the crumble recipe but the guess-work of the filling was all my own. I also added a few rolled oats to the top just to add a little something more to it.



Ingredients
Crumble Topping

• 3 oz brown caster sugar
• 3 oz plain flour
• 3 oz butter
• A handful of rolled oats

Filling

• 3 medium-sized apples
• A couple of handfuls of frozen blackberries
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Add the flour, sugar and butter to a mixing bowl and cream/blend together until they have a crumbley consistency
2. Add all your fruit to your dish, squeeze over lemon juice and sprinkle your sugar
3. Put your fruit in the oven on a medium heat for around 20 minutes - at the halfway point give it a stir
4. Once your fruit is cooked and your apples have soaked up some blackberry juice, cover your fruit in the crumble mixture - this is where I sprinkled on the rolled oats
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden

Doll's always so appreciative of my baking.




I was quite surprised by how easy this was to make, and I'm so pleased that I'll be able to put all that extra fruit to use. This will definitely be a staple as it gets colder and more drizzly.
I think if I were to make it again, I'd definitely add a bit more fruit as this crumble was a little flat, it did make four comfortable portions for Moon and I though so I'm a little reluctant to change at the same time.

Do you have any go-to winter warmers now that the nights are drawing in?

Almost-Bonfire Night...

I love fireworks, and Guy Fawkes' Night is one of my favourite nights of the year. Just as we did last year, we had a few people over at the weekend to watch Newbury Racecourse's firework display. Unfortunately, due to the new houses now behind our flat, I don't think we would have been able to cheap out and watch from the garden - particularly as it was so windy.

Here are my obligatory 5th November (but not actually the 5th November) photos, I'd really love to chance to get better at taking photos of fireworks. We had a quick wander around the funfair before picking our spot, it wasn't up to much but did offer up a beautiful portrait.




The fireworks themselves were just as good as last year. I find it funny how much I love this night now considering how weirdly scared I was of big booming fireworks when I was younger...








The evening involved some light bites, after a mammoth session at The Taco Shop in the afternoon, and a few drinks. We actually bought our own fireworks for the garden but the rain meant that Lidl's finest didn't have a chance to shine, there's always later this evening or our upcoming Christmas meet-up...

Hosted by Hogwarts.

"No story lives unless someone wants to listen" – J.K. Rowling.

This last weekend has been a busy one, but I was thankful to have a day off on Friday to catch up on some personal admin before heading to Warner Bros Studios with my sister to check out the Making of Harry Potter studio tour. My sister is a huge Harry Potter fan, even heading to the cinema to watch each film back-to-back before the final one came out, so, as I couldn't work out what to get her for her birthday this year I figured this was a pretty good idea.

Indian Summer Breeze.

Because we'd had such an action-packed first day and because Moon had a long drive back to Newbury in the mid-afternoon (but also because Kirstin and I stayed up until 3am yapping), we opted for rounding our little Norfolk weekender off with a relaxed walk along Old Hunstanton beach. Just a short walk from Dan's parent's home, it was pretty ideal and even though we weren't quite prepared for the blustery sandstorm that awaited us, it was so nice to see the sun shine and breathe in the sea air.





Not quite sure how this photo came to be but I definitely commend Moon's photography skills pretty highly for it.









I think this was my favourite photo-spot of the weekend - after the seals of course - I always find that the weather makes such a difference and the bright blue sky made for such great lines and layers.




My best Steve Zissou impression.



I guess the wind and the wonderful sun were signs of the supposed storm, but it was hard to tell as Norfolk is apparently usually windy thanks to it's flatness. I got sand in my eyes and embedded into my tights but watching the sand floating across the beach was pretty mesmerising and it was very easy to get some shelter just by climbing over the dunes.

In other sand-related news, I accidentally filled one of my pockets with sand due to overenthusiastic shell-collecting.

Norfolk has certainly done the job with motivating me a bit more, I'm not sure if it's down to the place or just getting away generally but I feel like I'm full of ideas at the moment(!!!)