#1Day12Pics :: June

I'm sure that eventually I will get around to taking part in 1Day12Pics with my phone as the lovely organisers Michelle and Emma do but with the all the excitement on Saturday with the driving and the fair, and the fact my DSLR was a temporary limb extension anyway, shooting on one camera just made a bit more sense.

The 7th June 2014 saw me heading down to Kent for the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair with my sister, which you can read more about (and see a ton of more pictures from) here.


1. 9am // Putting my face on and getting ready for a long day.


2. 10am // Setting off for Kent.


3. 11am // Arriving at Hole Park Gardens and taking in its beautiful grounds.


4. 12pm // Catching all-round nice guy and Masterchef, Dhruv Baker,in the Burlanes Chef's Theatre.


5. 1pm // Love a bit of pottering.


6. 2pm // ...and a bit of moseying, our ticket to the fair included access to the gardens so we took full advantage.


7. 3pm // Beautiful secret garden vibes. ♥


8. 4pm // Stopping off at a farm shop we passed on our arrival - a lot of different coloured tomatoes were bought.


9. 5pm // Another necessary pit-stop.


10. 6pm // Ma had dinner ready for us when we got home.


11. 7pm // Latergramming.


12. 8pm // Waiting for the kettle to boil and getting a bit of fresh air post-shower in mum's back garden and witnessing the golden hour ♥
This is the second time now that I've treated this little challenge as a strict 'photo an hour' and I think next time I'm going to allow myself to be a little more fluidity and choose twelve images that sum up my day a little better. Still, I really like the #1Day12Pics project, it's a little more fun to do things like this and see how others are working with it too.

Recipe: Italian Baked Eggs

This is definitely a dish I wish I'd known about when I was at university, just thinking about the amount of times I made do with just pasta and sauce when I could have been making something this magnificent.

Eggs are probably one of my all-time foods, they're not just for breakfast, they're for ALL times, I have even been known to make an oven 'brinner' just because eggs.




So this is super-simple but I figured I would share it anyway, because it's the perfect dish to prepare if you're into making something quick or if you're on a bit of a budget.
I think calling them Italian is just to fancy them up a bit, I got the original recipe from Damn Delicious but it's pretty easy to make it up as you go along, as long as you know how long you need to bake an egg to make it to your liking.

You Will Need

• 4 x Oven-Proof Ramekins

Ingredients: (Feeds 2 People)

• 4 Medium/Large Eggs
• 300g Pasta Sauce of Your Choice - Use as much as you like, this is dish that's all about leftovers
• Hard Italian Cheese - Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano - Grated
• Pinch of Fresh/Dried Parsley
• 1 tsp Salt and Pepper
  
  

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C
2. Put around 2-3 tablespoons of your pasta sauce into the ramekins
3. Crack your egg on top of the pasta sauce and sprinkle with cheese, parsley and salt & pepper
4. Optional: I happened to pick up a jar of Chop Chop's Italian Herbs so I plopped around half a teaspoon in each ramekin
5. Pop in the oven for around 10 minutes or until egg is cooked - less time is needed for a runny yolk obviously.
6. Serve with buttery toast and enjoy!

Wealden Times Midsummer Fair

When Rosie (from Cider with Rosie emailed me to let me know I was one of the winners of her competition for tickets to the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair, I was pretty darn pleased. If you've followed me for a while, or even if you haven't, you'll probably be aware that fairs are pretty much my bag - I love testing samples in food tents, eyeing up fancy crafts and of course, if it's a good fair, dog spotting.

Not only was it a chance to spend a day at a fair anyway, but it was in a pretty beautiful part of the country too. My sister is actually at university in Canterbury but I've only been to visit her a couple of times and not for long enough to really appreciate the Garden of England. It's probably the former that made her seem like a pretty good choice as my guest, plus she has to fill her days with something now she's lounging around having 'summer holidays'.

Sweet, Sunny Sunday.

I love that even though we've been in Newbury for over two years now there are still new areas that I'm discovering and able to explore.



A couple of weekends ago we drove up to The Watermill Theatre following a sign, it's set in the beautiful village (probably actually a hamlet) of Bagnor and comes complete with the perfect pub on the green and lovely streamside walk.

I wish it had been drier so we could have walked around a bit more - we came to a dead end thanks to mud - but it's probably all well and good given that despite the fact it was around 4pm at this point and we were only there for around an hour, I managed to really catch the sun. I spent the hour or so before bed huffing and puffing from being so hot and bothered. Definitely not complaining though.








No long afternoon walk for us.










I've been seeing these flowers everywhere, anyone know what they're called? They're such a great colour!




Check out this bold as brass dog, just taking his time in the middle of the road.


I'm hoping to visit The Watermill Theatre for a production at some point, it's in such a pretty spot that's ready-made for a nice summer evening.

Over to the Garden.

After the many successes of last year, I've been waiting for summertime to roll around for a long time now. If not for the warmer weather, lighter evenings and alfresco dining then definitely for all the fairs and county shows there are to check out.

When the lovely Rosie from Cider with Rosie got in touch with me to let me know I was lucky enough to win her competition to head over to the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair I was only too happy to jump at the chance.

So that's where I'm off to with my sister tomorrow and I can't wait, expect pictures, I'm really looking forward to the food tent(!)