Casa Mango Mango

Following our Guide books we booked a room at Casa Mango Mango for the first leg of our trip (Rio) A large colonial house in the stunning neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. We arrived in the late of night and our cab driver (more of him later) drove up the winding cobbled streets lit by the odd streetlight that lit just enough of the street and houses for us to realise this area was pretty special.

The street below from our bedroom window

We walked through the gate at street level up a steep set of stairs under two huge Mango trees to the house which was impressive even in the dark of night. We checked in and were taken up yet more stairs to our Room 1 at the very top of the house- large and sparingly decorated with shiny polished wooden floors and wooden shutters opened to show us the view of Rio we would be enjoying during our stay, and what a view!
Wearily we got into bed and woke up excited, flung the blinds open to this....

View from the front window

View from the back window

Rio De Janeiro

I have been longing to go to South America for ages now and on the spur of the moment, I bought some tickets for Brads (Hubby) birthday. The journey will take us to Rio in Brazil, then Buenos Aires in Argentina and back to Brazil for a short (and at the time undecided) trip - possibly the Iguazu Falls. We have since decided on a few days of sun bathing and snorkelling in Buzios instead, a few days of rest and quiet before heading back to our lives in Norfolk.

And what a choice it has been! Rio is amazing, colourful, lush and wild. The residents love colour and it shows - everywhere. The life is relaxed and the Brazilians know how to have a good time. The city sprawls out among a series of hills and mountains and the best views are taken by the 'Favelas' or slums that have shot up on every available hillside.

Finally.....Chilli's!

Red Savina

Orange Habanero

After what feels like years all my little chilli plants have started fruiting, I sowed a heap of seeds and gave a load of the little seedlings away and they seem to have been quite unsuccessful elsewhere, but here at home - touch wood - I haven't lost a single plant, they have all shot up and started producing perfect little chilli's- hot, fiery little chilli's. These will all be dried and hung in the kitchen for use during the cold winter months. That should keep us warm for sure!

Green Tomato Chutney

Over the weekend I raided the tomato vines of all the green tomatoes, every last one. All the stubborn fruits that haven't ripened can still be put to good use in chutney. The growing season is slowing down and I'm getting the plants ready to turn into compost, all the extra ripened tomatoes will be slow dried in the oven and bottled in Olive Oil to store ready for the winter and the grow bags contents emptied onto the allotment. 

I'm going to follow the lovely Delia Smith's recipe (see below)

Green Tomato Chutney

2 1/2 lb green tomatoes

2 lb onions

2 1/2 lb cooking apples

1 lb raisins

6 large crushed cloves of garlic

1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tbsp salt

2 leve desertspoons of ground ginger

1lb 6oz soft brown sugar

1 oz pickling spice

3 pints genuine malt vinegar.

A small preserving pan, eight 1lb preserving jars, a mincer, string and some gauze.

Wash the tomatpoes and cut them into quarters, peel theonions and quarter them, quarter and core the apples, lewaving the peels on and keeping them in water to prevent browning.

Using the medium blade of a mincer, mince the tomatoes and place them in the pan, next mince the onions, then the raisins followed by the apples (don't wory if they have now turned brown), addinf them all to the pan. Now add the garlic, cayenne, salt ginger and sugar, blend everything thoroughly. Next tie the pickling spice in a small piece of double thickness gauze and attach it to the handle so that it hangs down into the other ingredients.

Now pour in the vinegar, bring to simmering point, remove any scum from the surface, then let it simmer very gently for approx. 3 1/2 hours with out covering. Sit occassionally esp. towards the end to prevent sticking. It's ready whe the vinegar has almost been absorbed, the chutney has thickened to a nice soft consistency and the spoon leaves a trail. Do be careful not to overcook. The recipe says that a food processor can be used instead of a mincer.

Beach Balls and Geese

 As the summer days slump off into the sunset and Autumn slowly takes hold, it's still a pleasure and not a chore to pile the dogs into the car and head off for the beach where they can run around like crazy, chase their balls and each other till they are exhausted and sleep the rest of the day away. I can hear the geese over the house sometimes and this is the first sign that winter is coming and it's not long till the beach walks are no longer that pleasant and I will have to pile on the layers and top it off with my large heavy winter coat to fend off the freezing winds that blow across the beach from the north sea. So I make the most of it while I can.

Norfolk Food Festival at Holkham Hall

Norfolk is peppered with great local producers of quality foods from Pork Pies and Rape Seed Oil, to Cakes and Sausages. And so to Holkham Hall we headed to sample the local delights from a series of Norfolk producers, and they didn't disappoint. I came home laden with gorgeous goodies that I will list and review at a later date - so watch this space.

Brancaster Beach

Brancaster Beach is an amazing place here in Norfolk, and now that the holiday season is over, it's going back to the deserted beach we selfishly love and wish no-one else knew about. During the winter months when we walk the dogs, we are often the only people about. But the summer months bring the tourists out on force and the place comes alive. The car park fills, the shop opens and the beach fills with families of busy parents and delighted children building sandcastles and demanding ice-creams, the far end of the beach is busy with kite-surfers tearing up and down like crazed dragonflies and the driving range is peppered with golf balls from golfers endlessly hitting them like they are aiming for some imaginary target.

The contrast is lovely, but the quiet empty winter months are our favourite.

The building in the picture is the Golf Course Clubhouse, the only building around and if you take a left when you pass it from the car park and walk till you come to an inlet where the sea makes a lagoon at high tide and cuts it off at low tide, you can almost always find seals lazing on the far banks or staring at you from the water. Its magical and the beach stretches for what seems like miles when the the tides out so the dogs can run to their hearts content and they always return from the beach completely exhausted and happy.

It's well worth a visit to anyone visiting this area.

Vintage Shawls and Dummy Covers

Finally I have found a suitable and affordable cover for my dummy. My Dressmaking dummy has looked so out of place as a prop in our house for so long as I have no studio to put it in. I have finally found a cover for it that hasn't cost a fortune. It was in a box of linen I won at the auction last week and looks perfect in the corner of our room draped over the said dummy. I have scoured the web, car boots and vintage fairs for a beautiful piece of vintage clothing that wasn't expensive and here this little beauty appeared when I had all but given up.

Colour me happy!

This mornings visitor

Apart from  from the numerous bees and Bumble Bees that visit our Lavender bushes daily, these butterflies that drop by and flutter around are my favourites of all the insects we see in our little garden. Next year I intend to increase the visitors we see every day. I shall fill the yard with Bumble bee homes, insect nests and flowers that attract insects. I love that our small little green patch is so attractive  to these little creatures. Unfortunately our puppy Adam eats the Bumble Bees - a habit I hope to break soon!

Rooibos Tea and Lavender Biscuits

I followed Alys Fowlers recipe for the Lavender Biscuits to the letter and they are the perfect companion to a pot of Rooibos tea (South African favourite).

Note the gorgeous teapot - a bargain at £3 in Fakenham Market!

Sunflowers are good for the soul

In my early twenties while I was living in George, South Africa and years later when I was living in London and visiting home annually, I used to visit the surrounding towns with my best friend Amile and the two of us would search for coffee shops where we would drink one cup of coffee after another, devour large slices of cake and talk for hours about anything and everything. We were young care-free and happy, very very happy. Anyway, we found this tiny corrugated iron house squeezed in between a large shop and an industrial warehouse in a side street of Oudtshoorn on one of our days out. The house was painted mustard, it had a tiny veranda that ran the length of the front of the house and a plain garden of grass that was browned by the African sun and a couple of rows of large bright sunflowers in front of the veranda.

It was and still is one of my favourite houses ever, I swore I would buy it one day. It was clear that the owners were not wealthy but it was clear for the whole town to see that it was the jolliest house in the whole of Oudtshoorn and the owners must surely have been the happiest people in town. (I have an old photograph somewhere that I will post when I find it)

So every time I see a sunflower it takes me straight back to that sunny day, strolling barefoot down that street when I spotted that house for the first time. They make me smile - on my face and in my heart.

Sunflowers are good for the soul x

Green Chrysanthemums, American Tapestry, Vintage Boots and Antlers

Last Thursday was an eventful one, I had taken the day off work to mind the dogs and arranged with our friend Jo to go to the market and auction in Fakenham early in the morning. The market always produces little gems at bargain prices (the tea pot posted later)
I bought the vintage boots at the auction house for £30 and a few treats at the market and then the two of us braved the rain and headed for the shops at Creake Abbey Studios.
I have wanted some mounted antlers for ages, I found this set and the American tapestry which I bought immediately. The lady in the shop kindly gave me a discount of 10% so I couldn't say no.
The antlers now hang high up on the wall in our stair well and the tapestry awaits a suitable hanging rod before it takes its place on a wall.
The flower stall in Fakenham has a great variety of flowers at great prices. I found these green Chrysanthemums there, I've never seen them before but they're gorgeous no?

Plum Wine

I local friends father loaned me his book HOME MADE COUNTRY WINES, and I was hooked. I set about immediately making Plum and Strawberry Wine as a first experiment. I bought the fruit locally, approached the local baker about buying some fresh yeast and set in all in action. Today there is the steady bubbling of the Plum Wine in the demijohn and this morning I shall do the same with The Strawberry Wine that has been fermenting away in a bucket for the required 7 days. The only down side to making your own wines is that the process requires patience - something I lack in large quantities!

Its exciting though and I can't wait to have my first glass of home made wine!

Grilled Sardines - Portuguese Style

Baked Figs - Full Tummy

So this evening we baked these Figs, and boy were they YUMMY! We just followed the easy recipe (click on link) and smothered them with cream. That's it, easy peasy! Tomorrow I shall head straight out and get some more...

Orchids, Chilli's, Tomatoes, Roses and Allotment Booty

Today was a busy one, everything around us here appears to be in bloom or ready to harvest, the roses in our garden have sprung to life again and these gorgeous pinky flowers smell HEAVENLY, the large variety of chilli's I planted earlier in the year and have tended and fussed over since, have mostly flowered and are all slowly producing tiny chilli's that are just loaded with fire. I pulled up yet more potatoes, we collected the strongest smelling leeks ever from our allotment, along with some Rhubarb, Sweetcorn and yet more  Patty Pans! Our Tomato plants are weighed down with the volume of tomatoes (Money Maker - produces an extra ordinary amount of tomatoes)

A friend of ours came to stay and gave us this miniature Orchid that's bursting with flowers, I have it next to the bed and every morning (apart from Hubby) it's the first thing I see - a beautiful start to the day.

Chilli Jam

Nigellas Chilli Jam

Watch closely, these chilli's are about to turn into Chilli Jam ala Nigella Lawson....

Its from her Christmas Recipe Book and is really really yummy! I made some last year rather unsuccessfully - it turned out to be a yummy chilli sauce instead! So here goes attempt number 2.

Pics to follow

Mmmmm Strawberries! Almost there....

Coffee and Ouma Rusks

There is nothing more South African to me than coffee and Ouma Rusks, I have found a brilliant website called Bokke Foods here in the UK where I can have all my favourite treats from home delivered to my door....and I do! Regularly! Guava Rolls, Boerewors, All Gold Smooth Apricot Jam, Lunch Bars - the lot!

This morning as soon as I woke after a night of too much red wine, the first thing I wanted was coffee - and rusks(luckily I try keep a tin of them in the cupboard all the times)

Homesickness and hangover cured!

Today was a glorious day and we drove around the countryside taking friends to 2 car boot sales, a church fete and vintage fair before having a delicious Sunday Roast at the The Lifeboat Inn in Thornham.

Life in Norfolk is a joy every day.

Curried Pickled Fish, 3 Hydrangeas and a Yacht

I went back and bought the toy yacht I spotted at Martins exhibition the other night, I'm obsessed with the Union Jack, I thinks its absolutely beautiful and cool beyond words!
This afternoon I went in search of an Bumble Bee house at our local gardening centre and came home with 3 beautiful Hydrangeas and 3 pots instead (I simply cannot resist a bargin)
This evening I will be attempting a dish my Grandmother used to make when I was a child in Zimbabwe. Traditional South African Curried Pickled Fish, the smell takes me back instantly and I can remember each detail of the lunch table where I first tried it at 25 Yeldham Road, Bulawayo. The crisp white napkins, the clink of sparkling silver cutlery against my Grans china plates. My mouths watering just talking about it. Its eaten cold, with some salad and fresh white bread with butter - my idea of a perfect lunch on a summers day.
It sounds unpleasant, but I assure you its anything but....

Kitsch, yet cool

I still love Cool Britannia x

Bringing The Outside In

Last night we dropped into local shop Bringing The Outside In for a preview of the owner Martins exhibition "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" a series of beautiful photographs taken up and down the North Norfolk Coast (a huge canvas of a deserted Brancaster beach being my favourite) I wondered around the shop trying to work out where exactly on our crowded walls in our cottage I could find a space to hang one - still pondering on it.
The shop was teeming with beautiful bits and pieces - all coastal and relevant to our corner of the world. From a gorgeous mounted toy yacht with Union Jack sails (I REALLY want it) to Mounted Artist Proof prints of Photographs to interior  design books, hand painted signs and beautiful wire letters of the alphabet. (a steal at £3-00 each)
I fell for this beautiful little light pull with 3 little metal fish hanging on it that now hangs in the bathroom - the perfect spot for it!

Lime and Yoghurt Cake with Rosewater

This cake has healing properties, I'm sure of it! Its one of the easiest cakes in the world to make - foolproof even. Every time I have made it and shared it (this does not happen often as it brings out the selfish in me), whoever has some loves it as much as I do. One of my 'nieces' Meegan would crawl over broken glass from London to Norfolk for a slice. I don't often bother with the nuts and rose petal decorations as the cake is never around for that long. Give it a try, be warned though, it's VERY addictive.

Cosmos = Home

The best way for me to 'take myself home' to South Africa when I'm here in Norfolk is step out side with a cup of Rooibos tea and tend my little patch of Cosmos, I do it most mornings before starting my long commute to London, but with a cup of coffee. It gives me a minute to think of home and my family so never a day goes by without them crossing my mind. My two 'nieces' (extended family) both moved here to the United Kingdom from South Africa couple of years ago, they both visit us regularly and I always try and have a little bottle with some cut Cosmos in next to their beds to make them feel at home too.....I think it works - they visit often and its not just my Yoghurt and Lime cake that gets them here (recipe to follow)

Elderflower Fizz....mmmmmmm!

Last night I had a couple of glasses of Elderflower Fizz I made a few weeks back on a whim, I searched the recipe online and found this ..... beyond yummy and very, very easy to make. I'm not sure it's supposed to be cloudy, but it fizzed everywhere when I popped the lid and I wasn't prepared to wait for it to settle again - it was still delicious anyway. Well worth a go!