Robin Days

We weren't going to be able to go far on Saturday as G and his friend and work colleague S were off to watch Saints in a cup match in the afternoon.

It was cold but it was bright and we wanted to stretch our legs so G suggested as short walk at nearby Royal Victoria Country Park.

We parked close to where G works and so approached the park from a different route from normal, but no matter which way you arrive the tower can always be seen.

 

We were stood talking at one point when G said very carefully turn round and have your camera ready. There sat on the hedge was this robin, seconds later he flew off but I just managed to click the shutter before he went.

Something I've been meaning to do for a while is to sit down and sort out the many recipes for cakes and cookies I have torn out from magazines but never actually got around to baking and this I accomplished whilst watching a movie I had taped from December. It's a movie I love, not least because Cary Grant and David Niven both have lead roles. Two British actors I would have loved to have met. If you've never seen The Bishop's Wife then I urge you to.
Whilst watching I managed to divide the different bakes out across the months of the year. The plan is to try and make them all by the end of 2015. I'll share as many as I can on here.
One thing we did try that afternoon is something I haven't been able to try before now because we hadn't owned a microwave for a long time. We bought one just before Christmas and I'm on the lookout for recipes which I can cook in it. We did have a microwave years ago but gave it away through Freecycle as it was just used for heating up baked beans. Now we have one again I want to make better use of it.
S used it to bake a cake in a mug. What a success that was. I ate a slither but the rest was shared between T and S. A chocolate cake baked in 4 minutes, I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing!

 

Sunday morning saw us out on another stroll. S has a homework project on Queen Elizabeth 1 to do and she has decided to do it by making a poster size timeline of her life and so in order to do this we needed a large piece of card. To buy this a trip to the local branch of The Range was necessary, but we took a detour to the a section of  the Shoreburs Greenway before hand.

 

 

T very kindly let me take his new camera along. I am a bit envious of it actually, it's much better than mine! It has a great zoom and I was able to get a good close up of the fungi on this tree trunk.

It's definitely been a weekend for robins though. This little fellow flew to a branch near us and sang his heart out.

In the second photo he is in a very similar pose to the robin on the mug G bought me for Christmas. I used this mug this afternoon to enjoy a new hot milky drink. Hot caramel malted milk was on one of the pages I had been looking at the day before. If you have a sweet tooth you may like to give it a try too. The amounts in the recipe were  quoted to serve 4. I stuck to them as it was the first time I was making it and found it gave us all approximately three quarters of a cupful. More milk needed next time! Heat 1 and a half pints of milk and whisk in half a tin of caramel flavoured condensed milk. Spoon 1tbsp malted milk powder into each of 4 four mugs and pour hot milk on top.
The article went on to say that a pinch of salt could be stirred into the remaining half of the tin of caramel and then be used to drizzle over toasted marshmallows.