Today’s post was going to be called “a Tale of Two Parties” but for various reasons it is now renamed.  One reason being that I only managed 2 decent photos from Veg Grower and Tree Planters’ 100th birthday party, which was a very lavish affair inside a magnificent marquee.

The rain finally stopped so we could stand outside and enjoy the garden and the view.

We feasted on a fantastic curry and danced to a wonderful band but the few photos I had taken were out of focus and generally hopeless so I can not publish them.  By the time I tottered over the road to help Colin celebrate his first half century the camera was in my bag and no thought was given to taking it out.  I had a fantastic time at both parties.  Ate too much, drank too much, talked too much and managed a bit of a boogie.  A truly splendid evening at 2 wonderful parties.

I was woken this morning with news of a little visitor, found on the floor of the lounge.  Look how small it is compared to the match!

A little Pipistrelle bat.  I don’t think bats would win a beauty contest but they are cute.

As I write this there is a very kind man from a local bat charity, who is trying to locate the mother.  Apparently this little bat is about 2 weeks old.  It is too heavy to cling on to its mother but too young to fly.  So he and James are outside now, with tall ladders, looking for the nest.  Fingers crossed it survives.

I started my day with a blackcurrant smoothie, made with blackcurrants, banana, natural yogurt, chia seeds and almond milk (thanks Lara).

For lunch I marinated some cod in this delicious marinade I bought at the Wealden Times summer fair.

I rubbed it in to the fish which I then covered and left aside for a couple of hours.

I then wrapped them in a parcel (2 fillets in each parcel) of greaseproof paper and baked them in the oven for 12 minutes at 200 ° C and then let them rest for 2 minutes,

before serving with green beans and BJ’s new potatoes.  Delicious.

Lara was craving some chocolate as she hadn’t had any in Asia so she made the Chocolate Crunchie Nutty Bars.  Apparently the link from a previous blog post no longer works so here is the recipe.  I realise this is NOT a diet or healthy snack but it is so moreish and so easy to make, everyone should try it at least once 🙂

Chocolate Crunchie Nutty Bars

Ingredients

200 g 70% dark chocolate
125 g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
250 g salted peanuts
4 x 40g Crunchie Bars (chocolate covered honeycomb bars)

Method

Line a baking tin or baking dish with tin foil
Break up the chocolate and heat in a bowl over a pan of simmering water with the butter

Add the golden syrup and mix gently until melted and combined.

Chop the Crunchies in to bite sized pieces and place in a bowl with the nuts.

Mix the melted chocolate mixture in to the nuts and Crunchie pieces.  Pour in to the foil lined dish.

So great to have my lovely Lara at home cooking again 🙂

Set aside to cool and then try really hard to leave it in the fridge for 4 hours to go solid before eating it.
When solid, tip out and cut in to small bars.

This is so divine.  As well as the chocolate, you bite in to sweet honeycomb or salty nuts.   Luckily Lara has several girl friends over tonight and they are eating it all, but that was not before I had too many pieces.

We headed to the beach this afternoon.  Despite my dreadful cold, I wanted to give my Tractivity a good trial so wanted to get a walk in.  We set off for Dungeness and despite the ominous black clouds, it was sunny when we arrived.  Harvey was determined to have a swim and raced towards the beach.

Anyone would think my children were in different locations, since they are dressed for different climates!

While Harvey was swimming, we saw at least 2 dolphins in the sea which was thrilling.  We failed to capture them in a photo as they only surfaced briefly and then re-appeared some distance away but we were all excited to see them.

After a swim,  Harvey collected shells and parts of sea creatures and we enjoyed walking along the shingle.

I like looking down through my zoom lens.  By only having a small area to look at, you can really “see” it properly and appreciate the shapes, colours and textures of the land beneath your feet.

How do these flowers grow on the shingle?

The clouds looked ominous.

And became darker and darker so we hurried back to the car!

Dungeness is a surprisingly beautiful place.  I love the flatness of the landscape here.  It is dramatic, especially with the black clouds and winds we experienced today.  We all really enjoyed being here and look forward to returning.

There are so many flowers out at this time of year but the darkness made them difficult to capture properly.

We didn’t walk as far as I had hoped but walking along the shingle was good exercise and we could feel it in our thighs.  When we got home my Tractivity monitor told me I had only walked 7,370 steps today and I need to do 10,000.  But I felt too tired and poorly to go out for a walk and will try and walk further tomorrow.

Pipistrelle update – they believe they found the colony and left the little bat under the tiles.  It was calling out so hopefully it’s Mother will find it.   Apparently it is a healthy size and plump so it has a chance of survival.  Fingers crossed.