Climbing Trees & Jazz - The Botanical Gardens

I'm writing this post sitting in the library of a pretty house in the South of France - pas mal. But I'm here to talk about something that happened a while back when I visited the Botanical Gardens. Along with my family, we made the short journey to Cambridge to meet Emilie for an evening picnic & concert in the botanical gardens.

The amount of times I've been to Cambridge is probably too many by now, but somehow I hadn't come across the botanical gardens. So when we were greeted with a warm setting sun and found our spot to picnic near the jazz band, it was pretty darn cool taking in the environment. Loads of similar-minded people had also packed a picnic ready for the concert and the place was bustling.

Not long after the music started and we had filled up on cheese and grapes, Emilie & I set out exploring. We wandered the gardens, discovered the lily-filled pond, climbed the rocks and found beautiful tree which had grown over the pond (of course we couldn't resist a limb), then found our way back led by the music.

All in all, it was beautiful. If I had seen this place last year I think I might even have chosen to focus my art coursework just on this garden for the whole year (not joking). Plus they have bees buzzing around which is bonus points as I really want some pet bees.

And voila, I recommend a visit guys.

In other news, I've passed my theory test! Probably a gazillion years after everyone else but woop de woop.  ALSO, I'm going to Copenhagen soon so any tips on the best places to visit and things to do would be much appreciated. ♥ ♥ ♥

~ ~ ~

I found a new shop that I never heard of before but I'm in love with.
Song - Rapture by Laura Veirs
Song - If Silence Means That Much To You by Emma Pollock

E's Birthday Tea (with heaps of cake...)

Yesterday was the perfect excuse to have a day off the dreaded revision that A levels bring: we celebrated E's birthday!

First up, an elegant afternoon tea by the River Cam. We were brought 3 tier stands packed with goodies getting tastier and sweeter as you worked your way up & had the brilliant entertainment of watching kayakers fall in the river (this might have even been one of my favourite parts...)

The prettiest of the selection was the marzipan fruit (shame I'm not keen on marzipan) & the tastiest was definitely the bakewell slice.

After gorging on most of the treats, the staff kindly boxed up the rest for us to take home.

Afternoon tea was good, but my favourite part came later on. 

Our dinner was a selection of all the tastiest foods. We ate our favourites before settling down to a huuuge dose of Eurovision. Am I the only one who's favourite was Hungary? My winner predictions weren't quite perfected this time, but E managed to guess both who came 1st and 2nd... (I'm not jealous at all...*cough*)

To finish the whole shabang was my mother's traditional toblerone cake! I was in charge of decorations & insisted upon using the mustache sweet, hence the 'I mustache you a question' part...

Happy Birthday E!

Exams are in full flow right now, so here is a little procrastination with some tuuunes!

Needing/Getting by OK Go and The World at Large by Modest Mouse.

Wagamama

It's the end of another Cambridge term & that means another trip to bring E home.

This time we stopped by at Wagamama to escape the cold snowy weather, and enjoy their huge portions & good food.

To begin with, we had a selection of Miso soup & Ebi Gysoz (vegetable dumplings for you & me).

I'm not a huge fan of Miso soup, but the pots they're served in, oh my they are brilliant.

I could base an entire architecture project on them if I was allowed...

Then we had our mains. I chose Yasai Yaki Soba (below). It was delicious. Although I love noodles so I would say that. The vegetables were cooked really well & I liked the mixture of flavours. Especially the ginger, which worked well with the ginger beer I was drinking.

Above is Chicken & Prawn Cha Han (although we found no prawns) & below is Amai Udon. From the empty dishes my family left, I assume they were also delicious.

As the portions are so big at Wagamama, we managed to have these 3 mains between the four of us with leftovers!

And there is always room for desert...

E chose Sweet Ginger &Apple Gyoza (above) & we all had a taste. It came with some custard which she seemed very pleased about & my favourite part was the cinnamon.

Although I think my dessert was better. Of course.

Raspberry natural fruit ice lolly. Mmmm. You could tell it was made using real raspberries, not just flavouring as there were little bits, my favourite!

To emphasise how odd it was to be eating an ice lolly when its snowing outside, I thought I should wear my mittens. Teehee.

Mother's Day at Michaelhouse

My family celebrated Mother's Day a little earlier than everyone else in the UK. 24 hours earlier, so here I am to tell the tale...

So as to spend the day with my sister too, we drove to Cambridge.

We arrived a little early for lunch, so I had some time to set out my sketchbook in my sister's room & get to work (with the company of music & a cheeky slice of Angel cake of course!).

I then set out to meet the rest of my family for lunch, passing plenty of gorgeous food stalls & flower merchants on the way.

After reuniting, we made our way to my mother's favourite lunch spot - a bustling cafe nestled inside St Michael's church.

We arrived and were quickly whisked off our feet by all the delicious scents & smells. Everything is flexible there, you can pick what to eat & match it with your favourite salads or scones as you like.

There is usually a queue, but it goes quickly & is probably an advantage as otherwise you'll be panicking which dish to pick - they're all delicious I assure you. 

Whilst you wait, its the perfect opportunity to admire the beautiful architecture, even the lights are pretty & there is a great selection of artwork on the walls.

I chose the pizza of the day & added a selection of salads. The rest of my family all chose the same dish - spinach, pumpkin & feta cheese quiche. Being the greedy person I am, I had to taste their dish too & I can safely say they were both incredible. 

My pizza had a really good mix of flavours & the salads I chose were very tasty. The quiche was also very good, I hadn't actually ever had pumpkin in a quiche before, but it is definitely something I need to start doing!

Before leaving, we went into the church area of the building & admired the architecture.

After a little roam around the city, we headed off feeling toasty & happy despite the cold weather.

If you want to find out more about Michaelhouse, here is a link to their website.

Happy Mother's Day to my very own mother!

Weekend in Cambridge

This weekend was the beginning of my holiday. So it was the perfect opportunity to spend the weekend with my sister at university.

I arrived in the afternoon & we had time for a walk & cookies before we wrapped up & began the hunt for a restaurant.

After a short search, we picked out a little Mediterranean restaurant. Both our meals were lovely - I had Salmon Agora whereas E had Moroccan Style Tagine.

We then did some exploring before escaping the cold for a short supermarket trip to buy some microwave popcorn. As I don't have a microwave at home (shocking I know) this would be the first time I had it & so the prospect was very exciting.

We dashed through the cold back to my sister's room to do some sketching & watch Anna Karenina with our popcorn. I had no idea I had been missing out on something so tasty.

After a surprisingly good night considering I had to camp on the floor, we did a little more exploring. Although it was still early, the parks were filled with students playing football, rugby & a whole host of other games. We also managed to catch a snippet of a rowing race.

We then had a little meet up with a distant cousin we had never met before. This was lovely - we had heard he went to the same university but never had the actual chance to meet until then.

Our thoughts then turned to lunch.

We've always liked to experiment with recipes, so this was our chance to combine our favourite flavours into a perfect lunch. A mixture of sweet potato, greens, puff pastry, onions & haloumi cheese, it was GLORIOUS. I'm sure I'll be posting the recipe one day.

It really was one of the best lunches I've had in a while - I can't rave on about it enough, especially if you consider how speedy, easy and tasty it was.

Once our lunch was over, we had hot drinks & treated ourselves to chocolates & our mother's homemade cookies before heading out for one last exploration before I had to leave.

Cambridge is so beautiful, it's always a pleasure to go there, between the parks, rowing races, shops and university events, there is always something going on.

A perfect start to my little holiday.

Bill's

Yesterday I travelled to Cambridge to visit my sister for the day, & we had the pleasure of stumbling upon this little gem for lunch. Bill's.

Judging by the queue we found as we arrived, this place was clearly worth listening to our grumbling tummies for that little bit longer.

And oh my it was.

I ordered the home-made cod fish finger sandwich, whereas my sister ventured into the unknown, choosing moules frites for the first time in her life.

We were not disappointed.

The portions were perfectly sized & each dish had a cleverly chosen mix of flavours to keep your taste buds tip top.

The place had a glorious mish mash of details & had shelves filled to the ceiling with foodsy items you could buy. 

Not to mention the impressive decoration, I had a bunch of chillies suspended above my head!

It was a lovely lunch, with a good atmosphere, the place was busy, but calm enough to have a good conversation.

Inspired by the culinary success, we trekked down to Heffers, the book store, & I nosed around the cookery books.

I also had to get several bits and pieces so we went shopping for a while, before going on a walk around the (admittedly freezing) parks.

If you want to find out more about Bill's, go to the website here. It's a great place to meet with friends I definitely recommend checking it out.