3 Mile Picnic

Mike and I's 2nd wedding anniversary is coming up on the 26th. We are going away to a cottage in Cornwall for it. This week is a slightly manic blaze of baking (gingerbread, cookies, a tea loaf and lemon drizzle cake), trying to find those tiny travel bottles to take olive oil and washing up liquid in, wine buying (including a very tasty dessert wine) and list making - packing, outing ideas, maps etc. Apparently Mike considers taking the le crueset with us 'overkill', similarly the dutch oven. It may sneak in anyway since it is 'the pot of magic' whereby one puts ingredients in, puts onto a fire and awaits deliciousness.

One thing I have spent a little while making is an anniversary crossword. I used an online crossword maker and all the clues are to do with things we've done or seen this year. For example - 'phone traffic' refers to the apple and blackberry jam we made in the autumn. I will schedule a post of it whilst we're away.

We went for a picnic yesterday since the weather is so nice, sat in a broad-bean field eating courgette flatbread topped with artichoke and grilled haloumi (bacon for Mike) with pea and cucumber giant couscous salad and plenty of squash. I'd forgotton that the view of the Otmoor plain would be obscured by all the broad beans though so the photo looks a bit strange. The walk was a simple 'out-and-back' route (3 miles total) since we'd done the wander down to the river a few times recently. 

In theory a beautiful view of the Otmoor plain

Claire

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Picnic time

It was such a nice day on Tuesday that we decided to take our dinner with us for a picnic. We made a quick potato, mint and pea salad (with pesto and cream cheese dressing), and a quinoa and sundried tomato salad (with basil, garlic and parmesan dressing) and put them in our picnic rucksack with some ginger beer and some lemon drizzle cake from Jacobs and Field deli/cafe in headington.

We walked up by the river (that was flooded a few weeks ago) and settled into a secluded nook with our picnic rug. This bit of the river is only reachable on walks over 5 miles (you have to turn around to make it shorter) so we thought we'd be alone but there were a few dog walkers and even a cyclist!

After the picnic we walked back to the village where some kids were swimming in the river. I managed a paddle and an exclamation at the temperature before coming home for a warm shower.

Sorry it's been a while since I blogged-a wedding last weekend, and no crochet when its so sunny outside are conspiring against anything blog worthy. For two days I've just sat in a cafe in headington writing my thesis, and last night we went to the pub with friends who just got back from a round the world trip (I drank pimms, ate scallops in a fit of extravagance and an amazing white chocolate creme brulee).

I may do a review of my favourite places to work in Oxford that aren't my lab- because today me and the iPad are off to an icecream shop to get away from the basement an take advantage of the sun

Claire
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