Photo diary: week 3, project 365

After watching Hotel Transylvania 3 on DVD, Eddie's new catchphrase is "Holy moly, that's a lot of guacamole". He was repeating it again this morning, jumping on the bed, while I was ironing. In comes my husband and says: "That's what your mother used to say when we lived in the States". I said: "Actually, that's not true. I used to say Holy Cannoli then".

We're on week 3 of January already, holy moly guacamole! It feels like we were only just getting ready for Christmas, and now it's all about Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies in the shops.

Last Sunday I bought a new French cheese La Baguette. It's a lovely creamy cheese - an absolute treat with oatcakes and muscat grapes.

A quick coffee in the Blue Boar after the school run on Monday morning... This pretty posy was a welcome splash of colour on the otherwise very grey dull day.

Eddie loves Domino's pizza, but the prices are pretty much extortional for a takeaway pizza. I only rarely order it on Tuesdays, when they have a two for one deal.
Eddie fancied trying their new Cheeseburger pizza. It does sound somewhat revolting, but actually is not too bad, if you're a meat eater. Pickles were the best bit.
They have changed their menu a few months ago, removing some of the tastier vegetarian Italian style pizzas. Now the range of vegetarian pizza is a bit on the boring side.

Rather than taking photos of what we eat or Eddie's pics - though he is usually happy to oblige, I tried to do some abstract-ish photos. This is a part of the rain-washed road, with a little reflection in a mini puddle.

A lonely football got stuck in the empty branches of the tree in the school yard.

More of the wet weather shots...

Our favourite Costa is getting closed for refurbishment for a few days. Eddie and I popped in for a drink and a treat before doing the grocery shopping.
We also popped in to the library to check out if they had more books in the Raven's mysteries series by Marcus Sedgwick. I bought the 1st book in the charity shop recently for 99p, and Eddie loved it very much - especially that the main character, the old wise raven, is called Edgar. We were happy to see that they have books 2 and 3 in the series, so we borrowed the 2nd one.

An InLinkz Link-up

Burford garden centre

As always, after holidays I need a "holiday" just to recover afterwards. Our Italian journey was so stressful that my brain has not been functioning properly. I swear I thought the school was supposed to start last Monday, and I was stunned to discover that we had another week of holidays. On one hand, yay, brilliant, we don't need to get up early. On the other hand, how do I keep my guys happy and busy?
On Monday, as happens at every school break, our friend Jen took my guys and me by car to the Burford Garden centre.
There is a lot to see and explore there, and we usually start, visiting the toy shop which has a marvellous phone booth from Dr Who.

Sash loves browsing in the book corner... (all the photos in this post are a mix of our two visits, in February and April, that's why the clothes are different.)

 ...while Eddie runs from one toy to another, trying to convince me we must buy them. I pointedly refuse. The prices in that toy shop are eye-watering. And so are the prices of food in the cafe. £2.75 for a cupcake?! It must be baked with a golden dust.

Coffees for adults, soft drinks and cakes/biccies for the boys. We like to sit by the window.

After a mini-repast we go outside, and look at the plants. There are all kinds of shrubs and flowers, changing from season to season.

I absolutely adore looking at the china sections indoors, both modern, like Emma Bridgewater, and vintage.
The boys find it really boring, so I rarely have a chance to browse to my heart's content.

Back in February I was admiring this lamb pitcher, and didn't realise that Sasha was taking my photo exactly when I was taking a photo of the pitcher. I later found it on my iphone, which he was playing with. He loves taking photos (takes after his Mum, I guess).

This time I wanted to buy some tomato plants but the choice was very limited, and none of the varieties they had appealed to me. We like growing yellow or red cherry tomatoes, which Eddie loves eating in summer straight off the vine.

My guys love the playground outside the car park, and if it's not raining, they enjoy climbing on the wooden frames, tractor or just having fun on the swings. Sash always beams happily, when he's on the swings.

Eddie was proudly showing me his going-down-the-pole technique.

I first visited the Burford garden centre with my friend Trudy and her husband, long before the kids-era. The centre has changed a lot since those days, having expanded a lot. My darling Trudy is no more with us, but I think of her, looking at the beautiful flowers at the garden centre.

Adding this post to #Out&About linky which Alison from Dragons and Fairy Dust and I run together.

And also to the Friday Fabulous linky created by Leta aka Attachment Mummy.

Out and About June Round-up

June is over, there are just a few weeks left until summer holidays, but the school didn't stop our bloggers from having trips and days out. We are a busy and adventurous lot.
North East Family enjoys outdoors, and I am very envious of their trip to the Chester Roman Fort Museum and a tearoom at the Hadrian's Wall. I always wanted to visit the Hadrian's Wall, and hoping one day I will take my guys up north to see this glorious landmark.

North East Family: Hadrian's Wall Museum

Have you ever heard of SUP? No, me neither. Our adventurous Zoe from Splodz Blogz went on a standup paddleboarding trip (SUP). It has been on her bucket list for a while. She loves water sports, and booked a lesson on her recent break at Center Parcs in Elvden Forest. It looks great fun (though I'd rather look at the sportsmen from the shore, if you ask me).

Splodz Blogz: Standup paddleboarding

If you regularly read Zoe's blog Splodz Blogz, you know that she loves hiking. I am full of admiration reading about her adventures. When it comes to packing, Zoe is a professional. She has written a very useful list of essentials and great tips, all based on her own experience.

Splodz Blogz: Tips for your day hike pack

Erica from Nine to Three Thirty took her kids on a bear hunt, or a bear trail of 30 sculptures. They braved the rainy weather to find the colourful bears, each different and unique. The trail took them through the local woods and they ended up in the golf course pavilion.

Nine to Three Thirty: a bear trail

Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews and her trio went on a different kind of hunt. They were fossil-hunting at Cap Blanc Nez. It was a perfect weather for a long walk, and they found plenty of sea treasures.

Madhouse Family Reviews: fossil-hunting

Cheryl's family was also lucky to watch a parade of vintage military vehicles. The Little Ships have come back to Dunkirk for the 70th commemoration of Operation Dynamo and the Evacuation of Dunkirk during the World War II. One of Dunkirk veterans, Arthur Taylor, who's in his 90s was taking part in the parade. What an amazing experience, poignant and heart-warming.

Madhouse Family Reviews: Operation Dynamo

It's not the first time that Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews visited Poland. She stayed in Sopot, a small tourist town and a health resort. I would love to visit the charming Crooked House which is a coffee shop. I wonder if they serve coffee there in crooked cups and saucers?

Madhouse Family Reviews: The Crooked House, Sopot

Alison from Dragons and Fairy Dust visited a Roman fort Segedunum. The fort is the most completely excavated fort in Britain and was a garrison for Roman soldiers for around 300 years. There's a museum and a reconstructed Roman bath house. Alison met not just one Gladiator, but quite a few of them, lucky girl indeed.

Dragons and Fairy Dust: Segedunum

Yet Another Blogging Mummy paid a visit to Bekonscot Model village, which was opened in 1929. Even Her Majesty visited it as a child. Exhibits are still added to it and replaced as well. It was great fun, and her boys enjoyed the train travelling through the village the best. I bet my guys would love it too.

Yet Another Blogging Mummy: Bekonscot Model Village

Eileen from ET Speaks from Home produced a video for Multi Faith school trip. during which children have learnt about Sikh and Hindu religions. It's a great way for school children to learn about different religions and cultures.

ET Speaks from Home: Multi faith school trip

I haven't been anywhere grand in the last month, staying in Witney. I did manage to discover a new (for us) restaurant Meze Lounge which serves Greek and Turkish food.

Chez Maximka: starter at Meze Lounge, Witney

It was a rainy day when Eileen from ET Speaks from Home took her family to Conkers. This is a great family-friendly centre in the National Forest with indoor and outdoor play areas, discovery zones and an amphitheatre. They had a great time, despite the rain. Lots of wonderfully cheerful photos that made me smile.

ET Speaks from Home: Conkers

Zoe from Splodz Blogz knows the most picturesque routes in Britain. She took a lot of beautiful photos along The Stephen Langton Trail, which is a newly devised walking route celebrating 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta. This route is 16.5 miles long, and takes you from Langton-by-Wragby to Lincoln.

Splodz Blogz: chapel along the Stephen Langton Trail

I love food markets, it's a pleasure to wander around the different stalls offering most exciting food products. Alison from Dragons and Fairy Dust went to the Jesmond Food Market which brings together the local food producers and street food traders. If you want to find out what Alison bought at the market, you just have to visit her blog post.

Dragons and Fairy Dust: Jesmond food market

I have never heard of Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium before, but that is where Fiona aka North East Nerd spent a lovely afternoon. You can enjoy your cuppa in a company of cats. The cakes look good too. Admiring the cats doesn't come free, you'll have to pay £6 per person on top of the food bill, and the cats seemed to be rather indifferent to visitors.

North East Nerd: Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

And that's it folks. This month school holidays will start, and I expect our bloggers will be travelling even more.

An InLinkz Link-up

Easter treats at Costa

This morning I invited my friend Jen to have a cup of coffee and sample some hot cross buns in Costa. We dropped our boys at school and met for a cuppa.

We are lucky to have two Costa coffee shops in town. When Sasha was little, we used to frequent a Costa by Waitrose, and he enjoyed a croissant with jam or Linzer biscuit there. These days my husband takes our boys to a new Costa cafe, and they treat themselves to a bag of mini-muffins or croissants.
Sasha enjoys sitting just behind the coffee-making machines on bar stools, and the friendly staff greet us with  smiles. They don't mind Sasha's humming or stimming. And as parents of a child with autism, we appreciate places where we don't have to explain or apologize, it does make a lot of difference. And while I'm on the topic of special-needs-friendly cafes in town, Huffkins and Sainsbury's cafe deserve a mention as well.
I often have a quick cup of latte there, and it is the best cup of latte in town (Costa and the pub Fleece share the 1st place in Witney's latte-o-meter). So, I easily believe that Costa has been awarded "Best Branded Coffee Shop chain in the UK" for five years running. They consistently serve a good quality coffee, and whenever we travel, we usually stop by in Costa for a cup of coffee and snacks.

This morning we sampled some Easter teacakes from Costa's new Easter menu. Often teacakes have a dry, cotton-woolly texture. Costa's teacakes were soft, sweet and jam-packed with juicy sultanas and Chilean flame raisins. Toasted and buttered, they were a lovely snack with our coffee.

Both Jen and I agreed, that the fruit content was very high and the texture was nice. We also agreed that these were child-friendly mild-flavoured teacakes, i.e.not too spicy. I would have liked a spicier flavour, but this is a matter of personal taste. All in all, it was a lovely treat (albeit on a humongous side; I'm glad I skipped my breakfast, as it was a very big teacake).

The new Easter menu includes a Chocolate Cornflake Crunch, which we haven't tried, but I can imagine it would appeal to my guys.

And if you don't fancy traditional Easter treats, how about a new addition to the range of pastries like a pecan and maple muffin, malty chocolatey crunch and mini lemon and raspberry cake?
I'm sure in time we'll try them all.
What will you choose with your cup of coffee?

Did you know that Costa was founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971? No wonder, Costa knows how make a good cup of coffee, as they introduced an Italian coffee-making culture in this country.

Disclaimer: I received a £5 gift card to sample a new Easter range at Costa. All opinions are ours.

Burford Garden Centre

We love visiting the Burford garden centre whenever we have a chance to go there by car. Last week our friend Jen offered to be our driver and take us there, as she knows how much my boys and I enjoy the trip. There is so much to see and do, both indoors and outdoors, as it is a big house and garden shopping centre. Eddie always has to stop in a toy shop. This time he was much taken by a Le Toy Van wooden coffee maker. He pretended to be a barista and offered me a cup of coffee.

In the meantime, Sasha was browsing the book shelves.

And of course, he had to try a couple of outfits. He couldn't choose which one he liked more: a pirate's costume or a knight's one.

After admiring the toys and books, we stopped for a cup of coffee, soft drinks and croissants in the garden centre's cafe.

The croissants were just fresh from the oven, hot and flaky. The latte was very decent. On a latte-o-meter I'd score it 4/5. The cafe provides a big variety of cakes and bakes. While the pastries are reasonably priced, some of the prices made me wince. A bottle of Coca Cola for £2.50 and a banana or an apple for a pound seems a total racket. And while I don't mind paying a little bit more for foods made on the premises, I resent paying a pound for a banana. That is just ridiculous.

Feeling fortified and full of beans, my guys loved running around outside. We visited most of the greenhouses and summerhouses on display. We already got a summerhouse from the garden centre, much loved and used, so we were just looking around, without any plans to buy another one.
Eddie ran, Sasha ran, Jen and I chased after them.

Back to the indoors department, all festooned for Christmas. Both boys loved the freestanding LED reindeer decorations. Eddie begged me to buy one. Sorry, Eddie...

We even found the reindeer made of dried citrus with spices. The smell was absolutely gorgeous, and the reindeer looked utterly cute as well.

I allowed myself to have a quick look in the vintage china department. I could spend hours there, but my guys find it boring.

The Blue Willow pattern is one of my favourites, and I haven't seen it in these shapes before. I was very tempted by these pickle dishes but resisted.

In the end I treated myself to an Emma Bridgewater Halloween mug. They were at half price, and I love Emma Bridgewater's mugs.
The road to Burford is very picturesque, there are some stunning views of the faraway fields and hills, and the trip always makes me wonder that this part of England has become my home.

Have you been out and about this month? If you have a review of eating out or visiting a place of interest, please come and join in Out & About linky.

To join in, please add the post to the linky.
You may use any post about going out, but please a recent one, not more than 3 months old.
I promise to repin each post added to the linky, leave a comment, RT and give a G+.
Please use a badge for Out & About and link back to hosts: Chez Maximka blog as well as Dragons and Fairy Dust. This linky will close on 30 November 2014

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