Our top five is a little late this week as we have been off on our pre-Christmas holidays to Copenhagen. We love Denmark and Copenhagen and we will be blogging more about our trip later in the week. Let’s get back into the swing of things and take a look at this week’s top five.

One

Having a dog means lie-ins are a thing of the past. On the cold and frosty morning, we have been having later it can be quite a chore to drag ourselves out of bed.  However when it is a bright and clear morning the rewards are great, like this hard frost that covered Horsell common last week, it was magical!

Two

As we are still without permanent abode we won’t have our own Christmas Tree this year (don’t worry we’ll be fully involved in putting up the decorations in the cottage) But we have invested in this mini tree to liven up our room!

Three

We are loving these mini battery festoon lights we got from Ikea (they are called Stråla in case you were wondering) we have strung these up behind the bed, they makes the room lovely and cosy.

Four

As mentioned above we recently returned from Denmark, a country that knows how to celebrate Christmas well. Whilst walking around Helsingør, a small town north of Copenhagen we found this beautiful florist, a perfect shop selling perfect plants to decorate for Christmas.

Five

With all the stunning shops, decorations and interiors, we saw when we were in Denmark we had a bit if inspiration overload.  To help with the inspiration we picked up a few Scandinavian interiors magazines – a Danish one, a Swedish one and a Norwegian one!

We are now well and truly back to full health, thank goodness for that! Let’s hope we stay healthy and full of beans for the rest of the year! To celebrate being back up and running we had a pretty busy weekend full of fun stuff, let’s take a look at this week’s top five

One

Aren’t these little guys cute? We picked this up at the annual Scandinavian Christmas Market in London.  Located on Albion Street in Rotherhide and conveniently between the Norwegian Church and the Finnish Church.  The market is a celebration of all things nordic and festive and is a great day out.  The market isn’t huge but it is perfectly formed. There were stalls to buy lots of gifts from, as well as many serving scandi food and drink (we enjoyed the glögg).  Inside the two Churches, there are further stalls and places to eat. It  is a great little day out!

Two

On Saturday we headed to Twickenham to watch England play Fiji as part of the Old Mutual Wealth Series.  We love heading to Twickenham to have a few beers and  watch the rugby. It was a good game with England winning 58 – 15. After the match, we headed to Hampton Wick where we used to live, to have another couple of pints and a curry. A good day out!

Three

One advantage of having a florist in the family is that we are often given leftover flowers. On Saturday Rich’s mum did a large event with lots of table displays.  When we got home we found she had made us a small arrangement using the left over roses. It made us very happy!

Four

As if we weren’t feeling Christmassy enough having for to the Scandinavian Christmas market on Friday, we headed to the Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market on Sunday too! The market is now in its 10th year and is going from strength to strength.  There are 100 stalls, plenty of food and drink options and an even an ice rink! If you visit on Sunday 11th or 18th December there is a family carol concert in the cathedral too

Five

We love beer, we love our dogs. What better way than to enjoy a beer with our dog? We discovered this doggie friendly beer in Pets At Home at the weekend and we thought it was a great idea so we picked some up as a present for Hettie so next time we have a beer she can have one too!

Hooray, we are on the mend! Hopefully, that is our illness out of the way now and we can start to enjoy ourselves. It is getting pretty busy between now and Christmas, we can’t believe it is only 40 days away, we better start getting organised.  But first, let’s have a look at this week’s top five.

One

On Friday it was the annual day of Remberance for those who lost their lives during World War I, II and the more recent conflicts.  We always pause and pay respects for the two minutes at 11am on Remberance day and Remembrance Sunday.  A worthy thing to do as a frequent reminder of the few who gave their lives for us to live peacefully.

Two

It is great to be able to get out and about again with Hettie. We took this snap on Sunday morning, it was a beautiful misty and mellow morning, and it was great to be outside to enjoy it!

Three

In just over two weeks we are heading to Copenhagen for a pre-Christmas getaway. We are beyond excited and are busy planning what to do.  There will be plenty of  castles, history and culture.  We’ll also be sampling the best of the city’s food and drink. We can’t wait! If you have any tips please let us know.

Four

We love Christmas, really really love Christmas! To help with this year’s planning we have been buried nose deep in all our favourite magazines’ Christmas editions. We’ll soon be getting the decorations out for their annual audit and then it is Christmas all the way!

Five

Continuing the Christmas theme we bought Jamie Olivers new Christmas cookbook.  This Christmas Calum is cooking so any help is going to be very much appreciated. Jamie (along with Nigella and Delia) will be helping us out!

Hello, so you may have noticed we’ve been a bit quiet of late? We’d like to pretend it’s because we have been really really busy, alas not. We have both been ill, with Rich doing especially well as he caught pneumonia! We’re on the mend now and will be up and running properly again soon.  In the meantime let’s have a look at five things that have been keeping us chipper!

One

It is nice that people are thinking about us when we are not doing very well. Rich’s best friend Nikki sent flowers, a particularly lovely thing to do! And our Godson, Dexter (age 1 3/4), made us this wonderful get well soon card. It is the little things that brighten your day!

Two

It has got pretty chilly in our part of the world of late. We have been bundling ourselves up to keep warm. It is also cold enough for the first fire of the season at Rich’s folk’s cottage. When you are feeling poorly there is nothing better than being snuggled up next to an open fire. Bliss!

Three

Despite being cold it has been glorious clear weather around our neck of the woods.  Being couped up inside means we haven’t been about to get out and enjoy the glorious colours of autumn. Having said that the garden has been a riot of colour so we have been able to enjoy it a bit.

Four

We have a dilemma, Halloween is over so we really should be taking our autumn decorations down.  But we are loving having these decorations about. In the USA they have the excuse to keep on going until Thanksgiving. We love thanksgiving so perhaps we should use that as our reasoning?

Five

One advantage of being sick in 2016 is that due to Netflix we no longer have to put up with bad daytime TV.  Firstly we got a little bit hooked on The Gilmore Girls which is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Since Friday we have been loving The Crown, a really heavyweight drama that is just pure quality!

The last week has been a little busy us.  Lots of things coming up in the next few months that are going to keep us both occupied!  That said our week was also fairly eventful, so let’s have a look at our top five.

One

A Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks is the perfect treat for Autumn.  The PSL are the perfect accompaniment to any days that start off with a crisp feel to the air.

Two

Our adventuring minds always think of fantastic holidays to go on and different places to visit.  We tend to wonder and get lost every time the Lonely Planet magazine turns up at the door.  The beautiful photography and great travel tips are perfect inspiration for any travel planning sessions!

Three

On Sunday, Rich’s parents were out in the garden finishing off those last jobs before Winter sets in.  On a brief tea break, Rich caught a quick picture of them.  They love the garden and spend a lot of time out there when they can. To be fair, we also love the garden and look forward to having our own.

Four

At this time of year, our walks on Horsell Common are stunning.  If you are on a walk and catch it at the right time of day, the misty dawns and golden evenings add to the picturesque views.

Five

On the 4th October it is national Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden.  The day has been celebrated every year since 1999 and it is a worthy day to celebrate.  We made our own buns this year using the book Scandinavian Baking: Love Baking at Home, by Trine Hahnemann.  It is safe to say that Cinnamon Bun Day is certainly something will we be celebrating again next year!

Hello September. We’re getting back into the swing of things after the summer. Autumn and Christmas are looking alarmingly imminent, mind you we have plenty to look forward to so we should complain. Let’s take a look at this week’s top five:

One

Over the weekend Woking held a Food Festival. Although we live nearby we don’t often go into Woking, preferring Guildford or Kingston. We are glad we went in on Sunday though, the town was buzzing, and there was so much delicious food and drink to choose from. It was much busier than we were expecting, and the event was much larger.  It really was a great event. the organisers should be proud.

Two

This week we took delivery of a large batch of logs to prepare for the colder weather. One of the advantages of temporary living at Rich’s Folks cottage is the ability to snuggle up on a cosy winter’s night in front of a log fire. It is very hygge, which neatly brings us to our next entry…

Three

If you are not sure what Hygge is we’ll be writing more about it in the future.  But for now, you just need to know it is it is one of our favourite things in the world! This week The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking was released, it is one of umpteen books on Hygge coming out this year.  We are going to try and resist buying them all but we can’t promise anything. Miek’s book looks really interesting, we can’t wait to read it.

Four

Although our heads are full of thoughts of autumn the weather is actually still pretty hot and humid. On these sweltering days we like nothing more than an ice cold drink, and this week we are loving classic coke from a glass bottle. Yes it is not the healthiest drink, but sometimes you can’t beat it!

Five

Finally, this week our lovely little niece turned four. She celebrated with a party, a trip to the zoo and of course a lovely birthday cake. We joined her for the cake (obviously) it was wonderful to see the excitement of a four year old on her birthday. Oh to be young again!

August Bank Holiday is the traditional end of the summer holidays. Even years after leaving school we still get that sort of end of holidays melancholy, but we plenty to look forward to the autumn so it won’t last long! Plenty of things are still cheering us up, let’s lake a look:

One

We spent our bank holiday down in north Devon (more of that later this week) but we managed to pick up some local beer from Braunton Brewery, we are loving it.  I am sure we could probably buy it from somewhere closer, but the beer is as good a reason as any to head back down that way! Find out more.

Two

Another west country staple is a cream tea. A scone with jam and clotted cream is one one of our favourite treats. Although there is much discussion about what goes on first, Jam (the Cornish way) or Cream (the Devonian way). Calum has his own approach making a scone sandwich with jam one side and cream on the other. Whichever way you eat one they are absolutely delicious!

Three

Last Thursday was National Burger Day. We kid you not, this is an official thing and quite frankly this is a national day we can firmly get behind. We love a cheese and bacon burger in a lightly toasted brioche bun with some relish and some crispy lettuce. Gherkins are a tasty addition too.

Four

So it seems we now have a glut of home grown tomatoes! Calum will soon be cooking up batches and batches of tomato chutney and other recipes. Not that we mind, who doesn’t like a good chutney?

Five

Lots of the garden flowers have gone over now, but some are just coming into there own such as this Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ we spotted when out and about. It has to be a perfect late summer plant, masses of bright yellow flowers to keep us cheery!