Snapshots from my week

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween, friends! Are you celebrating All Hallows Eve or are you holing up inside with the lights turned off?

I know some people feel annoyed by Halloween, as they resent an American holiday coming over here and getting our kids all hopped up on sugar (not a valid point of view anyway as it completely ignores the fact that Halloween was a Celtic import to the US, not the other way around!). But I think there’s something really special about it, and I love getting adorable little trick or treaters coming to my door – they’re so cute!

 

 Last weekend I headed to the Bramley Apple Festival in Southwell, a quaint town about 45 minutes away from Nottingham.

It was such a beautiful autumnal day! The bramley apple was invented (well, first propagated!) in Southwell which is why the town has the annual festival.

A food and drink market is held in Southwell Minster, with lots of delicious foods on offer from local producers. I picked up some challah bread and a delicious chocolate fudge brownie.

The shops in Southwell compete for the best apple-themed window display. They’re always absolutely amazing and this year was no exception – meet Bramleyasaurus! She actually moved around!

There’s also a competition for Bramley king and queen, which is a costume competition for little kids (well, their parents!). The costumes this year were incredible!

 Finley had a great time and has mastered clapping – he spent the whole time applauding the winners!

 We headed over to Lucy’s house for a spot of lunch – she made us delicious butternut squash soup, as well as leek and potato! They were both SO good!

 I did A LOT of baking last weekend! I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, homemade oreo’s, and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze! I was really happy with how they all turned out – I finally feel like I really mastered cinnamon rolls properly – they turned out great!

The cinnamon rolls were for the Halloween edition of Cake Club Notts! It was SUCH a good one. There were less (even none!) chocolate orange cakes this year – people had diversified a bit with sticky toffee cakes, pumpkin cakes, and even a massive S’mores cake! Everything was delicious but I went for an oatmeal creme pie (actual recipe here!) and a slice of sour cherry and chocolate bread – sooo good!

I did also have a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting which I took home with me, but sadly I left it unattended in my kitchen and the kitties nobbled it! Naughty kitties!

On Monday I headed out for cocktails to say goodbye to our friend Trista who’s moving to Sweden for six months! We’re going to miss her lots. We went to Revolution for their happy hour cocktails and half price food (on Monday’s). I have to say the food there is pretty tasty for a chain!

 Speaking of autumnal/halloween things – here are my autumn/halloween decorations! I’ve got a pumpkinny mantlepiece and quite a few decorations for my party tonight. My lovely friend Emma also brought me back some candy corn from the US – my first time trying it! It has an interesting flavour (not like corn!).

I was pretty proud of myself this week for managing to change my flat tire on my bike! It might seem unimpressive but I haven’t had a flat for a couple of years and had almost completely forgotten how to do it! Go me!

Happy Halloween weekend friends! Are you celebrating this weekend?

 

 x Kerry

 

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