Sheepleas

Sheepleas (or Shere woods as my husband called it for thirty years) is where “The PODfather” used to walk with his grandparents and their dogs when he was little. This is the only reason we know it exists. He has lots of  fond memories, including watching the elderly patriarch Springer Spaniel slowly sniffing out a particularly good place to do his business, only to have his hyper active son bound over and pee on his head. Hilarious stuff to a 10 year old boy. The offending dog in question was called Brek, as he refused to eat anything but Ready Brek as a puppy. Brek later survived leaping over a barbed wire fence in pursuit of a rabbit, returning  empty handed and ready for the next chase, unaware that he’d practically disemboweled himself. Thankfully he lived to a ripe old age.

Managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust, the Sheepleas Nature Reserve lies on the chalk slopes of the North Downs within the Surrey Hills area of outstanding natural beauty. The area is a myriad of ancient and recent woodland and grassland, it’s beautiful.

The beech woodlands were widely accepted as one of the best woodland areas in the county before they were partly destroyed in the storms of 1987. It seems the years since have seen the spread of naturally regenerated ash in the place of beech and an increase in grassland areas. The mixture of habitats supports so much wildlife that Sheepleas has been designated a site of specific scientific interest.

For those of you without a toddler in tow, there are two different trails you can follow – one passing through the downland areas and one passing through the woodland. The Grassland Trail starts at Shere Road or St Mary’s car parks and provides easy walking with some gentle slopes, no kissing gates or stiles. It takes about 1.5 hours and the route is waymarked by green arrows.

Alternatively the Woodland Trail starts from Green Dene car park and provides easy walking with some slopes and narrow tracks, no kissing gates or stiles. This trail takes about 1 1/4 hours and is waymarked by white arrows.

I’m afraid following a trail is not something I seem to particularly excel at. It started in the eighties when I failed to follow a path of flour on a school trip at Cuffley Camp. Although me and my giggling counterpart were rescued when we got lost and darkness fell, the experience has stayed with me.

Fast forward to 2008 and we’re in New Zealand. A recommendation from a couple of indigenous friends was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, described by our (fit) chums as a ‘nice walk’. It’s actually a World-renowned trek in-between three active (yes I did say active) volcanic peaks and ranked as one of the top ten single day treks in the World.

Had I known this I would have stayed in front of the fire with a nice cold lager rather than spending an entire day walking twenty kilometres with two broken toes. That said the views were simply incredible.

So back to Sheepleas. If you don’t fancy taking one of the trails at Sheepleas just do what we did, have a wander. It’s beautifully unspoiled, incredibly peaceful and, considering it’s in Surrey Hills, it’s not especially hilly.

Sheepleas (The)
Shere Road
West Horsley
Surrey 
KT24 6EP
 

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories is a regular feature on the PODcast ‘grappling with a box of frogs’ blog that focuses on POD’s favourite story.

It’s no surprise that the first book to feature in Bedtime Stories is an absolute gem from the superbly talented duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

The Snail and the Whale is thought to be Julia Donaldson’s favourite of all the books she’s written for Axel Scheffler to illustrate. Potentially because Julia felt she captured something of the soulful whimsy of the Edward Lear poems she enjoyed as a child.

It’s easy to understand why with a book that starts ‘this is the tale of a tiny snail and a great big, grey-blue humpback whale. This is a rock as black as soot, and this is the snail with the itchy foot’.

The Snail and the Whale tells the story of a sea snail that longs to sail much to the disapproval of the flock. Having left a silvery trail with the words ‘ lift wanted around the world’, the snail is offered the tail of a humpback whale with the promise of ‘shimmering ice and coral caves and shooting stars and enormous waves’.

The whale carries the snail on his tail on an amazing journey to far-off lands, fiery mountains and golden sands. Until the whale loses his way and swims too close to the shore and beaches himself.

Proving size is no obstacle, the snail with the itchy foot saves the whale by leaving a ‘save the whale’ trail on a blackboard in a local school. The whale is rescued by the villagers and firemen who spray him to keep him cool and before long the whale and the snail swim safely away.

Back at the dock the whale and the snail tell their wonderful tail. And how the snail saved the life of the humpback whale. The whale then holds out his tail and on crawls snail after snail after snail.

So the great big, grey-blue humpback helped a tiny snail that longed to sail. The tiny snail saved the whale when its was lying beached in the bay. So don’t follow the flock, explore your dreams and regardless of the size of the task in hand, there’s always a way to help a friend in need.

The Snail and the Whale is truly wonderful. The words flow beautifully and the illustrations mirror the words perfectly. It’s also an incredibly calming tale and POD’s favourite book this week by a country mile.

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Published by Macmillan Children’s Books 
ISBN: 978-0-333-98224-2
Available to buy on Amazon (RRP £6.99)
 
 
 
 

Giraffe sausage

After the usual Christmas excess (a new record this year, we were still eating turkey and Christmas cake on the 29th) we decided to forgo lunch at home and take POD to one of her favourite restaurants, Giraffe in Guildford.

A perennial family favourite, Giraffe rarely fails to deliver a relaxing and tasty dining experience. This visit was no exception.

Resplendent in her 20s inspired woolly dress and hat POD strode in ready to do battle with one of their kids’ meals. The welcome, as always was very friendly and there was already a high chair at our table waiting to be filled.

Strapped in and furnished with crayons and a colouring-in page of giraffes, POD was like the proverbial pig (albeit an absolutely gorgeous one!)

Within minutes our waitress had introduced herself (not in an American, ‘” hi my name is Missie I’ll be your etc…”) and took our full order, drinks and food, including sausage, beans and mash for POD and a Mango Mama smoothie for Mummy.
POD’s a good water drinker so that’s her usual food accompaniment. However, when the Mango Mama arrived, visually appealing with its orange and red hue, she immediately said “what’s this?!” Delivered with equal amounts of gusto and wonder each time, this has become her stock phrase.

Other than Daddy’s back scratcher, which elicited multiple “what’s this’” as she clearly wasn’t convinced of the answer, a brief description normally suffices. Of course with something as exciting looking as the Mango Mama, a quick taste was required. POD slurped away enthusiastically on the straw. Needless to say Mummy was quickly in danger of losing her drink, so we ordered a special POD size equivalent.

The sausage and mash came soon afterwards, allowing us just the right amount of time to give the giraffes blue eyes and yellow hooves. Before I could reach for POD’s spoon she speared one of the very meaty looking sausages (they were, I tested them ) with the adult sized fork provided and began chomping away. Given that the fork was about half the size of her arm this was no mean feat, and made us giggle.

I had the Super Healthy Veggie and Oregano Feta Salad, my husband the Grilled Chicken, Tiger Prawn and Mango salad.

Both disappeared in seconds and were an extremely welcome respite from the self-inflicted over indulgence of the past week. Unfortunately my stomach has stretched so much over the festive period that I was forced to have the Chocolate Brownie for pud to satiate my food lust.

215-217 High Street
Guildford
GU1 3BJ
01483 300237
 
 

Is there room on the broom?

IMG_7748Is there room on the broom for POD? If there were, she’d be on it every night! There are ‘weetch’ requests on a daily basis whether it’s for the sound book, the book or the film adaptation. POD loves all the characters but has a particular fondness for the lady herself. Especially when she’s captured by the witch and chip eating dragon.

Room on the Broom is an enthralling tale of friendship that was magnificently adapted for BBC One on over the festive period by Magic Light Pictures, the producers of the hugely successful The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child. The award-winning book recently topped the bestseller list in America.

Room On The BroomRoom on the Broom was penned by Children’s Laureat Julia Donaldon MBE and illustrator Axel Scheffler. It tells the magical story of a kind witch who invites a collection of animals to join her on her broom, (despite the protests of her cat in the animated film).

The posse ultimately saves the witch from being lunch for a fearsome dragon, and as gratitude, the witch rewards them with a magnificent new broom which has room for everyone.

This beautifully animated film was narrated by the fabulous Simon Pegg. Best known for co-writing and starring in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced. The six characters were voiced by the equally superb acting talents of Gillian Anderson (Witch), Rob Brydon (Cat), Martin Clunes (Dog), Sally Hawkins (Bird), David Walliams (Frog) and Timothy Spall (Dragon).

Everyone should see the Room on the Broom film, it’s truly fabulous, click here to view a clip if you missed it. The 25 minute DVD is also now available on Amazon.

From an array of books, activities and toys to the animated film and the live stage show, Room on the Broom spans a wide range of media channels. Further information can be found at the Room on the Broom website.

The success of Room on the Broom has been phenomenal, coupled with the much loved Gruffalo, Stick Man, the charming Snail and the Whale and many more, are Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler the greatest storytellers of their generation?

Image credit: © 2001 & TM Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler

Tissue paper jellyfish

The Doves’ first foray into the world of arts & crafts is creating fabulous Tissue Paper Jellyfish. It will be a challenge. I broke my wrist at the point of rotation a year ago. Despite inheriting some impressive afro comb like metalwork, it’s not in good shape. So our arts & crafts journey begins with me owning a wrist that quite frankly belongs to a 102-year-old. POD is just great but she’s just turned two and she’s a climber. She doesn’t do sitting still well unless she’s eating or watching Peppa Pig.

Our quest to make Tissue Paper Jellyfish started well. We painted some A4 card with thick layers of blue paint so all the brush marks showed. It was hugely convenient we didn’t need to let the paint dry before adding another layer. Time is of the essence when you’re keeping a toddler entertained.

We then put the card to one side so we could create the jellyfish. Making a simply jellyfish is a straightforward process as you just cut a domed shape for the body. Each of your jellyfish shapes should then be glued onto another piece of paper. I would presume this is to ensure the paint doesn’t seep through your tissue paper jellyfish shapes when they’re stuck on the wet painted card.

We omitted the process of sticking the tissue paper to another piece of paper because at that point POD decided to do her human fan impression. She whirled splayed arms across the table at high speed sending our tissue paper shapes off the table like birds in flight. Unfortunately she also managed to ‘blow’ a full cup of tepid coffee everywhere.

If you’ve ever wondered how much liquid a cup of coffee can hold, it’s about 842 litres. We said goodbye to the beautifully crafted body shapes we’d created as we scooped up the soggy remains. Thirty minutes later we were back on track following a brief entertainment break.

We cut out some more tissue paper jellyfish shapes (in our haste forgetting to attach them to paper) then stuck them to our snazzy blue painted card. We glued a darker piece of tissue paper, shaped like a leaf, to these for the underside of the jellyfish.

We also made spotted jellyfish by gluing some tissue paper spots onto the jellyfish’s body and painting on spots. And we created a double body jellyfish by cutting two different body shapes and gluing them together. Although striped jellyfish could be created by cutting curved stripes from tissue paper and gluing them onto the body, we lost a true work of art in the coffee tsunami. We decided to paint our tentacles white although you can draw them too.

Our fish would have been amazing if we had chocolate wrappers or shiny wrapping paper but we didn’t. So we improvised using green tissue paper instead. It’s fair to say you will never see a fish that looks like the ones we created.

So here we are. The Doves initial dabble into the world of arts & crafts.

Tissue paper jellyfish was taken from the book ‘365 things to do with paper and cardboard’ by Usborne Activities.

 

Bye bye ducks, see you later

You’d think after two years living in Guildford we would have visited RHS Wisley on many occasions.  It’s the RHS flagship garden, only 15 minutes drive away and everyone raves about it. Shamefully, we’d not visited to see what all the fuss is about. It’s not that we didn’t want to go, we really did, we’d just hadn’t found time.

The Doves spent the entire festive period entertaining, over indulging and watching television. Once our visitors had left and we were a three person family again, we were definitely overdue a day out. Even though it had rained solidly for days. And yes it was STILL raining.

We looked at suitable places to take POD that offered some kind of shelter. Then it hit us. We’d still not visited RHS Wisley. And RHS Wisley had a glasshouse. We left the house with such enthusiasm that we forgot our wellies, hats and an umbrella but it really didn’t matter. We even saw a glimmer of brightness in-between the black grey clouds. In typical British fashion though the rain re-appeared when we got out of the car!

But the Doves were at RHS Wisley. For the very first time. Today was RHS Wisley day.

On arrival we were provided with a map and advised which route to take. At this point the rain was like a tropical monsoon so we speedily made our way to the confines of The Glasshouse.

The Glasshouse looked pretty impressive. Tranquility greeted us at the entrance and POD was duly released from her buggy. The Glasshouse has three climatic zones, recreating tropical, moist temperature and dry temperature habitats. It also features a special interactive Root Zone, the Clore Learning Centre and the Horticultural Theatre. It really had been built to the highest specification, using the most up-to-date technological advances with tempered glass allowing maximum light transmission, greater strength, wind resistance and thermal efficiency.

RHS Wisley describes The Glasshouse as ‘The World under Glass’. And it truly is a world tour of plants from every corner of the globe. Not only that it was fascinating and felt rather magical somehow. The Glasshouse definitely takes you on a journey of discovery while you pass rocky outcrops, waterfalls, still pools and sloping gradients.

Raised viewing platforms were also located at various points so you could experience what you were seeing from unusual vantage points. If you look closely in the waterfall photograph, you’ll see POD with Daddy behind the water.

The Dry temperature zone appears sparsely planted but it contains a rich diversity of tough, slowing growing and often prickly plants growing amongst the scree and rocks. This included desert cacti and succulents from
countries including Chile, South Africa, Madagascar and Australia.

The Moist temperature zone is kept humid and houses native plants of the forests from South America and Australasia as well as parts of Cornwall and Scotland. A groundcover of ferns  and other plants grows beneath the understorey of shrubs and epiphytes, which are in turn shaded by a canopy of trees and tree ferns.

The Tropical zone contained lush foliage and dramatic flowers that flourish in heat and humidity. The combination of heat and moisture promotes fast growth, immense leaf size and extravagant, brightly coloured flowers.

Look out for banana, bromeliads, palm trees and fast-growing climbers, as well as familiar houseplants growing here to their natural sizes, such as the Swiss cheese plant and giant Maidenhair fern. This was our favourite zone in The Glasshouse, not least because it reminded me of times gone by when I lived in Australia (albeit not in a rain forest).

Whilst in The Glasshouse, we also visited the UK’s first root zone. This is an interactive area where you can learn about the interrelation between plant, plant health and what takes place underground. POD thoroughly enjoyed pressing every available button.

On leaving The Glasshouse, we were delighted to find the rain had eased slightly. Although a shorter walk than we would have liked, we did get to see a bit more of what RHS Wisley had to offer. And POD absolutely loved the ducks. There was much excitement when she spotted them initially. When we said goodbye, POD waved at them and said ‘bye bye ducks, see you later’ in a way only a two-year-old can.

So ‘bye bye, see you later’ summed up our visit to RHS Wisley. It was utterly fabulous and we’ll be back very soon because we are now RHS members. And because we are desperate to see those butterflies in The Glasshouse.

 

 

 

 

A chip in a car park

 

As we’re usually accompanied by a small, but definitely seen and heard, diner, the chance to be a table for two for lunch was extremely appealing. It’s been a while.

On the recommendation of my husband’s hairdresser (he said barber, but they not only talked “where have you eaten recently, but the ubiquitous “where have you been on holiday?”) we headed for CAU, at the top of town in  Guildford.

Argentinian steakhouses are something of a favourite of ours. My husband and I met whilst working in Clapham, at the same company and on the same cluster! Clapham is well served by La Pampa Grill, with 2 venues minutes apart. The dining experience is rustic, think wooden tables with candles, the service authentic (well they have Spanish accents) and the steaks delicious and bountiful. We were frequent visitors.

CAU has taken a very different approach. That’s not to say it’s the wrong one. But, not the way I would have gone. I imagine when they briefed their interior designers there was a lot of ‘clean, simple, contemporary’ bandied around. White leatherette banquettes and postage stamp black wooden tables complete the look.

It was Tuesday afternoon, about 12.30 and there were 4 other people dining. Nonetheless on entry we were asked if we’d booked a table. They managed to squeeze us in and we were shown to the end of one banquette. It’s been almost 2 years since POD make her appearance and I’ve managed to get back down to a size 12. However the gap between the tables is proportionate to their size and I duly sent next doors salt and pepper grinders crashing to the floor, with my clearly still massive posterior.

Once seated I had a grand view of the empty restaurant, unfortunately a cursory glance to the left and my husband found he was sitting next to the door to the utility room. Or so the bin and dust pan and brush clearly visible through the open door would suggest. We’ve both long abandoned the ‘don’t make a fuss we’re English policy, so, politely asked that we relocate, which we were without incident.

The waitress was swift to take our order, and had an accent, all good. I plumped for the 8oz sirloin my husband the Ribeye, with skinny chips, buttered leeks and causlaw, their proprietary coleslaw. We didn’t have to wait long, during which we witnessed another ‘obese’ woman dash the condiments across a table as she manoeuvred her enormous frame onto the banquette. She was a size 10 at the most.

On arrival both steaks were cooked to perfection, medium and medium rare respectively. The skinny chips came in their very own mini frying basket and were equally as tasty, crisp on the outside fluffy in. The buttered leeks didn’t disappoint either. However, with a glass of Sav Blanc for me a fat coke for my husband (driving), a bottle of water and glasses, the table was now heaving. Luckily we were both ravenous and the adjoining table (almost literally) was unoccupied, so we were quickly able to dump our empty veg receptacles.

A fully cleared table, short break, as we watched the place fill up. It did get surprisingly busy. And we were ready for dessert. Well I was. Mr ‘I’ll just have a peppermint tea’ suddenly materialised in the place of the ‘I’ve eaten the whole tub of Vanilla Haagen Dazs’ I get at home. The chocolate fondant sounded too good to miss and although there was wait, for which I was not pre-warned , when it did come it was just what the doctor ordered. Once I’d breached the outer sponge I watched in awe as the warm chocolate centre cascaded onto the plate. The mint tea was apparently quite nice too.

All in all I would recommend a trip to CAU for any steak lovers. The food is delicious and reasonably priced.

However, the dining experience did make me think of a story I heard about the Business Development Manager of an experiential marketing agency and the Marketing Director of a leading oven chip brand.

The BDM was extolling the virtues of using experiential marketing – when brands create an opportunity for consumers to meet, try, taste, experience their products. At the time there had been several campaigns using the outside space at supermarkets for this very purpose. The Marketing Director’s response to this pitch was simply. ‘A chip in a car park…is a chip in a car park.’

Clearly he or she missed the point, as experiential can be a fantastic channel for brands. However, the point is, if the experience doesn’t deliver on all fronts then however great your product may be, what your customers will remember is not how delicious their steak was, but how you made them feel they have a massive arse.

CAU Restaurants
174 High Street 
Guildford 
Surrey 
GU1 3JL
01483 459 777
guildford@caurestaurants.com