Nothing quite cures a headache like a bit of outdoors, and I've learnt this weekend that London has its fair share of outdoors! I've also learnt this week that:

1) Bus drivers are really grumpy when the weather is particularly bad
2) There are many wonderful wide-open spaces in London waiting to be discovered
3) Working until 11pm every night is Very Bad Indeed
4) A little cake goes a long way to lifting the spirits
5) I've really gone off TV in a big way.

But back to Kew.






















Who would have thought that you'd find something as wonderful as this in London Town? Yes, the skies were a bit grey, but just look! I've been reading a lot of gardening theory lately as I work on my essay proposal for university purposes (a work in progress that I've been doing on and off these last few years in England) and it was really lovely to finally make the trek across town to Kew Gardens.

















But first: Let Them Eat Cake. I made the trip with the EEWI ladies as this month we did something rather different for our coffee morning. By the by, that's a chocolate banana cake. Doesn't it look decadent?

















I chose a rather delicious chocolate and pear muffin (which I couldn't finish) and we sipped on coffee and discussed quilting (as you do) at the Orange Tree. The Orange Tree is a sort of canteen-style dining area, but it's much nicer as you have the option to sit outside and admire the surrounds as you fill up on energy for the long walk around.

















And so, once fuelled and ready to go, we gathered our forces and split ways to explore the lovely Kew Gardens. Karin was an exceptional guide as she took us from greenhouse to greenhouse, along paths and through walks. The plant above is claimed to be the oldest living pot plant in the world (it made its way to Kew in 1770) - and it's from home, South Africa.

















Doesn't it have the most wonderful texture?

















I particularly wanted to see the waterlillies that were 'so big a child could sit on them'. No way. No way.

















It just goes to show that you really do have to believe, sometimes. Because the impossible isn't really that impossible. Look at how enormous they are!


The colours and textures all work together beautifully to create a very inspirational palette indeed. I particularly love these colours and the hue variations with the light yellows and lilacs against the dark crocodile black and green.

















And these. Well. These are David LivingStones. That's what I called them; they're actually stone plants (Lithops) - living stones - and they disguise themselves as pebbles to avoid being eaten by predators. I thought they looked like brains. Who would want to eat brains? They sold these in the Kew Shop and I was oh-so-tempted to take a few David LivingStones home with me for my desk.

















All in all, a jolly fine day - and a lovely outing about town with the EEWI ladies who always seem to be in such good spirits. It was the perfect break from a series of Quite Horrible Days, and gave me a boost of energy to get through the last of the project I was working on. Back to normal working days for a while now, hurrah!

And so, we went camping.

It wasn't as nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting freezing cold nights with the rain beating down inside of our tent. I was expecting bugs and creepy crawlies coming at us from every direction. I expected that we would give up after the first night and make the long trip home.

But it wasn't at all like that.






















This is the view from our pitch. In fact, it was rather lovely. And yes - those are the white cliffs of Dover you see in the background.






















We had a little whistling kettle for tea.






















We had twirly swirly marshmallows which we roasted over a coal fire.

















And I had managed to pack in my knitting, too. By the by, this is entrelac. It's rather lovely. That yarn is King Cole Riot in the moors colourway, and it is a variegated blend of purples, pinks, blues and greens. Mm. It's going to be a bag. The more I look at it, the more I think it's less suited to bagness than it is to cushion-coverness, but a bag it shall be.

















We stayed at this campsite (here) which is perched quite literally atop a white cliff. This is the beach below, and you can hear the waves crashing all day which is arguably one of the best sounds in the whole world. We went for an early hike on our first morning: we went down the cliff, along the beach, up that folly you see in the distance, down the other side, and across Folkestone Harbour to the end of the town far, far in the distance.






















It took us quite a while to do the entire walk, but we did get stop to admire the view and take a few photographs!

















It's all so different from the white-sand beaches we're used to. This is much prettier, although I wouldn't like to walk barefoot on those stones. There's so much texture on every surface and there's a story behind everything. As you walk along the beach you happen upon chunks of brick wall that come from who-knows-where, with railway sleepers lying about, and even bits of iron. There was a man with a metal detector and a collection of spades walking up and down the beaches looking for treasure, too.

















It's amazing how nature has just taken over all of the man-made objects - like the wave-breakers and erosion prevention thingy-ma-bobs. This has such incredible texture to it! This bit of iron scaffolding was much taller than I was, and as you can see, the tide obviously comes in quite high. We had to climb down off of the walkway to get to the beach and luckily it was still walkable when we came back!

















It's such a rare sight to see this much blue just outside of London.






















And possibly, inside of Folkestone Harbour too. As the tide washes out it leaves behind a legacy of crabs, shellfish and small fish that get caught up in the debris. The seagulls in Folkestone are enormous with all of this food around! They're easily the size of cats or small dogs.





















The town itself was very well-looked after. There is quite a touristy bit just above the harbour called the Creative Quarter which is bustling with coffee shops, small art galleries and shops selling designer décor and homely things.

















We happened upon a little coffee shop called Fresh & Easy. It was quite charming and quirky with fun serving dishes and some really beautiful pastries in the shop window. They served me my toast in a VW Camper bus which I rather liked, the milk came in a cow-shaped jug, and the salt and pepper shakers were mini Vespa scooters. There was an extensive collection of shakers behind the counter, so I'd imagine that they serve different ones for each table.

















We were absolutely spoilt with brilliant weather and - can you believe it - we both got quite a bit of sunburn!

















All in all we rather enjoyed our little camping trip out in the countryside.

















It got a bit cloudy on Sunday, but that's was okay because we had to leave anyway.






















... but not without a stop-off in Dover proper and a trip to the Battle of Britain Memorial!






















This fellow sits and looks up at the skies all day. He's a WW2 Pilot (as you can see from his uniform, of sorts). Perhaps he's thinking about his fallen comrades and the atrocities of days gone by (things that rather make me feel quite ill when I find myself thinking about them), but I like to think that he's rather enjoying a spell of sunshine and he's pretty glad he doesn't have to head back to London for another week of work.

A little while ago my dearest friend Anne sent me a box of treasures, and I think now's a good time to share them with you.

There is a funny TV advert that my family seems to have adopted as their motto. I can't remember what it advertised (frozen pre-cut veg, I think), but it aired in South Africa and it showed a group of older women knitting with a little girl sitting and asking questions. She asked, "Gran, what did you do when you were younger?". The older ladies, without batting an eyelid, say: "We cooked."

The little girl had a think about that, and, then she asked, "Yes, but what did you do for fun?"

The grandmothers looked at each other, thought for a second, and replied, "We baked."

When we're older our grandchildren will ask the same of us and I'm almost certain our answers will be the same (with knitting, quilting, etc. in there too). That's why whenever I catch up with my family on Skype we always exchange pleasantries and reports of the week with a chuckle and an exclamation of 'we baked!'.

And this weekend I baked.

















The EEWI ladies joined forces to bake up a storm for the Victoria Park Celebrates festival on Saturday. There was another sale scheduled for Sunday, so many of us whipped up a few extra goodies that were due to spill over for the next day and thank goodness we did: it was spectacularly busy inside our tea shop.






















The event had a 40s theme so there was bunting, stripes, and pearls aplenty. It was as if the cast of Mary Poppins had stepped out of the TV set and were enjoying a lazy morning in Victoria Park instead. The bandstand, above, was decorated with jolly bunting and had a lot of lovely acts on the go like singers, dancers and bands. It was a cold and wet day so most people gathered under their umbrellas and watched on cautiously, but it was generally quite a lot of fun and a lovely Saturday out.

















This is the view from within our tea shop tent. As you can see, the organisers were being quite ambitious with their beach chairs all set up in rows near the band stand!






















Inside things were heating up as the electricity man finally came to connect the urns and we could start serving tea and cakes. The EEWI has a wonderful collection of cake stands which come out for events like these - aren't they lovely?






















They look even better with cakes on them. I baked the night before and made vanilla cupcakes (the pink and white swirly ones in the picture above), generously-sized chocolate brownies with walnuts and pecans, and courgette cakes. After a whole night of baking I was too exhausted to get out the camera, and promptly forgot to photograph my wares the next morning too. Oops. Everything was delicious, I promise.

















The bad weather may have played in our favour a bit: everyone flocked to the tea shop selling hot tea, coffee and delicious cakes. And they were delicious. We had banana breads, chocolate cupcakes, exceptional chocolate millionaire shortbread, marzipan cake, marmalade slices, and more.

















Aside from tea and cake, and listening to the Charleston Duo, there was plenty of other things to do as well. A children's carousel turned giddily around, Make Do & Mend were in the tent next door organising brooch-making, children could take a closer look at bugs and specimens in another tent, and there were rides to be had too. The rickshaws were done up with festive floral accents, although the hooded-drivers lacked their 40s gear.

















And what would a 40s festival be without a horse-and-carriage?

As always with an EEWI event, a bit of hard work selling cakes, a lot of very good company, and a jolly Saturday indeed.

Tuesdays are lovely days: they're the not-quite-Mondays of the week, the you're-already-on-your-way-to-the-weekend day, and, in our house: Veg Box Day.

















Veg Box Day causes quite a stir at Bakercourt. We order a mixed fruit and vegetable medium-sized box from Abel & Cole which arrives promptly on a Tuesday morning at around 7am. I'm up at 6.30 to put last  week's empty box out for collection, and to wait patiently for the new one.

Each week we get a selection of fruit and veg which ranges from the norm to the uncanny. As I was recommended by a friend, we got a selection of free goodies in our boxes which, of course, makes it even better. At first we got the rather beautiful Abel & Cole Cookbook, and then olive oil, eggs, garlic and a lemon. Today we got free organic yoghurt. You get freebies for signing up through a friend, for getting your first box, for just generally being a wonderful customer, etc.













While we're talking about it, I love the Abel & Cole website which is simple, neat and attractive. I've used it as an inspiration when designing other websites for clients and I keep coming back to it as a go-to guide for simple-yet-attractive digital hand-drawn specs.

But I digress.

I get really excited every week that the veg box is actually a giant brown cardboard box that is quite literally tied up with string (think: Maria, and The Sound of Music). You open it up, carefully, to reveal a brightly coloured array of organic fruit and veg, each of which is destined to become something delicious.

















Quite possibly the most exciting thing about the veg box is that you never know exactly what you're going to get. Each week they send us potatoes, carrots and broccoli. The rest is a wild card (which, admittedly, you can check online in case you feel like planning ahead) and inspires a whole lot of creative kitchenry as you try to decide what you're going to cook using your fennel, or your purple-sprouting broccoli.

I've made all sorts of wonderful things using our organic produce: mushroom and onion quiches, red pepper and aubergine pie quiches, vegetable and chicken pie, butternut, chicken and almond burritos, beetroot and spinach tart, pizza with red peppers and beetroot, and just general steamed vegetable accompaniments.

















Needless to say, we've also had a lot of banana bread lately, as well as fruit salad, mini pavlovas and next on my list: beetroot cake. I'm holding out for the rhubarb which, according to my account online, is going to arrive next Tuesday.

I don't think I've ever been this delighted by vegetables! Each week holds a new challenge for my culinary skills and provides a much healthier aspect to our daily meals. I thought it would cost quite a lot (at £18 per week, including delivery - it certainly has a hefty price tag) but surprisingly our grocery bills have dropped since forking out the extra for the delivered veg box. I suppose it means we visit the shops less frequently and we get to experience more interesting food.

This weekend is the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Fun Day, and I'm joining the WI ladies in the Dickens-themed festival to bake some interesting Victorian treats. The photo above is a look at this week's veg box so perhaps my Dickensian baking will include some courgette cake, or beetroot and chocolate gateau? Ho hum - off to find the Mrs Beeton, methinks.