How cute would this be in a little girl’s room?
If interested, you can buy it from the following shops. I’ve included shipping rates in the prices. Amazon’s cheapest, if you have Amazon Prime.
Also, if you like this cushion, you’ll probably like the range of cushions over at Aspace.co.uk. I just so happen to have designed their website last year, so I can assure you that the checkout process there is hassle-free and secure. 
Apple crisp is kind of like the UK’s apple crumble, but made with oats and cooked until it’s crispy on top instead of crumbly. My mom used to make this all the time when I was growing up and it never lasted long in our house!
This apple crisp recipe is easy to remember and totes scalable, depending how many apples you have.
You can really throw a crisp topping on any fruit, or a combination of fruits. Apple rhubarb is good, as is blueberry. You can also add pumpkin pie spice (mixed spice in UK) to the fruit for a more Christmassy taste.
*The only thing I could possibly add to my mother’s recipe to make it better!
The weather this weekend was so lovely that I skipped making the promised simnel cake in favour of relaxing in the garden. I opted for my mom’s apple crisp instead, which is always a crowd pleaser.
We spent Easter weekend at Chris’ dad’s house, which overlooks the sea in Charmouth, Dorset. Charmouth is a really interesting place because the cliffs are made out sedimentary rock, built up since the Early Jurassic period. The yellow colour at the top of the cliff is Cretaceous (the geologic era that followed Jurassic), so you’re looking at 100 million years of history.
On Saturday afternoon, we walked along the coast to Lyme Regis and hunted for ammonite fossils on the way.
Ammonites died out with the dinosaurs, but their fossils are still commonly found on the beach in amongst the rock. Neil found me an ammonite fossil and Chris found me a bit of pyrite (fool’s gold).
The weather and lighting were cooperating perfectly and I had to keep stopping to take photos…
On our way back, the tide was coming in and I slipped on an inclined rock covered in seaweed and slid into the water, camera and all. It was like something from a movie. Thankfully my camera and phone both survived!
That evening, Neil prepared us a roast chicken dinner, complete with a huge jug of Pimm’s Lemonade.
We enjoyed our dinner as we watched the Easter bunnies hiding chocolates in Neil’s garden…
… and woke up to this!
Sunday afternoon we ventured to Chideock, a village just east of Charmouth. We walked around the village and saw some really nice churches and cute thatched roof cottages. Everyone seemed to have a green thumb and I was really inspired by all of the beautiful, fragrant wisteria.
We also saw lots of wild garlic and blue bells growing along the side of the road.
Privately owned Chideock Manor opens to the public only once per year, so we were very fortunate to be able to visit it. We began our tour of the manor gardens with some tea, cakes and a short sit-down.
The vegetable patch in particular caught my interest. It was too early to see much in terms of crop, but I really liked the box hedge that defined the perimeter and the use of branches to construct tipis and sweet pea trellises.
The orchard was equally stunning, with row upon row of fruit trees in full bloom.
The wisteria on the side of the manor was gorgeous – the best wisteria we saw all day!
The manor gardens also featured several rows of trees that had been trained into arches. I absolutely love this kind of a feature in a garden. It was stunning.
We arrived back to Neil’s house sunburnt but happy and enjoyed a delicious ham salad feast prepared by Neil. Sadly, I didn’t get a good shot of our feast as I must have been too ravenous after all the sunshine and walking. After an elegant sufficiency of Easter goodies, reality set in and it was time to head back to Wiltshire.
What a perfect long weekend!
