It’s that time of year ,when my RA membership is due.

This year I have discovered that you can use your Tesco club card points towards your membership.

 Exchange your Clubcard Vouchers for Deals and you get 4x their value. There’s a huge range of Deals to choose from.

It’s an excellent deal,and £5 of vouchers will give you £20 towards your membership, more information can be found here

This is one bargain you should not miss out on.

I had a great Valentine’s treat this week-end, it was early I know but better early than not at all.

I was treated to a 3 course dinner at one of my favorite places The Lifeboat Inn at Thornham.

I have been there many times but never to eat so was a real treat for me.

In the restaurant they do a special 3 course dinner menu, a sample can be seen here

For starters we had,

 Platter of fruit with mascaponi cheese and honey and ginger syrup

Brancaster mussels steamed with lemongrass and ginger served with coconut milk

then main course,

Strudel of wild mushrooms, goat’s cheese and capsicums dressed with croquette potatoes, crispy spinach and a warm kumquat marmalade

Roasted sea bass served with pan fried vegetables and potatoes

and desserts were,

Cranberry and Ricotta cake with a cranberry and orange compote

Blackcurrant sorbet

all washed down by a bottle of saddle creek Semillon chardonnay, which has gone straight to the top of my favorite wine list.

The waitress was nice and friendly, the restaurant warm and cosy ,food delicious and  company fantastic, what more could a girl ask for…….

 As a very keen walker and member of the Ramblers association

 I would like to know why the Queen does not make a permissive path alongside or on the coastal defences on her Sandringham estate that runs along the Norfolk coast.

 At the moment it is impossible to walk (legally) the last bit of coast from Snettisham to Kings Lynn, without having to walk along the A149 , which may be one of the most scenic roads but it also has a very high accident rate too.

 “Roads in Norfolk that fell under the ‘one star’ listing – with a high accident rate – were the A149 (King’s Lynn) and the A12 (Lowestoft-Great Yarmouth).”

It is hard to see how this would affect her privacy or that of her pheasants. Perhaps the RA should start a campaign to open up the last bit of Norfolk coast to Ramblers.

Did you know today was Groundhog day and that it always falls on February 2nd

Groundhog Day History

“According to Stormfax it all started with Candlemas Day. This day originally came from the Germans and was the mid-point between the first day of the winter and the first day of spring. Legend said that if this day was fair (sunny), then the second-half of winter would be stormy. In their native land of Germany, the Germans looked at a badger to see if they could see his shadow. When they settled in North America in Pennsylvania, the local Indians had a great respect for groundhogs so they substituted a groundhog for the badger. And as they say, the rest is history and now every February 2, everyone looks to a small town in Pennsylvania for a weather prediction! “

So the rules are….

“If the groundhog sees his shadow, we have 6 more weeks of winter.
If the groundhog does not see his shadow, winter will end soon”

 

In Norfolk today its been Sunny but cold so does that mean we are in for 6  weeks of winter weather………

How accurate is a Pedometer compared  to a GPS

For measuring distance  over flat ground I think a pedometer can be just as good.

Take my walk yesterday as an example,

my pedometer said 19.4 miles walked over 5 hours 22 min’s

Geoff’s GPS said 19.1 miles in 5 hours 10 min’s.

Whether it would be so accurate over the hills I don’t know.

It has also been discussed here  with some interesting opinions. 

The Cambell’s factory in Kings Lynn is to close, with a loss of 250 jobs.

It opened in 1950, and the cooling tower has become a landmark of Kings Lynn.Whether this will stay or go has not been decided.

The company was bought out last year by Premier foods..

Campbell’s added brands such as Oxo, Batchelors, Homepride and Fray Bentos and the famous Campbell’s soup to Premier’s portfolio which already included household names such as Crosse & Blackwell, Branston Pickle and Bird’s custard.

 Premier said the Campbell’s site would close by the end of the year while a sister factory in Ashford, Kent – which employs 195 people – would also be closing by May next year.

One of my Favorite cookery books came from Cambell’s, it has over 125 recipes all made using Cambell’s soup.

For some reason unknown to myself ,people on the RA Forum are getting their knickers in a twist,once again about post counts.

In the years I have been using that forum this problem crops up every now and again, and I just cannot see why they have to argue amongst themselves about how many times people are posting………

Its not a competition and I am sure no one really cares who posts or how many times they post.

If no ones posted it would make for a very boring forum.

Think its because they are not getting out walking enough………Where as i am off to Sheringham this week-end for a week-end of walking with the  Cambridge Rambling Club

Wonder if any other Forums have this problem….????

I have been following Hugh’s story about his Valentines wine labels with great interest. You can read about it here and here.

Being a big softie at heart, I just fell in love with the whole idea .

As Tesco is going to be stocking these wines I would like to be able to offer advice to some of my customers, by suggesting what wines to buy SO the big question is….

Which of Hugh’s stormhoek wines would be best with Fish……

Good sellers around Valentines will be Salmon, Seabass, Tuna , Monkfish and of course oysters.