Parc des dinosaures, Meze, South of France

?Allosaurus

Scene from Jurassic parkAbbie's impression of previous scene

A young Paleontologist at work

It was this big!

Our favourite Stegosaurus

Velociraptor hiding in the bushes

Troodon laying eggs (check out lady in background!)

Brachiosaurus skeleton

Triceratops family

http://www.musee-parc-dinosaures.com/

A great dinosaur park in the South of France near Meze; where in 1996 one of the biggest deposits of Dinosaur eggs in Europe was discovered. The dinosaurs were hidden among the bushes and trees making it feel more real and the pretend dig by the picnic area was great for the children.

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What is growing in the garden?

Damsons

Tomatoes

Many yellow courgettes

and yellow squashes

Red peppers

Small aubergines

Only one pear!

A mushroom (or fairy house!)

Elderberries

Hops (no I am not going to make beer this year!)


We decided to see how many edible things were growing in the garden this morning (not including the mushroom!) Considering my poor track record for watering I am quite surprised!

Bungee!!

Roo squeaked out:" I'm coming, Christopher Robin!" and he jumped - straight into the middle of the tunic. And he was going so fast that he bounced up again almost as high as where he was before - and went on bouncing and saying "Oo!" for quite a long time. (A.A. Milne)

Our first game of golf with Grandad

Isaac's unique swing

Grandad giving a quick lesson

Abbie concentrating shhh...

Harry on the tee

Isaac about to tee off

A slightly unbalanced swing from Harry

Isaac with his golf bag

Abbie demonstrating the follow through

Isaac couldn't decide whether he was left or right handed and playing with no shoes

Great Chart golf pitch and putt seemed a good place to have our first family game of golf; Abbie, Harry, Isaac, Anita, Dad, Ira in the pushchair and I. We made it round 9 holes; not necessarily following the usual golfing etiquette. The funniest shot was Anita on the 9th; she was about to hit the ball when a train went passed and both Harry and Isaac shouted "TRAIN!" - Anita sliced the shot almost hitting Harry. Harry then decided it was more fun to leave the tee (which was raised) by rolling down the side of it!

http://www.shoottheboss.co.uk/

Anita and I attempt the impossible.......

The story starts like this......Anita and I asked Nanma (age 94!) whether she would like to join us for a walk on the Leas today; this is what happened.

Anita arrived at the flats only to be confronted by the Warden who really couldn't believe that a woman with a 2 year old on a bike and a baby in a pushchair was parking in the private car park to take her grandmother out in her wheelchair; yes really! Anyway I arrived with 2 more children on bikes and we went to collect Nanma. The walk was going fairly well when I pushed Nanma; although Anita was being given some strange looks as it appeared that she had 3 children on bikes aged 7, 4 and 2 and a baby! We swapped on the way back which was a big mistake as Isaac thought it was more fun to push Nanma and refused to cycle. I then had to wheel a small bike and pull Ira backwards in the pushchair as the sun was in his eyes! Nanma took pity on me and took the other handlebar as you can see below! Not illustrated in the photos was we were also having to police Harry's scary bike riding where he rides very fast towards someone and swerves at the last minute!

We thought a coffee / snack would be a good idea at this point so we parked 3 bikes, a pushchair and Nanma in her wheelchair outside the cafe. It was going quite well until I passes Anita a piece of jam doughnut. The doughnut turned out to be very jammy and I flicked jam on her sandals at which point we became of great interest to the wasps. You can imagine the next 15 minutes was not very relaxing and the couple on the next table tutted and walked off. At this point Nanma had had enough and tried to wheel herself away. We then had to hastily put on 3 bike helmets, grab 3 bikes and strap a baby in a pushchair.... I think we did rather well!!!!

Chocolate Beetroot cake

I found this great recipe online today for a chocolate cake made with Beetroot - very yummy! Tim asked for the recipe so I thought I would post it on the blog - Happy Cooking!

Ingredients

50g bitter cocoa powder

180g plain flour

1½tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

250g caster sugar

300g cooked fresh beetroot

3 eggs

200ml corn oil

1tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4.

Butter and flour an 18cm (7in) round or square cake tin. Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix in the sugar and set aside. Purée the beetroot in a food processor. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the corn oil and vanilla and beat until smooth. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the beetroot mixture into the well. Lightly mix, using a rubber spatula, and pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. It won’t rise a great deal and the top may crack a bit.

NB

I did muffin sized cakes and cooked them for 30mins instead