Horse Riding Therapy

by Bex

I mentioned recently on instagram/Twitter that I'd been in a bit of a slump.  A couple of weeks ago, I had a difficult weekend feeling down and found it very difficult to motivate myself to do anything other than write about happier times in Malaysia and watch re-runs of Buffy in my pyjamas!  I couldn't even be bothered with retail therapy!  I knew I should get up and do some exercise but finding the motivation when you're in that bad place, feeling sorry for yourself, it's hard.  I even know at the time that I should snap out of it and get on with life but I just keep wallowing.  It never lasts, luckily, but I do wish it never happened at all.  Sometimes I just can't help thinking about the bad what-ifs in our current situation.

Anyway, I did eventually snap out of it.  I got out my new BBC Good Food magazine and tore out my favourite recipes (for my never ending recipe folder project) and found loads I fancied making.  I sat down and planned the week's dinners and went out for all the ingredients.  That weekend I had a recipe for 6 I wanted to make so we invited people over.  Roz and B joined us for dinner on Saturday and the roast chicken we planned to share with Sarah on Sunday turned into a Sunday Roast for 7 when old friends texted to say they were in town so we popped out for a second chicken!  It was just what I needed, having things to keep me occupied and lots of lovely people around :)

I felt much better the following week and planned a day out with my friend (and nurse) Liz to go horse riding in Edinburgh as I was going through for a blogger event.  It turned out to be seriously good therapy, getting out in the fresh, foggy, air and back on a horse for the first time in about a year!  I always get bitten by the bug again but it's usually a very expensive hobby costing £25 for an hour.

Liz's Mum lives on a farm estate near Edinburgh and Liz has become friends with someone there who owns two horses and assists her in looking after and riding them whenever she goes to visit.  The owner is currently unable to ride so Liz has been exercising both of them and invited me to join her as we've ridden together before at a local stables and she knew I was a competent rider.

Me in all my old riding gear.
(Of course I have green jodhpurs!)

Storm and Sasha in the fog

We had so much fun!  Liz was very excited to introduce me to the horses and show me the estate and the views she's always talking about at work.  Sadly, the views didn't quite work out as it was ultra foggy, but we had a brilliant long ride out together and I can honestly say it absolutely changed how I've been feeling.

Me on Sasha, raring to go!

The fact they are privately owned horses makes such a difference too as, although I was a little nervous at the start to be riding a young horse I didn't know, it means we can just go out on our own, for as long as we want and at whatever pace we choose.  There's no following along the one in front, having to stay in single file.  I soon got to know Sasha and felt quite comfortable on her, she responds really well to your voice so whenever I would see her ears going at the sound of pheasants (extremely annoying birds but they only spooked her once by flying out all of a sudden) or a tractor coming, she would stay calm as I chattered away to her in my best soothing tones.  We ended up being out for 3 hours, stopping to take photos, having a wee go over the cross country jumps (just the little ones!) and chatting while trotting along side by side.  :)

Sasha and Storm

It was also nice (and good exercise) to get them in from the field, groom and tack them up then feed them when we got back and turned them back out to the field.  It reminded me of when I used to work at my local stables when I was a teenager and worked for free rides.  I enjoy caring for the horses almost as much as actually getting out riding :)  I just love being around these animals!

Sasha showing off her beautifully picked hooves ;)

Lots of swallows at the farm

Foggy, mystical views

This is apparently what you can see on a clearer day (from Liz's phone)

Liz and I jumping 

Sasha was fine going over the little jump, but at the second barrel one she kept refusing and skipping round it at the last second!  we did eventually get her over but I didn't get any photos of me jumping.  

The fog got even worse after that and what should have apparently been a beautiful view of the water and Cramond Island was just a wall of grey...

It did make for some even more magical photos in the woods though!

We went past someone's house with some seriously cool bushes with groovy hairstyles!

 And could just about make out the Forth Rail Bridge...

Before they had some dinner and we put them back out in the field with some mint imperial treats...

Drooling all over me!

Only 2 birds left

And the best news is, she's already invited me back again next Saturday which works out perfectly as I just happen to be heading through to Edinburgh again to meet up with some lovely Twitter peeps (and AOWers) for afternoon tea!!  :)

And just for Mahj, some pictures of the weekend's food....  ;)

I also made a cake which involved a lot of zesting and juicing!
(I'll share the hilarious result soon!)

Lamb Kleftiko

Nik's awesome roasties!

Pin it Do It - Overnight Oats

by Roz

I saw this on Pinterest and had one of those 'really?!?' moments. Oats cook overnight by themselves?!  A super healthy breakfast that cooks itself, I had to try it :)

http://pinterest.com/pin/369154500676878067

I love porridge but the time and effort needed to make it fresh rules it out for a work day breakfast for me.  Clearly this isn't quite the same as it's not hot, but I'm loving it for the summer.  It's so easy to make and I use three simple ingredients then just mix it up and pop it in the fridge overnight:

• One cup of rolled oats (not instant oats)
• One cup of milk (or you could use water or half and half)
• One cup of plain yogurt (again you could use greek yog or flavoured yog)

You can then throw in whatever you have in the fridge or cupboards, I like apple and cinnamon or berries through mine but I can't wait to try brown sugar and banana mmmmmm!

In the picture above my berries are frozen rather than fresh, which keeps them lovely and cool in my breakfast the next day.  Let me know if you have tried overnight oats or if this post inspires you to do so.  I take mine to work in the rather clunky mayo jar pictured below!

Roz xx

P.S. it's B's birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY hubby!  Love you loads x

Hotel Chocolat review

by Roz

(Warning: contains pictures of scrumptious chocolates and a link to the Hotel Chocolat website which currently has chocolate on sale with up to 50% off.... don't shout at me if you end up buying lots of chocolate!  But order me a Mississippi Mud Pie slab.  Please.  Thanks!)

I recently went along to a fabulous Yelp event after spotting a tweet from the lovely Briony asking Yelpers to RSVP if they wanted to head along to an invite only evening at Hotel Chocolat.  With the promise of Prosecco and chocolates a plenty, I got my name down super quick and was lucky enough to get a place.

Hotel Chocolat has a store in Edinburgh but this new store in the St Enoch centre is Glasgow's first. They grow their own cocoa on their Rabot Estate in St Lucia and in addition are also partners with over 150 cocoa farmers in St Lucia to ensure they can purchase enough cocoa to keep up with demand.  It was really good to hear the history of the company and some of the ethics from Nicola (above), whilst we were taken on a tasting tour of the chocolate range.

We got to try Hotel Chocolat's 'showpiece' chocolate bar, the world's first single cote chocolate.  This is a 70% dark bar of chocolate made with cocoa harvested from a small area of the Rabot Estate named the Marcial Cote.  This method of producing a specific flavour of chocolate from one small area of the estate reminded me of what vineyards do to produce unique wines.  It's certainly an interesting concept and something a bit different for true chocolate connoisseurs.

After tasting some of the rich rabot and dark chocolates, we moved on to sampling some of the luxury truffle collection.  The pralines below were simply divine!  These are the milk chocolate ones but I noticed they were also available in white and dark chocolate too.

I am not usually a fan of alcoholic chocolates and was going to give the pink champagne truffles below a miss, but I am so glad I tried them.  They were fantastic, the alcohol was not overpowering, nor did liquid leak out of the truffle when you bit through it.  The truffle was light and fluffy and delicious.

So many of the chocolates we got to taste came in the little six packs that you see above, which thanks to the floor to ceiling display in the store, looks like the best chocolate pick and mix ever!!

 

They literally have hundreds of luxury chocolate flavour combinations in these little six packs that are great as a treat or a posh gift for a friend.  Somehow I managed to leave the shop with only four packs of chocolate and two of them were gifts (one for Bex [ed: they were delish - thank you!] and one for B!).  I can highly recommend the Chilli Pralines (the mini Union Jack choccies in the picture above) and the Billionaire's Shortbreads :) 

The store also have a Cocoa Cuisine range, which includes some classic savoury delights with a cocoa or chocolate twist!  We got to try the the cocoa pesto (lush) and the white chocolate horseradish (actually amazing!) but they also have jars of plain old chocolate spread for the less adventurous.

  

   

These chocolate slabs are £15 each, so certainly not your every day treat but they come in fabulously mouthwatering flavours from rocky road and mississippi mud pie to the amazing lemon meringue pie!   

I spied this bad boy just as I was leaving the shop, a mini chocolate slab, and really wished I'd bought one, white chocolate, milk chocolate and banana, mmmmmmm!  I think the next time I'm in the St Enoch Centre I know where I'm heading :)

The event was really good fun, so thanks to Yelp and Hotel Chocolat, I recommend a dinner of chocolate and prosecco to you all!

Roz xx

P.S.  Tune in next Tuesday for the next installment of our Forever House!