Creative and Community Minded?

I happened to be strolling around Chelmsford City this weekend, and a banner caught my eye 'What should we do with the Shire Hall?".  I was intrigued, and had a look around, to find that following the closure of Magistrate's Court in Shire Hall Essex, Essex County Council are now open to ideas from the public to implement a new scheme with a commercial idea, that involves the local community.

What a great opportunity with someone with a great idea, to impact the Chelmsford community! Shame I don't currently have a good idea, but I certainly will be discussing with friends.  If you haven't ever been into Shire Hall, then I suggest a visit, it's a truly magnificent building, and architecturally it plays a great role in Chelmsford's history, and the Council are open to ideas from potential partners for the next steps, you can email your idea here, and get more information on the building and plans itself on the website - the 'Expression of Interest' period runs until 15th February 2013.  

What do you think we should do with Shire Hall?

Cromer Crab

On our way back from Blakeney Point, we decided to make a day of it and stopped off at Cromer, we really wanted to buy a famous Cromer Crab.  When we arrived we were ravenous as it was around 2pm and we hadn't eaten since 7am, before we set off.  We parked up and walked along the coastline towards the town centre.  We stopped off at this little seafood shop and bought a crab sandwich to share and a dressed crab, we stopped and sat in the sun, and then took a walk along the pier.

It was great, as there were lots of kids (and adults!) crabbing.  It brought back memories for me, as I love going crabbing, I used to go to Maldon Promenade to do it when I was younger, and at Frinton beach (see some crabbing tips here for those who don't know what it is!).  We had a lovely walk along the front, and then went back to a seafood shop to buy a crab to take home and prepare ourselves.  Here is Mr. Crab, and then Mr. Crab being cooked! 

looking pretty menacing!

Apparently, the crab has to be cooked that day, and then you can regfrigerate if you don't want to eat it the same day.  You boil it in salty water, time dependant on the weight of the crab.

Afterwards, we extracted the meat from the crab, you can check this video here on how to clean a crab.  We made a cracking crab salad;

100g Cromer Crab meat
1 Iceberg Lettuce
1 Carrot (grated)
2 Spring Onions
Peas
2 Tomatoes
1/2 Cucumber
Ginger

Light dressing:
Olive Oil 
Juice of 1 whole lemon
Pepper
Salt

It was divine, and I know it sounds silly, but it really tasted crabby, like a fresh sea taste in your mouth.  It was perfect for a summer's evening, we had some MUMM Champagne to compliment it.  Pure deliciousness!! 

Click on this link for more crab recipes

Seal spotting - Blakeney Point

I know that generally I blog about things to do in Essex, but I can't help pushing the boundaries out for this great place, especially on a Summer's day, and it is still very accessible from Essex and what a fabulous trip it is!  Blakeney National Nature Reserve. Blakeney Point has been in the care of the National Trust since 1912 - so 100 years! 

We set off on Saturday morning for a seal boat trip at 12.30pm from Morston Quay.  It was a lovely sunny day with a bit of a wind that picked up - so a tip for everyone - do bring a lightweight jacket just in case.  I learnt from this story as I decided one minute before the boat arrived that I would need my coat and so had to make my boyfriend run and get it and we missed the first boat (there was another one shortly after).  So off we set...check out the pictures...

Approaching the seals

I especially wanted to come for early August as there are several hundred common harbour seals which can be seen relaxing on the sandbanks around the Point, and some of them had just given birth to pups, and a lot   of them were heavily pregnant.  There are also the grey seals, and they normally pup in the winter time.

There were also some seals around 7-8 months old which swam up to the boat, as they were more curious than their elders, unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture of that as I was too busy being excited over the edge of the boat.  The whole trip lasts about an hour, you have around 20 minutes to check out the seals, the tour operator will circle around the seals so that everyone has a perfect view and a good chance to take pictures/videos of the seals - I did both.

having a little rest

Mr fluffy ginger

all the seals together

having a little scratch

On the way back to Morston Quay

It was such a great trip and I recommend it to everyone, it cost us £9 each (for adults), and here is the site if you would like to book at Beans Boat Trips and you can get more information.  You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter @beansboattrips and don't forget to follow me too if you want to see more days out ! @chelmsfordienne

After our seal-tastic visit we then went to spend the rest of the day at Cromer, which will follow in my next post...

Fanatical about fish!

Now we do know how much I like a garden centre – but this is a slight twist – Swallow Aquatics (Britain’s number one aquatic experts) where you would go to set up a tropical, marine or cold-water fish tank.  And even if you just fancy some inspiration – it’s a nice place to go to check out all the corals and animals.

I went there for a trip this weekend, I hadn’t been in years and years, in fact, since I had last bought a goldfish which would have been around 9 years ago.  However, I grew up visiting this place, not just because of fish/pet purchasing, but actually because I used to beg my Dad to take me there for the pure entertainment and I am pretty certain I saw a few dads there with their kids – it’s probably as fun as the zoo to be honest! There is a coffee shop there where you can stop and get a drink, a game to ‘find the Caiman’ and some up close encounters with some giant fish. I love the place!

Check out these photos which I took with my Blackberry – even with a small camera you can still capture the tropical, colourful, magical underwater world.

Massive Catfish anyone?

There's the Caiman!

Go TEAM GB!!

They also had some weird frogs, turtles and scorpions.  You can ‘like’ them on facebook, and check out what they have to offer – but my advice is to  check it out for yourselves in the shop and you could end up with some new fishys and a lovely tropical tank!! We ended up buying a quirky ‘cook for your dog’ recipe book for a dog lover that we know.

cutie bunnies

Two lovebirds <3

check them out of FB!

These shops are all over South East England, I love the one in Rayleigh, you can check out the website here

Essex Boot Camp

I am in the mood for getting fit at the moment, instead of feeling fat and I am really intrigued about this Essex Boot Camp. 

image found from:  morethanmediocrity.wordpress.com

It looks really interesting and a bit different, and you can do it all over Essex. What really attracts me is that it is outdoor exercise, as I really do have a phobia of the gym, this phobia could stem from my sheer laziness, but I like to think it’s the fact that I hate getting sweaty inside a room with a bunch of people I don’t know (or worse, potentially could know!!).

So it’s a new type of training, using ‘the experience of ex-military or specialist fitness instructors’ and they offer over 45 hours of sessions throughout Essex per week so there is no real excuse about not being able to attend.  There are few different options of paying, you can buy 10 – 1hour sessions for £65 which is a very fair rate! There is a range of other price packages on the website.

new serious sports top to make me a pro

What is really great about these guys is that they offer you a free trial to give you a taster.  I am certainly going to give it a go and report back.  I even bought a new exercise top at the weekend from JJB Sports to inspire me, because even if you can't act the part you can at least look the part right? 

Have any of you been to any sessions?  Any opinions? 

Find your nearest location here so you can give it a try!






<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3849428/?claim=687cbd6vqbk">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

CAMRA Chelmsford Beer Fest

So Wednesday night, my friends, my sister and I went to the CAMRA Chelmsford Beer Festival, as I mentioned in one of my previous posts this was a Chelsmfordienne debut on the Beer Fest Scene – so I was eager to try it.

I was a little worried about the weather, and made sure I had some boots and my ‘poncho in a pocket’ in preparation for any oncoming rain, frankly we were very lucky and even when it did rain, we got under the big marquees, and there was a great atmosphere inside them.  We saw some people we knew, it wasn’t too too busy, and as it was the beginning of the Festival, none of the better beers had run out.

We were off and ready with glass and programmes in hand with a guide to all the beers on offer, there was a lot to choose from and I was not sure where to start. My boyfriend advised that my sister and I should start off with the Cider, we had half a pint of Springfield Red Cider. It is always best to get a half pint, that way if you don’t like it, you don’t have a whole pint to drink – not that such situation happened to me!

After our cider we moved onto Belgian Beer, I have been known to dabble with a couple of Belgian beers before, and these are a lot more palatable for those who aren’t hardened beer/real ale drinkers!  We had, chocolate flavour, Kriek cherry flavour, coconut (my favourite as it was almost a pina-colada-esque beer) and Babar (with a honey kick). The Belgian beers were my favs.

There was a little quiz that you could take part in, which was run by CAMRA, live music and food.  I was especially tempted by the Pie Emporium - you can check their website out here for their delicious delights!

The more I drank, the more I liked it, we probably had around 5 half pints each in total.  It made such a change, plus it was mid-week drinking, something I do not make enough time for clearly!

The ambiance was great, people were on top form, the fact it was raining outside made no difference, it wasn’t muddy at all.

Can I please remind you to sign the petition to ‘save the British Pint’ for all you pub punters and beer guzzlers, it’s important to stop this beer escalation tax. Just think of poor Pip in your local pub (I am sure you all have one), soon he won’t be able to afford all those beers he necks, and there will certainly be no chance for you by the time you reach his age!

For all those Beer Festival regulars, you will not be disappointed and for those who are First Timers like me, then get yourself down there for a Big Beautiful Beer experience – trust me, even if you think you are not keen on beer, like myself, there is certainly something for everyone!

Please do make a comment if you do have the time to make it down there!