Weekend Photo Journal… and a Raw Chocolate giveaway!

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend!

We had lots of fun again this weekend! 🙂  Here are a few of the highlights…

On Saturday, Lil’ L and I went to Glastonbury for the day with our lovely friend Joni.  Glastonbury is one of my favourite UK market towns.  It’s full of magic and mysticism, druids and pagans.

 

Glastonbury has some beautiful old buildings.  The George and Dragon Pilgrim’s Hotel dates back to circa 1492.  Can you spot St George at the hotel entrance?

I love all the little independent shops in Glastonbury.  Their window displays are so beautiful!  The Green Man is one of my favourites.

 The book in the centre of the window display caught my eye.  It might just have to make its way onto my Christmas list 😉

Another favourite shop of mine is the Speaking Tree book shop.  It has such a wonderful array of books, that I literally end up losing myself for hours in that shop!  They have some great bargains and I never come out empty handed.  This time round, Lil’ L and I bought 5 books for a total of £11!

We stopped for lunch at a wonderful little cafe (opposite 100 Monkeys).  We also munched some of the crackers that Rachel sent us from the USA.  They were so nice, and I’d never tried anything like them before, so thank you Rachel!

While all the browsing, shopping, coffee drinking and lunching was wonderful, the main reason that we came to Glastonbury was to see the Tashi Lhunpo Monks who were visiting from India.  Unfortunately, I’d missed their visit to Bath this year as I was helping out at the Macmillan fund raising event, so I was delighted to be able to see them on the final leg of their European tour at Glastonbury.

Check out the sand mandala that they were creating…

Isn’t it stunning?

It was such a privilege to see the Tashi Lhunpo monks again.  I must say a huge thank you to Joni for taking me there to see them.  I so appreciate it! 🙂

Another highlight of the weekend was the purchase and decorating of the Christmas tree.  I set M and Lil’ L the challenge of finding a tree that fulfilled three criteria.    Basically, I wanted a tree that was:
a) locally grown
b) beautiful, lush and ‘bushy’ (as opposed to tall, skinny & twiggy)
c) cheap
I never dreamed that they would actually find such a tree, but they did!   Only 10 minutes from where we live, they managed to purchase a tree that was grown in Dorset, is beautiful, lush, green, elegant… and only cost 20 quid!  I was totally impressed! 

 Lil’ L also got his Christmas books out this weekend, and we’ve enjoyed snuggling up and reading them together.  The current ‘chapter book’ that he’s reading is ‘Secret Santa, Agent of X.M.A.S’ by Guy Bass (US version here).  He’s absolutely loving this book.  It’s a great one for boys as it’s got secret agents, baddies and battles in it, as well as lots of humour!  At under £4, it’s also a great bargain.

 

Lil’ L also wrote his letter to Father Christmas to tell him how good he’d been and a few ideas of what he’d like for Christmas.  I think Father Christmas will be pleased to find that he’ll be able to buy most of the presents at Amazon (should he need to 😉 ) 

Top of his list are:

  1. Star Wars Battle of Naboo lego set
  2. Wolverine animated DVD
  3. A board game
  4. Smurfs DVD
  5. Smurfs Trumps

I also did a spot of Christmas present buying and making this weekend.  When I asked my mum what she would like for Christmas, she said she’d like some of my home-made raw chocolates.  I was very happy to oblige 🙂

I find chocolate making so relaxing.  I might even describe it as ‘therapeutic’.  When I’m melting and stirring the chocolate, I often slip into this daydream where I’m Vianne Rocher in my little French chocolate shop in France.  All I need now is for Johnny Depp to walk into my kitchen and take a bite of my chocolate hee hee 😉 

 This weekend, I made some heart shape chocolates…

 and some orange segments….

  They both have a mix of almonds, brazils and goji in them, and the orange segments have a drop of orange oil, while the hearts have vanilla extract.

If any of your friends or family are dark chocolate lovers, Elements for Life sell these fantastic raw chocolate making kits for £14.99.  The kits are suitable for vegans and diabetics.  Here’s a list of local stockists.  They can also be bought online.  Details of the last postal dates for Christmas deliveries can be found here

 I think this would be make a great Christmas gift for chocolate lovers.  It could also be paired with a raw chocolate recipe book, like Jessica Fenton’s Raw Chocolate Recipes (this is on my Christmas list 😉 )

 

And a MUST for all chocolate lovers out there… a copy of Joanne Harris’s Chocolat (US version here).  This is one of my all-time favourite novels.  You can literally smell and taste the chocolate as you’re reading this book.  It’s truly delicious!

And finally….

GIVEAEAY ALERT!!!!

 I would like to give all my lovely readers the opportunity to win ten of my home-made raw chocolates.  To have a chance of winning, leave me a comment below stating one thing that you’re hoping Santa will bring you this Christmas 😉

The giveaway is international.  Closing date Friday 16th December, 9am GMT.

Good luck everybody!

14 thoughts on “Weekend Photo Journal… and a Raw Chocolate giveaway!

  1. Glastonbury looks beautiful – it’s one place I’ve never been, so I need to make an effort to go. Those chocolates look absolutley delicious, so I definitely want to be in with a chance of winning.
    I want Santa to bring me some new PJs – I only ever get them at Christmas and I’m running low 🙂

  2. Sign me up for some raw chocolate, but if I am not lucky enough to win some I will just have to beg you for directions on how to make my own.
    The sand mandala is amazing. What beautiful work.
    The pic of Lil’ L with the crackers is so very handsome (I was going to say cute, but I forget he is probably to old for that word :))!
    Glad that you enjoyed them and it seems you had a lovely weekend.
    Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful pictures.

  3. I haven’t asked Santa for anything yet, still haven’t made up my mind! Ps. is this giveaway open to US readers too?

  4. I hope Santa brings me about ten homemade raw chocolates! 🙂

    (Two tickets to see Rent would be nice too.)

    Wow, your weekend looks amazing, again! Glastonbury looks beautiful. I will be looking for that book–Secret Santa. It sounds *perfect* for Cameron and like something he would love.

  5. Oh my what a lovely weekend you’ve had! That mandala looks incredible and that book looks very interesting, I’ve always been drawn to paganism and would love to know more about the original winter celebrations. I love the raw chocolate book I got in your other giveaway so will have to get cracking making my own raw chocolate! I would love to be able to try some of ours and something I would love to find under my tree this year, as well as chocolate of course would be some kind of gardeners handbook to help me in my new allotment adventures!

  6. Nice place Glastonbury, take a walk up the Tor when you visit; you can see the whole of Somerset beneath your feet! Glastonbury is the kind of place Harry Potter would buy a new cauldron. I’m going to ask Santa for a Nimbus 2000.

  7. The chocolates look great. I can practically smell the orange oil! Please enter me in the draw. I’d like Santa to bring me an inner tube. Or a real-live smurf that would help to keep my desk tidy.

  8. The chocolates look great. I can practically smell the orange oil! Please enter me in the draw. I’d like Santa to bring me an inner tube. Or a real-live smurf that would help to keep my desk tidy.

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