The school holidays are here! Hurray! 🙂
To mark the end of their time in the Infants, Class 3 performed a rendition of ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis for the parents. It was very sweet. 😉
Lil’ L decided that he’d like give his teachers some gingerbread cookies as a ‘thank you’ gift. We made gingerbread houses for Jon, and gingerbread hearts for Jackie.
For our first trip of the holidays, we travelled by train to visit family in Dorset. As soon as we arrived, we headed to Burley (Hampshire) for lunch in one of my favourite tearooms. They bake the most delicious vegan ginger cake I’ve ever tasted!

For me, Burley is a place filled with wonderful energy. This might be, in part, explained by its historical association with white witches. Back in the late 1950s, Britain’s most famous white witch, Sybil Leek, lived in Burley. She later emigrated to America and her son lives in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
There’s a number of shops in Burley that sell witch and wizard-related items, such as the ‘Coven of Witches’…
and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

One of my favourite past times is walking through the ancient woods that can be accessed from Burley. There’s something very magical about these woods…
Another beautiful experience we had during our visit was seeing all the New Forest ponies and their foals grazing on the Common.

These ponies have roamed free in the New Forest for over 1000 years. It’s funny to see them in places that you would never expect. During our last visit, we saw ponies and baby donkeys outside the newsagents and pub, and two highland cattle sitting on someone’s front lawn!

44 days of fun..I can’t wait to see what you all have planned. Burley looks wonderful and a bit as if it is right out of Harry Potter (I know that was a really American thing to say, and I am sorry :)).
PLUS those gingerbread cookies looked fantastic do you have a mold or stamp that you use?
The shops in Burley are targeted at tourists, so I’m sure they wouldn’t the comparison 😉 Don’t try it in Glastonbury though… we were captivated by a real witch/wizard shop located down a little side street. It was full of jars of potion ingredients and had huge, leather-bound spell books for sale. I blurted out ‘wow, this is just like Harry Potter!’ and I’ve never seen such looks of distaste from the shop staff. Needless to say, I made a hasty retreat. 😉
Re. the cookies, I’m currently loving the cookie cutters (molds?) by Tovolo. I’m not sure if you can buy them in the USA. I’ve got the Gingerbread House, Twin Heart and 5 Point Star cutters. http://www.auravita.com/search/tovolo.html
Awww, now we`re friends on Food Buzz! Thanks for the invite!
Love the pictures…reminded me that we have some cookie molds like that! Forgot all about them…now I`m going to have to make some magical treats, lol!