Sissy got engaged....

...and I made tapas.

Two essentially disconnected events. But, its (hopefully) only once in a lifetime that your little sister gets engaged, so I've shoved aside today's originally planned post to put a cheeky little announcement post (note: a day late because I couldn't announce her engagement before she did!!!). And, since it only happened this weekend and there isn't much to tell yet, I thought I'd talk about the hottest Saturday in England this year, and how I spent it...

Husband and I do enjoy going for a walk or two. So with a fresh 31 degree day dawning, we picked out a new walk to do in the towns of Chislehurst and Petts Wood, about 40 minutes away from home.

Halllloooooo sunshine!

If anyone reading this lives in either of those towns then kudos. Absolutely delightful places. I'd be keen on visiting your probably quite large house. As it was, we took the train over to Chislehurst and mosied over to a pub called the Tiger's Head for a spot of pub grub. Seated in the searing hot sunshine, we enjoyed some fruity pimms and a sharer platter of tasty meats before heading out for our walk. It turned out to be an excellent choice as not only was the food super yum, but we had the additional enjoyment of seeing the guests for a wedding across the road enjoy a cheeky pint ahead of the nuptials. Some great outfits were on display!

Sharer platter down the pub

We decided to visit a National Trust park called the Hawkwood Estate for our little hike. It's essentially just a big field based estate with some walking trails and quite a lot of trees (to provide the highly needed shade on such a hot day). There's the additional fun of Pett's Wood (the wood belonging to the town with the same name) being adjoined to the estate, so we were able to hike across both areas.

To be honest, there's nothing significantly worth seeing on this walk, but it's an extremely pleasant one (you can see the route we did on the map below). We did come across the memorial sundial for William Willett, the tireless advocate for British Summer time. Having lived in Chislehurst, allegedly he was out riding his horse in this wood one day when the idea for Daylight Savings came to him. Although he was able to gather support for this through his lifetime, he never saw it introduced because of an untimely death due to influenza. Still, his sundial and his legacy live on.

National Trust map, with our walk highlighted in purple

After a couple of hours rambling through the woods, we made our way to the town of Pett's Wood, with the intention of securing drink before heading back home. Now I'm not sure if I've mentioned this much in past posts, but husband and I are great fans of the local micro pub. Not traditionally self brewers, these little spots tend to be small and filled with locals, sporting a fine supply of local beers and cider, as well as a variety of other options. We have one of these charming little places a mere ten minutes walk from home...the Penny Farthing...which is run by a brilliant retired couple named Bob and Bev. While I can't say much about their wine selection, the beers and ciders they supply are top notch!

Why am I talking about micro pubs? Well a little while ago we discovered that there are actually quite a few of these places dotted around Kent. And there's one in Pett's wood that we had been looking forward to trying, called One Inn the Wood. And yesterday was the perfect opportunity, so we headed along there.

My review? Pretty top notch place. They had a great selection of beers for husband (their list of associate breweries is extensive). And since I was particularly thirsty when I got there, I went for a Fentimans cola, rather than an alcoholic drink, and it was absolutely delicious. To follow it up, I had a glass of Chapel Down winery's Bacchus, which is an extraordinarily complex white wine made in Kent that could easily be mistaken for a New World wine, and is therefore my favourite English wine. Actually, paying a visit to Chapel Down is top of my to do list at some point - I really would like to buy all their wine.......sorry, got distracted....back to the micro pub. I really loved that they've totally embraced their name. Their house ale on tap was called Permanent Wood, from a brewery around the corner in Tonbridge. And they had candles made of tree branches at every table. To top it off, there was a great atmosphere in there and a decent selection of nibbles and cheeses (gutted we weren't hungry enough to order any).

So there we were, halfway through my glass of Chapel Down, discussing something deep and thoughtful (unlikely) when I got a call from a crying, though deeply cheerful, sister to inform me that her boyfriend had proposed on a beach in Ireland and that she is engaged. Huzzah!!

Well in between the calls, pictures of the ring and swapped messages of congratulations and ooooh....tell us how it happened, we managed to get ourselves home and I decided to cook a little tapas celebratory meal. Needless to say, husband was delighted because I usually complain that tapas is too much work..

I went for a slightly healthy theme on this one. A small dish of patatas bravas was a must have: tiny roast potatoes with a chilli and garlic based tomato sauce on top. Then a luxurious dish of prawns fried in garlic, butter and chilli. The second meat dish was chorizo cooked in honey and red wine - I've discovered a turkey chorizo that Sainsburys sells and is really quite low calorie compared to its usual counterpart. Then some veggies: grilled aubergine with basil and olive oil, and a caponata of peppers, onions, garlic and chilli. Finally, some flatbread to sop up the juices and a decent glass of white wine (Wairau Cove, Marlborough, New Zealand). Delightful.

Tapas, a la Nicky

If you've never made tapas at home, I'm a big advocate of it. It's worth doing if you're cooking for more than two people, because it's exactly the same amount of work whether you're cooking for 2, 5 or 10 people - it's all about scaling the ingredients. As it was, we made a decent job of these small dishes, then settled down to watch a movie, drink more wine and indulge in a little cheese. Perfect Saturday night 😃

My plate of culinary delights

So what next for sister and her now fiance? Couldn't say. But I'm very excited about going down to Malta this week and celebrating with the family in the way we like to celebrate: sun, sea, food, drink, repeat. Hang on Malta, I'm a-coming!!!!