A day out to Emsworth

We had a great trip out on Saturday to visit friends Nick and Emma in Emsworth with their lovely children, it was darn cold but great to see the sea ; this was the view from the pub.

This was everyone out in the cold on the beach getting some air;

And some large rocks...

Butternut Squash soup

Butternut squash IMGP5352, originally uploaded by Ajay Jayne.

1 Butternut squash
1i/2 oz Butter
12 oz potato
2 pints vegetable stock
Cream if you like (not essential)

Heat the oven to 160 Degrees C

Cut the butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds and dot with about 1oz of the butter.

Roast it in the oven for about an hour.

Meanwhile .....

Melt the rest of the butter in a large pan and add the peeled, cut up potatoes and 2 pints of stock. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

Cool the butternut squash for a bit then scoop it out of the skin and add it to the potatoes. Wizz it up in a blender or using a hand blender and then pour it into a clean saucepan. If you want to add cream, add about 3 1/2 fl oz now, stir it in then heat the soup back up.

Add salt and pepper.

I love winter soups!

Garden in the snow

Garden snow IMGP5332, originally uploaded by Ajay Jayne.

Certainly makes the garden look impressive.

More snow in Watford

Garden IMGP5290, originally uploaded by Ajay Jayne.

Once again, the snow reaches Watford and although we are sick to the back teeth with all the BBC coverage and people moaning about it - it has slowed things down, stopped people tearing around the country as if a meeting to discuss nothing in particular was life threatening and stopped my phone ringing at work. New walking boots, plenty of scarves and ski gloves and a sort of holiday atmosphere has actually made me enjoy the whole thing.

Time to tidy up after Christmas

01 01 2010 IMGP5244, originally uploaded by Ajay Jayne.

The wreath is still on the door but it is time to start making the house look as if Christmas is over and a new year is about to begin.

Round at Gary and Jo's house

Rounded off our Christmas with a visit to Gary and Jo, brilliant meal of crispy duck, noodles, vegetables and scallops for statrters. Took a few photos but these are my favourites, Jo carried out most of the preparations

with Gary volunteering to make the pancakes watched here by an appreciative audience. Don't you just love a kitchen that is large enough for an audience?

Rob at Sully's frameshop

For some reason taking photos of frames has a surreal quality, your head says they should have pictures in them and with photoshop there would be nothing easier than adding a perfect frame afterwards - but the shadows and the way that you can peep through or the person you are photographing can arrange how they appear in the frame makes it more human. I liked this one eye shot of Rob.