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I was really lucky to have an opportunity to visit Lake Como recently with some friends. One of our group lives near Lenno, right on the edge of the lake.
“The weather was fabulous, which made the lake even more stunning. I dared to have a dip - it was pretty cold, but bearable!
I definitely would recommend a visit at some point, if the opportunity arises. There are plenty of lovely walks and places to chill out and enjoy the views. ”
Lake Como is over 20 miles long with Como, the main city to one end of the lake. In the shape of an inverted Y, Como is at the end of the south west leg, Lecco to the south east leg and north toward the Alps and Colico, Gera Lario and Domaso.
One of the deepest lakes, it reaches 1300 ft at its deepest and surprisingly this puts the bottom below sea level! Fed by the river Adda and flowing out at Lecco, Lake Como sees high water levels after rain especially post winter thaws.
Central to Lake Como, also know as "Lario" by the locals, are the three famous towns of Varenna, Menaggio & Bellagio which form the golden triangle centre to the Lake with mountains arising all around. These three towns are the only car ferry ports on Lake Como. Varenna has a train station, Menaggio is the beginning of the pass over to Porto Letizia and Bellagio provides access to the countryside between Lecco and Como.
“So as you all know by now I asked Emily to marry me over the weekend and she said yes!
We were in Norfolk for the weekend and spent a bit of time in Hunstanton, which has an amazing beach. The beach cliffs are an impressive sight, as they’re formed in two distinctive bands of sandstone and chalk, creating a red and white stripe all along the beach. It’s also an unusual beach, being on the east coast, it actually faces west – so you can watch the sun set over the sea, rather than rise! Well worth a visit if you’re in the area and the sun is out!”
Congratulations from us all Ewan and Emily! (And thank you for the delicious homemade banana bread - it didn’t last long!)
“In Croatia I spent a lovely week doing a raku ceramics course where the main activity was sitting in the garden making pots, drinking copious amounts of tea and eating biscuits.”
454g Maple Sausage
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
225g Red and Yellow Peppers, chopped
300g Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
2 Tablespoons Shortening
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
150g Mexican Shredded Cheese Blend
1 egg, beaten
100g Buttermilk
75g Sour cream
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1/4 Cup Butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray an 8×9″ baking pan with nonstick spray.
In a skillet over medium heat, add the sausage and cook until browned, stirring occasionally to break up the meat, about 3-5 minutes.
Remove to a mesh strainer in the sink to allow the grease to drain off.
Place the skillet back on the burner, no need to wash it first, add a drizzle of oil and the onions and peppers.
Cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent.
Remove to a plate to cool.
In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, shortening, pepper and salt.
Using a pastry cutter or fork, blend the shortening into the flour.
Add the cheese and mix.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg, buttermilk and sour cream.
Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the egg, buttermilk and sour cream.
Add the sausage and peppers on top and stir until just combined.
Spread the very thick, sticky batter into the baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes or until set in the middle and golden brown.
Meanwhile, melt the butter and maple syrup together and set aside.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes then pour the sauce all over the top and serve immediately.
It really just tastes like a spice cake with nuts and raisins - you can't really taste the sausage in it, except it does make it a coarser texture. Serve with coffee. It keeps you full on a cold morning!
450g pork sausage
325g dark brown sugar
300g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
375g sifted plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice or cloves
235ml brewed coffee
145g raisins
120g walnuts, chopped
Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Grease and flour a 23cm cake tin. Pour boiling water over raisins and let stand 5 minutes. Drain well and dry.
In large bowl, combine sausage, brown sugar and caster sugar. Stir until mixture is well blended. Add eggs and beat well.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, ginger, baking powder and spices.
Stir bicarbonate of soda into coffee.
Add flour mixture and coffee alternately to sausage mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold raisins and walnuts into cake batter.
Pour cake batter into the greased cake tin. Bake at 180 C / Gas 4 for 1 1/2 hours or until skewer inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire cooling tray.
Here are some photo's from the staff summer party bash on Friday.
A big well done to SRA Dragons who took part in the Dragon Boat Race in Bath on Sunday.
Here are some snaps and a sketch from Kate.
“Just a few photos from the new Macallan distillery as featured in August’s RIBA Journal. Unfortunately we didn’t get much further than the café/ gift shop as all of the tours were fully booked. ”
If you fancy a visit yourself check out the RIBA feature here.
“Sometime between crashing in to the gates of Versailles, breaking down in rural France whilst towing, getting saturated in a flash flood, smashing my iPhone, having a water pump failure, and having the caravan broken in to, I managed to make it to a supermarket to carefully retrieve some French sweets. They are currently safe and secure in my bag and barring another unfortunate turn of events will be in the kitchen shortly.
Based on this run of luck I opted to stay away from the very tall cliff edge, but did take my chances in a canoe…”
Lizzie has arrived safely back from her camping adventure to the Pembrokeshire coast having battled 40mph winds. Here are some pictures from her travels.
Chris and Sam enjoying their holiday in Cornwall.
Congratulations to Hilary and Ben who celebrated their wedding on Saturday. Here are some lovely pictures from the day.
Here are some of Lizzie's blue sky and sea pictures from lovely Portugal.
And these tasty jellies are pretty magical too! A very traditional treat which remind both Adam and his parents of their childhood. Adam brought a packet in for us to enjoy: one minute they were sitting on the kitchen table - the next - all gone! (Very magical!).
With the Friday forecast set to be the hottest day of the year, we all packed up shop early and walked to the local bowling alley, where cool drinks welcomed us.
Split into teams we all had a go with plenty of banter and chips to spur us on!
We are a friendly bunch at SRA!
After a hugely successful Dragon Boat event last year - the Bath Dragon Boat Challenge is back bigger and even better for 2018!
Team SRA are boldly challenged to take up their paddles and race against the other dragons in the Bath dragon boat race across 200m course on 9 September!
Team SRA with lots of smiles at the beginning of last year's race.
Things got a little more serious, when the heat was on. We only narrowly missed the semi-finals by seconds - probably because the hats weren't terribly aero-dynamic!
View the blog post from last year which includes team pictures and video.
Thank you to Lizzie and Matt who organised a fantastic send-off for Chris and Hilary at their STEN do.
This card is to be completed throughout the evening. Each successful task earns the points allocated in the brackets. The hen/stag with the most points at the end of the evening wins a cheeky prize!
