Mundesley Dip

Lots of people on the beach for Mundesley's Boxing Day Swim. Just looking at the webcam as we can't be there in person :-( Fortunately the weather is relatively warm this year. Photos to come soon.

Royal Cottage Christmas Cakes ready to eat!

I finished icing the cottage Christmas cakes last night, just in time for our first Christmas guests. I hope they are as tasty as they look! I made a larger, round one for home which Edward helped decorate - he wants to be a TV Celebrity Chef when he grows up... umm I hope he won't be using too many F words or being proper pukka.

Royal Cottage Christmas cake

Royal Cottage Christmas Biscotti

The Christmas hazlenut biscotti for the Royal Cottage hamper, looks lovely and tastes good too! Ideal with a strong cup of Columbian coffee, also included in the hamper. I found this recipe on the BBC website, its by Simon Rimmer who has since moved across to Channel 4 on a Sunday.

Everything is now coming together for the Cottage Christmas Hampers. I made too much marzipan for decorating the Christmas cakes so am going to make some mini Stollen loaves for the family hampers - in the bread oven as we speak...

Christmas hazlenut biscotti

Mundesley Christmas Lights 2012 and Christmas Pageant

The Christmas lights in Mundesley village are looking lovely this year and very festive. 

Don't forget to go to the Christmas Eve Pageant starting at 6:15 from the Bowls Club Car Park over to the Free Church and then processing around the village to All Saints on the hill cliff overlooking the sea.

Mundesley Christmas Lights

Anyone for a paddle?

Mundesley Beach, Norfolk
Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat's webcam

No one on the beach today, can't think why not! 

Check out the Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat's webcam to see if the tide is in or who's brave enough to be paddling in the sea!

2012 Mundesley Boxing Day Dip

Mundesley's annual Boxing Day dip takes place on Wednesday 26th December at 11am outside the Lifeboat Centre, down the ramp on Mundesley beach, with refreshments at 10:30am. If you are staying in Mundesley over Christmas for a festive holiday, it is definitely worth going whether or not you decide to take the plunge! All the madness helps raise funds for the Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat Charity which have just purchased this lovely new lifeboat.

Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat, Norfolk. From Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat website

Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat

More pancakes please!

No mess!

Today our latest purchase for the cottage arrived - a smiley faces pancake baker. I had to try it out first however because the children went mad when they saw it. I was pleasantly surprised, it cooks some lovely little pancakes and they don't stick or run all over the place. It was good value, £20 from Next and I think it will be a real hit with families staying at the cottage. I have now got to buy another one for home! Would definitely be an ideal Christmas present.

This is the second batch!

Syndicating this blog to Facebook and Twitter

I have just, one hour later... managed to link this blog to our Facebook page and Twitter @NNorfolkCottage. Facebook doesn't like Google Blogger much so I used an App called Networked Blogs which seems to work well - I hope. However I can't work out how to import into Facebook all my old Blog entries. Any one have any ideas?

Christmas Wreath by Fiori

Paul was at the cottage this weekend and has put the Christmas wreath up on the door. We had it made especially by Tania at Fiori, Stonham Barns in Stonham Aspal, Suffolk. She has just opened a flower shop with some lovely Christmas bits and pieces to die for. I hope she does well.

Christmas wreath at Royal Cottage

The Archers Lavender Shortbread

I saw a recipe for lavender shortbread on the BBC recipe website and thought I would make some for Christmas and pop them into the Cottage Christmas hampers. I've used some lavender from the garden at the cottage that I collected in the Autumn and put it into a jar of castor sugar to infuse for a few days.

Royal Cottage Lavender Sugar

 I hope that mine look like this... 

Archers Lavender shortbread

According to the BBC's website, this recipe is from the Archers after an episode with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, sampling some home baked shortbread made by Ian from Grey Gables. See Daily Mail article here.

Camilla in the Archers

Ingredients from the BBC website

• 125g/4½oz lavender caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling 
• 225g/8oz unsalted butter, softened
• 300g/10½oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50g/1¾oz ground rice

Preparation method

1. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
2. Sieve the sugar into a bowl and reserve the lavender (this stops the lavender seeds getting broken when creaming the butter and sugar). Add the butter and cream the sugar and butter together.
3. Sift the flour and ground rice into the mixture, add the reserved lavender seeds and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Using floured hands, work the mixture together to form a smooth paste.
5. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently until the dough is smooth. Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
6. Roll the dough out to a 5mm/¼in thickness, and cut out biscuits using a heart-shaped cutter. Place the hearts onto the baking trays, and sprinkle with a little extra lavender sugar.
7. Leave to chill for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/Gas 4.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Carefully place the biscuits onto a cooling rack., sprinkle with extra lavender sugar and set aside to cool completely.

Count down to Christmas

It's the first of December and only 24 days left until Christmas!


Today and tomorrow I will be making Christmas cakes and puddings for the Cottage Christmas Hampers. I will steam the puddings for 6 hours so that they are ready just to pop into the microwave before eating. The cakes will need 'feeding' with Brandy so I hope none of our visitors have an alcohol allergy!

Feeding the Royal Cottage Christmas cake

Ring in the New Year in at Royal Cottage

We have availability for the New Year at Royal Cottage, from the 29th December, for up to four adults plus a baby. If you haven't yet decided what to do over the New Year why not stay at this lovely, luxury Four Star North Norfolk cottage. Its only five minutes walk to the sea and local shops. 

Enjoy some bracing walks along the beach to wash away the cobwebs.
Visit the lovely Felbrigg Hall or Sheringham Park.
Sample the delights of traditional fish and chips on Cromer Pier.

For more information contact Rachel and Paul by completing the enquiry form on our website or sending a text to 07540 723 988. 

Parking Map now live!

A very useful parking map from freeparking.com now includes North Norfolk towns such as Cromer, Sheringham, Mundesley, Fakenham, Holt, and Hunstanton. In half term we were caught out in Cromer by the enthusiastic car parking attendant and ended up with a parking fine. If you are staying at Royal Cottage and are new to the North Norfolk area its worth checking out this link just to make sure.

Cromer Pier

The old Play Equipment at Mundesley Gold Park

Just come across this lovely video of Edward on the play equipment in Mundesley before it was upgraded. He looks so cute! It seems a long time ago. Looks like it was taken during one of our stays at the Royal cottage.


The new play equipment is fantastic and adored by all the children who stay at the cottage.

Christmas Marmalade and Cakes

I have just finished making some fair trade Christmas marmalade and cakes for the Cottage guests to enjoy at Christmas. One of our Summer visitors has ordered some of the very tasty Royal Cottage marmalade and cakes for her relatives at Christmas. 

This has got me thinking... 

Royal Cottage Christmas Marmalade

Perhaps I should leave some extra jars in the kitchen with an honesty box for guests to purchase if they wish?

If you are due to visit Royal Cottage or are already staying there and would like some marmalade to take home, please let me know and I will leave some extra jars out for you.

Sheringham Park

At half term we decided to take a trip to the National Trust's Sheringham Park. Even though it poured down with rain we managed to walk through the tree-lined pathways and enjoyed a magnificent view across the fields to Weybourne Mill. We even saw the Poppyland steam train chuffing away in the distance.

We would definitely recommend this lovely attraction in the Spring and Autumn when the colours are glorious. The staff are very friendly and there is plenty to do for the children including a Halloween quiz and ghostly biscuit treat!

Sheringham Park, North Norfolk

 

Mundesley Outdoor Gym. Reduce pounds in weight and the pocket!

What a fantastic way to get fit outside in the fresh air and with no added costs of expensive gym fees. When we clean the holiday cottage on our Saturday changeover, our children, run along to the gym and 'work out' while we 'work out' in the garden, doing the hoovering and cleaning the bathroom! 

The Mundesley Youth and Community Group managed the project and helped to raise over £20,000. Well done!


When you visit and stay at the cottage why not try the gym out - a fantastic way to keep fit by reducing pounds in weight and the pocket!

Norman Lamb opened the outdoor gym in August and he can be seen here enjoying the benefits.

Courgettes in the Garden

Royal Cottage courgettes

Our first courgette has now been harvested in the garden at the back of the cottage. This year we decided to grow some vegetables, instead of salad, for our guests to sample during their stay. The collection of herbs outside the back door are also ready for picking.   Why not add some mint to new potatoes to give that extra special taste?

Beautiful drawing of Royal Cottage

One of the guests staying at our holiday cottage has drawn this beautiful sketch of the cottage. Its so lovely that I'm going to use it for Christmas cards and frame it to hang on the wall. Thank you Lizzie!

Royal Cottage sketch

New play equipment and Skate Park at Mundesley

We were all very excited when we heard that Mundesley was going to have new play equipment and a Skate Park. The Community has been working so hard to make the village a fun place for children and families including holiday makers, day trippers and residents.

Mundesley Skate Park (www.edp24.co.uk)

I would like to thank the Parish Council and Mundesley Youth and Community Project plus all the other fundraisers who have made this all happen. Our visitors at the cottage have commented on how good the facilities are and our own children love all the new things to do. The 2p machines at the amusements however still hold a deep fascination for the kids both young and old!

Visit England Rating 100% Cleanliness

Today we had our annual inspection from the Visit England inspector. All seemed to go very well - inspite of the water board contractors arriving 15 minutes before the inspector and starting to dig up the drive and the road outside. We're confident that we will be keeping our 4 stars which was awarded this time last year.

ps. We did get Four Stars again this year and 100% for cleanliness!

Website redesign

After 4 or so years I've finally got round to giving the website a much needed tidy up. We have has comments to the effect 'the cottage was nicer than the photos on the website showed' which in one way is good, but we did need better photos. We will also be adding more testimonials - we now have 3 books full of great reviews but were still showing some from the original few months after we opened.

Have a look and see what you think.

Royal Cottage new website