Day trip to Winkworth Arboretum and duck curry

Hello. As my ear drums and my brain fight for a bit of space competing with the rock guitar practice going on upstairs, I’ll tell you about my day.

This morning we did a few jobs at home. I did my parents’ online food shopping and gave David a hair cut. He now chooses for me to do it rather than to visit the barbers, so I must be doing it OK. I’ve done it 3 times now but I think next time he will need a more professional cut.

Late morning we set off for our day trip to Winkworth Arboretum . It made a change to get out of Windsor for a few hours, much as I like my home town. Sadly the weather did not appear to be the 25 degrees C and sunny as predicted by the BBC last week. It was cool and murkier, no sunshine and at times a bit of drizzle in the air. We were lucky that it didn’t rain properly until we got home. We took a picnic and ate pork pie, cheese, tomatoes and snacks on a bench overlooking a meadow of wild grasses with the lake behind and trees in every shade of green you can imagine. With hindsight we could have bought something from the Café and sat at one of their outdoor tables. The whole place was well organised from a social distancing point of view and not too crowded. There are lots of lovely interesting trees, peaceful views of the hills of the North Downs and steep walks with vista points. Sadly we had missed the azaleas that had gone over but also were too early for the magnolias, so no pretty flowers in bloom, but a lot of lovely lush green and fresh air nonetheless. When we looked at the azalea steps David remembered we have probably been there before, many many years ago, when the azaleas were in full bloom. We’ll have to dig out our photos of the same.

The owl above was on a carved bench that I liked. It was so cute.

Shortly after that we found one with foxes on. This was opposite a memorial to Dr Wilfred Fox who founded the arboretum before he gave it to The National Trust.

It’s a bit murky in the photos, but you can get an idea of the beautiful views.

This was a really interesting type of birch tree, all stripy with peeling bark.

I liked some of the old trees that have multiple trunks. I think this one was a beech, all part of the same tree.

Some of the barks were really nice. I did a bit of hugging and stroking (of the trees, not David!).

You can only visit Winkworth by timed entry ticket at the moment. It was very easy to book, cost us £10. each and the car park was free. I think that was quite reasonable. I would consider visiting another local National Trust property outside in due course for another day trip. I think it would be fun to do some sort of day trip once a month. Have you been out anywhere recently? Any recommendations for me not more than an hour or so drive from Windsor?

Back in The Waffle kitchen, last night we had one of our favourite quick suppers of chicken katsu noodles. We buy the katsu sauce from Waitrose, it’s really delicious, and usually add in a few chopped mushrooms. The whole thing takes about 10-15 minutes to make.

For tonight, the duck curry is cooking in the oven. I wanted to prepare this this morning and put it in the slow cooker but ran out of time, so I am doing the oven method instead. My slow cook book is great in that it gives slow cooker and oven alternative instructions for each recipe. I have roasted duck before but I don’t think I’ve ever made a duck curry. It smells good and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll love you and leave you with a few pics of the preparation. We’ll probably have it with basmati rice. Yum. Have a relaxing weekend everyone x