Hi there on this gorgeous Spring day! We are definitely due the little bit of sunshine that we are experiencing at the moment. 😁 Yesterday I joined in with Louisa and Janey‘s photo an hour over on Instagram, for the first time in ages. I thought I would record my day on my blog too. Here goes….
7am. My clock is fast, its actually just after seven, and everyone is awake. Sigh!
8am. Breakfast is oats so simple with blueberries and a smidge of peanut butter. Wil thinks I’m pretty disgusting. He hates peanut butter!
9am. My washing up view this morning. A breakfasting starling. ♡
10am. We’ve decided to walk to the nearby village of Waddington and back. We start our walk in Brungerly park and head along the river Ribble.
11am. We happen upon some friendly fellas. Alpaca and Llama. They are very inquisitive and the black and white llama does try and take a chomp out of my rucksack. 🤣
12 Noon. Early Lunch. A tuna toastie in a cafe in Waddington.
1pm. On the way home through Waddow Hall estate.
2pm. Vibrant crocuses. Spring is here in Clitheroe at last. 😁
3pm. A brew at home and a slice of homemade ginger cake. I have decided to no longer buy in biscuits and cake. Because I hardly ever bake ( even though I have a sweet tooth! ), this will hopefully be an incentive to do more and be slightly healthier….hopefully.
4pm. Chillin with this girl. 🙂
5pm. And now chillin down the pub and trying to work out where we should stay on our way home from the Hebrides in August. Thinking maybe somewhere round Oban, but not sure yet.
6pm. Some pub companions. Stan and Smudge the Springer’s. 🙂
7pm. Hadn’t planned on stopping in the New Inn this long! So resorting to taking a photograph of my hare brooch that is pinned to my earth squared bag. Both were presents from my lovely friend Jo. 🙂
8pm. We called in at an Indian takeaway on the way home , so here’s salad, dips and poppadoms.
9pm. Wil is watching Californication on Netflix but I am pretty much beat ! My day ends here and bed beckons. I am officially sad!
Thanks very much for dropping by. I had better go and sort out that alarm clock!
Hawthorn’s Hunt totally crept up on me this month but I managed to scrabble a few pics together. They are all actually taken this very morning! So sorry that they are not exactly the most interesting. And mostly dog themed!
White. Yes more snowdrops in my blog posts. This is the fourth post I’ve done where snowdrops have appeared. But they are so pretty and of course , white, so I couldn’t resist. 😄 These were taken on my walk with H this morning. We sneeked over the cattle grid onto the drive of a private residence called Standen Hall and I quickly took this photo.
Metal/metalic. We came accross this rather scary metal dog face nailed onto a fence near Standen Hall. Never seen it before so I can only assume its a recent addition. Then I thought, maybe its actually a poo bag dispencer for dog walkers? Will look out for bags in the future.
Camouflage. Where’s Hugo? ”You can’t see me Mum. I’m invisible and I’m a Laprador”. Or so he thinks! 🙂
Begins with a J. Spotted this bright red double-decker bus next to nearby Holmes Mill. It made me think of bus journeys and how I used to feel travel sick on buses, but never on double deckers strangely.
Bud. Daffodils coming into bud near Standen Hall.
My Own Choice. A combination of photos from my morning so far…and its not even 10am. I had better get the washing on!
Pop over to kates blog to see more Scavenger Hunt entrys. 🙂
Welcome to my first Links & Likes of 2018. This is a series where I like to include some links to a few posts I have ♡ recently.
February is a funny month. Spring is just around the corner( hopefully!) ,yet I still feel like hibernating! With snow, sleet, rain and hale all forcasted over the next few days in the North West, can you blame me if I cosy up under the duvet and snooze for the forseeable….
Yet I do have plans. 😁 Febuary is Snowdrop Season and I would really love to witness these first signs of Spring in all their gorgeous glory. Here in Lancashire Lytham Hall welcomes all to wander round their lovely grounds over the next couple of Weekends. Frames high-light the blooms for picture opportunities. Hornby Castle near Lancaster is opening to the public for Snowdrop Walks on the 17th & 18th February. Elsewhere The National Trust has details of early blooming gardens on their website. Hopefully I will be out and about searching for snowdrops in the next few days.
Other plans I have for February include a Ghost Walk at Houghton Tower and a Girls Night In Clothes Swap Party. So really, hibernation is not actually an option. 😄
Snowdrops at Lytham Hall. Image off Pinterest.
Christine has been playing Colour Bingo with her camera. A great idea for a blog post!
Amanda visits a Train Station , where an iconic Romantic Movie was filmed in the 1940s.
Its actually Friday morning as I gather together some pictures for my Sunday Sevens post. Yesterday ( Thursday) I had the day off as I am working for a colleague on Saturday. Yay , I can hardly wait! I know I am totally spoilt really and have become to used to having my weekends off….
I have just finished reading ELeanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. The story centres round Eleanor, a thirty something office worker who exists according to a regimented timetable during the week….and buys two bottles of vodka to drink at home every weekend. Eleanor thinks her life is rolling along as it should be, in other words she’s completely fine. And then she makes a friend. I found this book to be sweetly funny, heart-breaking and unputdownable. Anyone else read it?
Linden and Holder image saved from abduzeedo.com via Pinterest.
Currently watching ~ The Killing on Netflix. I am probably very late to the party! Based on the Danish TV series Forbrydelsen ( The Crime) , The Killing is a serial detective drama set in the more often than not bleak and rainy Seattle. With Scandi Noir influences and Linden’s Danish knitted jumpers, our crime busting duo are two very different homicide detectives ,with contrasting styles of how to get things done. Although I am very definitely the kind of audience that hides behind a cushion when I think something bad is going to happen, I am seriously hooked on a good mystery at the moment. Other Netflix series that I have enjoyed recently are The Sinner, Godless and The Lizzie Boden Chronicles. Any recommendations?
Thursday and Friday have been bright and cold days. On Thursday I had a good walk round my local Castle grounds. I went up to the top of the keep and it was freezing up there! This gave me an excuse to visit a tearoom and indulge in a pot of hot tea and a slice of Lemon Drizzle Cake. 🙂
Callooh ! Callay in Clitheroe has just re-opened. If your a fan of Alice In Wonderland and your tea served in vintage china, you will love Callooh!
I also did a spot of shopping. I found a couple of cute cards in Roost, a fab new Gifts and Interiors shop on Moor Lane. Plus I purchased a pretty top in a charity shop for £4. Can you see it is covered in little cat motifs. Slinky does not care to compliment it. That little fur ball on the edge of the photo is actually Slinky curled up in sleep ( or ignoring! ) mode.
Slinky Malinki
Speaking of which, I was disappointed to read ( yet again ) this week, that black cats in rescue centres are finding it hard to be re-homed due to them not being seen as photogenic enough for Instagram or selfies. If a person only wants a pet to decorate their social media feed, then I’m afraid they don’t deserve one. There are some eejits out there!
Walkies!
My final photo shows Pendle Hill in the back ground and is a view I tend to see a lot, when we are out and about with Hugo. I am hoping to #walk1000miles in 2018 and my progress in January has been pretty good. I have walked 120 miles in the first month. However I am probably only walking what I have always walked, its just that I haven’t bothered to record the distance before. If we didn’t have Hugo, would I have the motivation??? I think I would struggle!
Thanks as always to Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for organizing Sunday Sevens.
The tree is down and the decorations have been put away. Yet the happy times don’t have to end. Winter is so often dark and cold but maybe we should embrace our longest season. Maybe we should do as the Danish do and bring on the Hygge!! Hygge ( pronounced hoogah) is a Danish word that describes a feeling of cosiness and joy. It embodies the pleasures we take in simple things such as enjoying a mug of hot tea whilst the rain beats at the window, reading a favourite book by candlelight, getting together with friends in a cosy pub or snuggling on the sofa with a pile of blankets and cushions and a good film. It seems that people in Denmark cannot wait for Winter to arrive and their contentment with this time of year surely contributes to their nation being ‘the happiest’ in Europe. 🙂
As it is now a yearly tradition of mine to post a quick photo round-up of the year, I thought I had better get cracking with this 2017 post. I definitely have no regrets about 2017. It has been pretty fantastic with lots of short trips away, days out and fun times with family and friends. 🙂
Derwent Water. Spot the Photo Bomber.
January. We celebrated Wil’s Birthday with a weekend break in his favourite Lake District town Keswick.
Mostly this consisted of walks by beautiful Derwent Water and of course frequenting Keswick’s many watering holes. 🙂
April. It was my little sister’s 40th Birthday this month and we celebrated with a mini break in the Big City ( London) with our younger brother and other halves. Our trip included The Natural History Museum, Afternoon Tea at Claridges and watching The Lion King. You can read all about it here.
Finding Nemo on The Malham Safari.
In May Wil and I went on our first camping trip of the year . We didn’t venture very far, choosing this lovely campsite in Scorton, Lancashire. Hugo accompanied us on a tour of Ingleborough Show Cave in Yorkshire
June. This month I participated in The Wildlife Trust’s #30dayswild challenge , where I attempted ( though that’s no hardship!) to appreciate the beauty in nature every day in June, whether that meant noticing the different wildlife I would see on my daily walks with Hugo, or using natural ingredients in recipes such as Rose Petal Jelly. The challenge also coincided with my first ever visit to Norfolk, which I shall always remember for it’s many many beach huts, beautiful wildflowers and those yummy Dutch Pancakes in Wells-Next-The-Sea. 🙂
Beach Huts Galore in Norfolk.
Dutch Pancake on The Albatross.
Norfolk Lavender.
Waiting to Board The Ullswater Steamer.
July. Already well into Summer now. We spent a couple of nights camping in the Dales and walked this tiny stretch of The Dales Way and we took Hugo on his first ever trip on The Ullswater Steamer . I think this is my fave ever photo of my two boys. 🙂
The Cake Ole’.
August. Anyone for Afternoon Tea? I can certainly recommend a fun, quirky and delicious one at The Cake ‘Ole in Skipton. And August is a great time to go camping with the kids, as we found out when we accompanied friends to Meadow Falls near Ingleton.
Walking near Meadow Falls.A day at The Seaside.
September. We had a bit of an Indian Summer this month, which made up for a damp squibby August. Luckily we got to make the most of the sunshine on a day out with my niece and nephew in Morecambe and we spent a week in the The Lake District , bagging my first wainwright fell and enjoying the incredible views over Wastwater.
Lancs Cycleway.
October. Days out in October included A family friendly bike ride on the Lancashire Cycleway from Lancaster to Morecambe and back. It was my first time on a bicycle for many a year, so I was pretty happy that I made it!
Relaxing at The Turkish Baths.
November. My Birthday month was made so special when Wil booked us two nights in the Yorkshire Spa town of Harrogate.
I have always wanted to visit the Turkish Baths there so I checked us in for a morning, which was really enjoyable. We also visited nearby Knaresborough with its ancient castle and railway viaduct.
Knaresborough in November.
December. And its nearing the end of 2017 now after a fairly quiet but lovely December. Highlights included Hugo opening his Christmas presents ( he is very good at unwrapping, just need to train him to wrap up 😉 ), The traditional Christmas Morning Walk, Willow Angel Weaving and a Festive Afternoon Tea at Alexanders in Skipton.
I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who drops in on my little blog every now and again. It really has made my year. 😁
All the best for 2018. I hope its a great one for everyone. Xx
So here is what I have come up with for the prompts this month. Most of these pictures are from last weekend. Wil booked us a couple of nights in Harrogate for my birthday and on the way home on Sunday we visited the nearby town of Knaresborough.
Blue. I was delighted to actually manage to take a photo of a Kingfisher recently, on the river Nidd in Knaresborough. I saw a gleam of Blue fly up into a tree and used my camera to investigate. I was thrilled especially as photographing this iconic bird is on my 25 Before 45 ~ A Bucket List.
Me. And here’s another bird I found in Knaresborough. This is Me with Hedwig the Owl and Harry potter on the other side of the window. There is lots of street art like this in the town.
Starts with W. And more Street Art at Blind Jack’s Public House. Look who is leaning out of the Windows.
Rainbow. Rather lucky that I came accross this gift shop called Rainbow’s End. Those colourful glass rainbows are rather effective.
Arch. Knaresborough is famous for it’s impressive Victorian viaduct and it’s splendid Arches are widely photographed. Four 78ft high arches span the river Nidd and carry trains across to this day.
Toy. Well if you know me by now you will probably see why I was drawn to this room , absolutely devoted to Dogs! It’s in the Orvis Countrywear store in Harrogate and is chocca full of dog toys, dog beds and everything a discerning pooch could need. A visit with Mr Hugo is on the cards. 🐕
Swirl. A trip to Harrogate is not complete without a visit to Betty’s Tea Rooms. If you want to avoid the daytime queues get there early for breakfast or why not bob by for dessert in the evening. A decadent Icecream Sundae with a swirl of whipped cream and a blueberry on top does the trick. 😃
Brush. I hunted in the archives for this one and found brush to be broomsticks! This was taken 3 years ago on The Pendle Sculpture Trail in Barley, which tells the story of the Lancashire Witches.
Nail. Found this prompt quite difficult, but you can see my toe nails in this picture I took whilst relaxing in the Frigidarium in Harrogate’s wonderfully ornate Turkish Baths.
My Own Choice. Back to Knaresborough again where we met Isabella the Raven! She is one of several gorgeous ravens who are brought to Knaresborough Castle every day by their keeper to charm visitors. The Castle is actually a royal castle and ravens were brought here to celebrate the Millennium, their popularity meant that they have stayed here ever since. Isabella though, has to be kept on a jessie due to having an Asbo! Her mischievous nature has got her into trouble for stealing mobile phones and taking selfies. She also swears like a trooper!
The royal ruins of Knaresborough Castle, part of the Duchy of Lancaster Estate..
Because I am a traveller I can look down on the birds and up at the fishes. I collect moments and can venture back in time to lost worlds. I seize life and simultaneously escape it at will. Because I am a traveller I envy no man at home.
