Sunny garden days

 Camper van eggs in the garden for lunch.

Playing with windmills

Charlecote Nursery

This summer I have had a few trips to Charlecote Nursery which is just so lovely - it's across from the National Trust house (Charlecote Park where the Lucy family lived - fabulous orangery tearoom and croquet on the lawn if you wish) and is worth a wander and a plant purchase or two, they also sell fruit, veg and ice cream and fresh bunches of flowers that are grown there.
Definitely a great choice for a simple daycation.

I'm really getting hooked on the camping lark - having borrowed the Cool Camping Scotland book from the library I am now planning a trip to Norfolk with a friend - we are spoilt for choice on where to stay - all the campsites on the website look so unique and inviting and many allow campfires which is fab. We will take 2 tents and she will take her dog and I will have Martha so it should work out pretty well.


I told Martha we were planning a trip next month and she said "I take my boots" so she is all set to go!

Books, baking & bags

Martha and I had a trip to the library which Martha loves - so much so, that she had a little meltdown when we were leaving as she wanted to "stay inna libey" so we had to forego the usual sticker to make a point about good behaviour!

Today we returned nice and quietly and got the sticker of course!

Before we scuttled out yesterday I managed to borrow a book for myself "Cool Camping" which is lovely as it shows many of the places we visited during our holiday.

Martha got a great haul of books which will be read several times and returned for a new batch very soon.

We also made our first batch of bread - I have wanted to make bread for years so I have finally done it. The mixture was stickier than I imagined so I will tweak it a little. I followed the recipe from TheQuinceTree65

Homemade bread is always so yummy.

I have frozen most of it to stop me eating it all straight away.

Popped into Leamington and spotted this bag which feels so holiday-ish that I had to buy it.

Birthday at Knaresborough

Knaresborough was the perfect place for a picnic to celebrate Mike's birthday. It was really hot! The one day in the last week or so that was like proper summer. Mike's mum made a lovely chocolate cake for him and we ate it by the river after lunch.

Martha loves cake! When anyone is having a birthday she is always excited about the "special cakey" I love it that she is excited about that rather than presents and stuff although I'm sure that time will come.

If we can keep her thinking that birthdays are about treats and celebration rather than getting things then that would be great.

The River Nidd at Knaresborough

Martha and I also made cake for Daddy which we had when we got home

 

The birthday boy sporting his mum's sunhat.

Happy Birthday Mike - have a happy year xxx

Weekend at HQ

We went for a lovely, long weekend in Yorkshire to visit Mike's parents. The weather was good and we took a trip to Goathland, famous for steam trains a few of which we watched and also the location of Aidensfield the town which featured in Heartbeat.

We stopped off in Pickering on the way home where we had spent a few days on honeymoon. Nice to pop back and have another look. 

Martha had a lovely time with Grandma and Grandpa, playing in their garden, having stories and dancing to Grandpa's piano playing. 


We returned home to Warwickshire on an AA truck which was an extra thrill for her!

Water, water everywhere....

Here in leafy Warwickshire we are miles from any water with the exception of the canals.

In Scotland we saw an abundance of loch, river and sea views, all awesome. I think I took that for granted when I lived there and realise now how much I miss it. The area where we live now is very beautiful but in a completely different way.

Glen Etive

Bay on Ardnamurchan Peninsula

Picnic spot overlooking the sea

View from the Fort William to Mallaig train journey.

Glencoe Lochan

Baking and Helping

It's only recently that I first baked with Martha - naturally we made fairy cakes but she was not at all happy that we had to wait 12 minutes or so while they baked before we could eat them.

This time I thought crispy cakes would be good as they are almost instant.

Testing - fortunately it was only the 3 of us who were going to be eating the finished product!

Happiness is a chocolatey face :)

Chocolate crispy cakes with white buttons.

Glencoe

The first week of our holiday was spent in Glencoe. We arrived in torrential rain, the mountains encircling us and it did seem a bleak and haunting place.


Glencoe village was just a short riverside walk from our house and was cute and friendly.

The Massacre Monument was near the house and commemorates where many of the MacDonald clan were led to their deaths. My clan on my mum's side is MacDonald and despite not being hugely interested in that sort of thing it did make me feel a little odd to be there. Some years ago my mum and I also felt moved at Finlaggan on Islay which was the seat of the MacDonald chiefs.

We went twice to the NTS Glencoe Visitor Centre which was done really well and the actual location was lovely, very contemporary with a good shop and cafe.

I love Glasgow in the rain

This is the second summer where we have stopped off at the art gallery on our way through Glasgow. I just love stopping in the city and seeing places that are so familiar to me and that I never get a chance to visit properly now.

Martha loves all the animals on display, Mike loved the organ recital this year (they play every day at 1pm which is so impressive) and I love the paintings.

Last year The Glasgow Boys exhibition was showing and I thought it was utterly fabulous whereas I had heard others complain it was too crushed and dark - but if you just shut yourself off and looked at these paintings they are full of greatness and social history and exotics and a picture in time all rolled into one, not too mention the technical/physical talent.

This year I met a friend (the husbands and kids all wandered and we had an hour or so catch-up) and we had a quick run round the Glasgow art area together which was lovely - lots of Rennie Macintosh and Margaret Macdonald and Jessie King work.

It was drizzling in Glasgow, same as last year, but still beautiful....tinseltown in the rain.

Giffords Circus - War & Peace

Before we headed off on holiday Martha and I had an afternoon out at Giffords Circus -this was a dream come true for me as I had wanted to see this for a long time!
It was spectacular, even better than I had imagined. Martha wasn't quite so sure and I realised I was being a bit ambitious taking her this young especially without Mike but she did love the horses and birds - she is a real animal-loving girl.

Amazing acrobatics

The girls selling during the interval also blew bubbles - totally enchanting.

We have had the most amazing trip to Scotland, visiting lots of places that I have never been before and then back to our favourite place to be. So many good times in 1888 miles!

Martha had a fab time especially as my parents were with us which she was thrilled about.

We crammed so much in that I feel I need another week off to recover, am finding it super-hard to get back into normal life (whatever that is?!)

Ah, summer holidays - aren't they just The Best!!

2 Years On

We had the Butterfly Tea Party and the next day found ourselves digging out the sandpit for Martha's birthday. I have good memories of my own sandpit being dug out for me so wanted to re-create that for Martha and give her a fun place to play.

Martha loved it - we unveiled it on her birthday afternoon and she started playing right away!

The sandpit birthday cake!

One of Martha's birthday presents was a music set which she got into straight away!

We had a really special day celebrating her turning 2 years old!