It's been a while...

Hello... it's me!
(Yes that was sung in a powerful Adele voice)
Well it's been a busy few months and I'm afraid the blog had to take a bit of a back seat, I've moved back into the countryside and not having the internet in my new flat has made it particularly difficult to get on here. Everything's been kind of hectic, so I apologise for being mute for so long! Do not fear I will be back up a running on here and will post as often as I can, I've felt like a little part of me hasn't been satisfied over these last few months!
Everything has changed in such a short space of time, unfortunately I had to leave the beautiful Steel City for now, but on the up side I have obtained a permanent job working at non other than Emma Bridgewater in Stoke-on-Trent.. exciting ey?
I have adored the brand for a long time and it's such a great company to work for, and I get my own personalised mug!

On the down side Neil has taken off and gone on an adventure to the winter wonderland of Whistler in Canada for the ski season; he's having an amazing time so far and has sent me some pretty cool photos which would be rude not to share with you.

So its a Skype relationship for the moment, but we are making the long distance thing work well, its just the time difference which is proving to be difficult for us as he's 8 hours behind. I'm hoping to get out there and join him at some point over the next few months for a little adventure - though I've never skied before!

Just before he left we spent some time together and decided to visit Chatsworth House during the Christmas Display, the theme this year being Wind in the Willow's, 'Mr Toad at Chatsworth' so I couldn't not share the photos I had taken.

Feeling rather small!

This is the perfect Christmas Tree, woodland themed covered in Toadstools, Mushrooms, Acorns and Apples!

Mr Badger

I made Neil take a photo of me walking up the stairs pretending I lived there!

And these are the stairs I want in my house! 

To finish off our time together I attended Neil's Graduation; we both dressed up rather smart and headed over to Sheffield for the day, and it was the perfect way to say our farewells.

I'm wearing the Lara Sparkle Dress in Damson from Boden. 

More to come soon.. I promise!

xx

Fairs, Fetes & Farmers Markets

Coniston Country Fair

During our weekend trip to The Lakes I found out the Sunday just so happened to be Coniston Country Fair, set at Coniston Hall right on the lake side with a glorious backdrop of mountainous scenery it was definitely a fair not to be missed.

Coniston Hall is a really beautiful building and with a little spruce up I could imagine would make a lovely wedding venue, I would of really liked to look inside I bet its full of period features!





 

The fair was quite small but still had a variety of different stalls and activities to take part in, and of course the food!! I didn't manage to get many pictures of the food stalls as I was too busy deciding what I was going to buy, I then wandered past the Cumbrian Pie Company stall and was tempted by their gorgeous open pork pies; I went for the Pork, Wild Mushroom and Stilton one!

 



 

One thing I noticed about this country fair compared to others I've visited is how many stands were dedicated to wildlife and countryside awareness. I particularly enjoyed seeing these guys out...

 



There were quite a few different packs of hounds at the show, and they gathered quite a crowd; it was great to see the support for such a British tradition.

What I thought & bought:

Atmosphere - Family Friendly

Food - Open Pork Pie (The Cumbrian Pie Company)
Drink - Cup of Tea

Favourite Activity - The Hound Show

 

Thanks again for being patient with me, I'm finding it hard to get on the internet at the moment, I hope you enjoyed today's post!!

 

xx

Canvas & The Lakeside

Hello Everyone! I apologise for my absence over the past month, I've been rather busy with moving house, relocating back to my parents in the Peak District. It's taking a lot of getting used to after living in Sheffield for the past 4 years, so it was nice to catch up with the Sheffield gang on a little camping trip for Stacey's birthday in The Lake District over last weekend.

Heading over on the Friday afternoon Neil and I arrived at Hoathwaite National Trust Campsite where we met up with Sidd and Stacey and after a bit of a struggle against the wind finally got our tents pitched and dinner barbecued. That night was a rather windy one, and Neil and I were woken up at 4am by the tent falling on top of us! Saturday morning seemed a bit brighter we woke to another water view, not quite as spectacular as the one we got during our camping trip at the coast, but not bad at all.

After breakfast we decided to take a walk down to the lake and followed it along into the village of Coniston, passing through Coniston Hall which were setting up for a country fair the next day!

Coniston is a very pretty little town, it gave us the chance to pick up a few items we'd forgotten and we also stumbled upon a lovely little vintage and antique fair.

We headed back to our campsite to await the arrival of Ben and Charlotte and after a few drinks and a catch up we decided to take a walk to a nearby pub for some dinner.
Our finally morning started off with my specialty 'Eggy Bread' topped with some blueberries and raspberries, I love sweet breakfasts, pastries, pancakes anything like that really sets me up for the day.

After getting packed up we headed down to the Coniston Hall Country Fair, I'll be dedicating a whole post to that so I won't reveal too much, but what a great back drop for a Fair!

If you've made a trip to the Lakes you can't not go out on the water, so we decided to hire two-man sit on top kayaks and in our couples all rowed off onto the lake. I really enjoyed it, I think Neil and I made a good team once we'd got the hang of it, I'm sure we were both imagining we were professional rowers! (Rowing photos courtesy of Charlotte of Salt Deep)

After our two hours were up we headed back to the cars, my bum was soaked so had to do a quick change before the two and a half hour drive home. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, the trip seemed to go so fast, but we've all agreed we'll go camping again this summer!

xx

Milk Moustaches & Molly

Last Sunday Neil and I woke early to glorious sunshine and decided it was definitely a day to be spent outside. It just so happened to be 'Open Farm Sunday' an event in which many farms all over the UK take part, opening up their cow sheds, chicken coops and pigsties to give the general public a hands on experience of life on a farm. We checked out what farms in our area were participating and decided to spend the day at the Our Cow Molly farm; a place I'd been meaning to visit for a long time. Famous for their ice-cream but also a huge milk supplier to shops of Sheffield 'Our Cow Molly' is a success story of the farming industry whose goal is to supply every shop in Sheffield with fresh milk. Whilst other dairies in the area have been forced to closed due to a constant loss of money, 'Our Cow Molly' stood out from the crown creating a brand which is now a well known and loved in Sheffield.

We had a little wander round the farm, before queuing for a tour of the Milk Dairy, unfortunately we'd missed the ice-cream parlor tour earlier in the day, but never the less got to see inside the dairy and learnt some surprising facts about the difference between supermarket milk and the milk produced at 'Our Cow Molly'.

A very shiny dairy indeed, its strange to think that such a clean place exists on a farm it was a bit like stepping into a science lab. Our tour guide Dan gave us a run down of the process pointing out which machines did what, and how they create cream, skimmed and whole milk and a new venture into butter. Did you know that supermarket milk doesn't hit the shelf until 6-7 days after being milked from the cow? Well at 'Our Cow Molly' their milk goes from cow to Sheffield shelves in under 24 hours, how fresh is that? After the tour we decided to try out the ice-cream which was very popular with everyone there, the queue was massive!

Well what better way to enjoy your ice-cream than sat in the field right next to the cows that produce it? We sat for a while just enjoying the sunshine then headed home, but not before purchasing some milk and some of their second batch of butter they're currently testing out (foodie blog post on the way for that).

If you're ever in Sheffield you should take a trip up to the 'Our Cow Molly' farm for an ice-cream, or you could pick up a bottle of their milk to try in the city center, you won't believe the difference in taste!! 

Our Cow Molly

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xx