A day trip to Annecy

May 5, 20162 Comments

One of the great things I find about French cities is how well connected they are, and how cheap the public transport is. So it made complete sense for us to take advantage of that and plan a daytrip outside of Lyon.

Annecy is a pretty town very near to the Swiss border, in the Alps. The old town has lots of coloured buildings and a river running through it. It’s sometimes referred to as the Venice of the Alps. I’ve seen pictures of it and read about it in the past and, although it’s a 2 hour train journey, the tickets only cost us about £45 return which was well worth it.

If you follow me on instagram you’ll have already seen a lot of these photos, as I was very taken with the place!

Lake Annecy is the biggest lake in Europe, and surrounded by pretty lakeside towns and mountains. We went on a boat trip.

There are flowers everywhere in the town and on the bridges across the river.

This is tartiflette – a speciality of the region. A gratin of potatoes, onions and bacon lardons smothered in baked reblochon cheese. It was pretty spectacular!

Tartiflette

We had a beautiful day in the sunshine, breathing in the mountain air and enjoying life, before getting the train back to Lyon in time for dinner!

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

A (pre) Valentine’s ode to my husband

February 10, 2016

Roses are red

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I’ve got herpes

So I can’t kiss you

Romantic huh?

(I actually have got herpes, but in the coldsore on my lip variety, not the downstairs region).

In truth, I think Valentine’s Day is a complete waste of time. It makes single people feel crap, it makes people in relationships who’s partner doesn’t shower them with gifts feel crap (if they’re that kind of person) and it’s just a ruddy great commercial load of balls which creates oodles of landfill waste in the shape of soppy cards, overpriced flowers, and scraggy stuffed toys.

You could conclude from that outburst that I don’t believe in romance. You’d be very wrong. Romance to me is the small things – when my husband watches a film he’s not keen on because he knows I like it, when he tells me I’m his favourite person in the world, or strokes my head when I’m feeling poorly. Those are the things that demonstrate love. Gifts are just stuff. It’s easy to buy stuff. I buy stuff for myself. I don’t need stuff from my husband to validate how he feels or what our marriage means to both of us.

There’s something brash and vulgar about certain elements of Valentine’s Day. Like sending flowers to someone at work – why? That’s blatantly to score brownie points and prove to everyone else how much you love that person. If I don’t receive flowers at work but someone else does, does that mean they’re more in love than I am? A better person? A happier couple? Of course it doesn’t.

Anyway, my husband has the best excuse for never sending me flowers – he has severe hayfever and we can’t have them in the house (a likely story, I know, but it’s true!)

Besides, the overpriced rip off of Valentine’s Day is ridiculous. Why would you spend money on a meal which is usually a “special menu” (translates to reduced choice) in a restaurant that has blatantly squeezed in more tables than usual to capitalise on our need to prove our love, surrounded by other suckers doing the same thing and wondering why their partner has only ordered white wine when the table next to them has champagne?

Not for me. We’ll exchange cards and might even be extra nice to each other for the day (I’m kidding. We won’t). But, as the saying goes, we don’t need one day to prove our love.

And, luckily, I don’t need flowers either!

What do you think of Valentine’s Day?

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

An afternoon in Polperro

October 2, 2015

Two weeks ago, on our way to Looe Music Festival, we visited Polperro. It’s a little fishing village just about 5 miles away from Looe, with restricted vehicle access. You have to park your car at the entrance to the village and walk down to the harbour. It’s a twisty turny maze of little streets, cute buildings and eating places, and very very pretty.

Here are some pics

Polperro fishing boat

View of Polperro

Pretty Polperro house

The Buccaneer Polperro

The Pottery Shop Polperro

Bunting and flowers Polperro

The stream runs down to the sea, between the street and houses, so people have to cross individual bridges to their homes!

Polperro stream

Polperro bridge

Polpero houses

Polperro is still a working harbour. Back in the 1300s it used to be rife with smugglers.

Polperro fishing boats

Polperro boat

I bet there was some loot in this cave!

Polperro cave

Cave in Polperro

Smugglers House sign

The village is dotted with rowing boats filled with flowers, and pretty colourful hanging baskets

Fishing boat planter

In between Polperro houses

Nelsons Restaurant Polperro

Polperro pub

We had lunch – look at that for a fish pie!

Fish pie Polperro

My sentiments exactly, ha ha!

Children sign Polperro

I’d definitely recommend a visit and a wander around Polperro if you’re ever in the area.

Stay-at-home tourist: Birmingham

September 16, 20159 Comments

On Saturday I had a fabulous afternoon seeing my home city through tourist eyes; looking at it in a way I don’t generally experience.

And it was brill.

It started from the desire to go owl hunting – The Big Hoot has scattered hand painted owls all around the city to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. They’ve been around since July, but I haven’t had chance to get into the centre of town to check them out (although I did see a couple locally about a month back).

So off we went, with no particular plans apart from to find as many owls as we could and then see where the day would take us.

One thing you forget, walking round Birmingham with a purpose in mind, is how beautiful some of the architecture is.

Floozie in the Jacuzzi

Town Hall

St Philips Cathedral (with added owl!)

Museum and Art Gallery

Council House

One such piece of architecture is the new (ish) library. I never truly appreciated what a structure it is. In the past I would have classed myself as not being a fan, but for the first time I went up close and personal and was astounded. The circular metal cladding gives the building an industrial feel.

Inside, all the escalators have futuristic blue lights.

I didn’t realise until recently that the building has two outdoor viewing platforms, with gardens.

The views across the city are pretty cool.

Out of towners often think of Birmingham as being dull and bleak, but there are flowers everywhere.

And miles of canals.. Hard to believe that I’ve lived in or around this city my whole life and didn’t actually realise how beautiful the canal area is.

We found about 30 owls altogether, here are some of my favourites.

Night owl

Bob the Bat

Clash

Tick Tock

I love living in Birmingham!

Do you ever look at your home town through fresh eyes?

My weekend in pictures

August 10, 2015

I’ve had a stunning weekend of doing very little. Weekends like that are few and far between – we seem to have so much on this year. We were supposed to be out for a birthday on Saturday night but we were both feeling pretty burnt out from work and family stuff and just life so we made the decision to stay home for some much needed R&R. It was a good decision.

Here’s a pictorial round up!

Baked lamb with potatoes and stilton – I’ll post up a recipe for this, it’s so so good.

Breakfast on the balcony

Enjoying the view

Reading chick lit in the sunshine

Still on the balcony, even in the dark, just add hoodie and burner!

Popping to the local shops, wearing straw and stripes

Owl spotting – check out the Big Hoot (most of the owls are in the city centre and I haven’t had chance to get there yet but there are the odd few dotted around on the outskirts, these are in Kings Heath).

Sunday papers (yes I read the tabloids, no I’m not sorry – it’s all about trash and escapism at the weekend!)

Pruning my bushes (fnar!) – a bit of a tidy up of my balcony pots which I’ve shamefully neglected somewhat this year

Sunday roast – one of my favourite meals to cook

Strawberries and cream!

Today I have…

May 11, 20151 Comment

…clashed patterns with leopard print and stripes…

…photographed appalling parking…

…congratulated myself on my new Asda jeans

…sported heart shaped sunglasses…

…looked at the most delicate bluebells…

…drunk vodka and tonics in the pub…

…and adorned my feet with more leopard print

Mondays can be pretty good, if you make them so.

Persistent petals and seeing the sea

March 17, 2015

A couple of weeks ago I bought some pre-potted bulbs. I never think to plant bulbs; partly as I only have balcony pots to put them in but mainly because I always forget until it’s too late. With the job of potting some up already done by the shop, along with the fact they were starting to sprout, I invested in some red tulips, hoping for a sunny day to get them outside.

I carefully transferred them home in a carrier bag…and promptly forgot about them.

So, now that I have remembered them, they’re ready to be thrown away, right? No water or sunlight for more than 2 weeks, stifled in a plastic bag in a corner. They’re bound to have withered and given up.

Wrong! Look at my beautiful tulips!

Curved tulips 2

Not only have they miraculously continued to grow, but they have done so in the most peculiar way; obviously growing towards the air and trickle of light that was available. Searching out the life force to not only survive, but flourish. That’s pretty bloomin’ special.

Curved tulips

I’ve now popped them on my kitchen window sill, flooded them with water, and hopefully they’ll straighten out and grow upwards towards the sunlight; after which I’ll transfer them to my balcony.

I still have some snapdragons from a couple of years ago that refuse to throw in the towel; I thought I’d cleared them all out at the end of the summer but they sprouted back up in November and came into bloom.

Here’s a couple of pictures from the North Welsh coast from my weekend trip.

It all looks rather gloomy, but I quite like the power of a wild and windy seaside in cloudy weather. Not as much as I like a clear blue sky and white sandy beach, but the chances of that in Wales in March are slim to none.

And how quaint is this cottage?

Hafan y Mor chalet

Its one of the holiday park rentals; looks like something from a fairytale.

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