A canal-side walk

A few sundays ago Mike and I packed up a picnic of ginger butternut squash soup and a thermos of tea and drove a few miles to the canal for a walk.

the route

It wasn't a particularly sunny day, or particularly cold but I also took my new atlantic blanket company blanket (a present from my parents) to snuggle under amongst some leaves.

some highlights from the walk

It was a really lovely walk, with plenty to see along the way (some locks, an old viaduct, a very muddy community road and a few horses) but I really don't like driving to get to a walk.


Claire

A walk around Charlecote and Wellsborough

This Saturday Mike and I enjoyed a walk around the Warwickshire countryside. We never normally drive to a walk but we were planning on going onto Stratford upon Avon afterwards for some cake and a coffee and a wander. We were also scouting a potential village for house buying.

The walk started from Charlecote house. We didn't go to the actual house so I have no idea how good it is but it looked very grand from the outside!

the map!

 The maps in this little set are useful, but nowhere near as easy to follow as an ordinance survey so we ended up slightly offtrack. But nevertheless it was a lovely 6 miles of woods, open fields and skies and a bit of river.

These are some of the photos from the walk. The ladder was supposed to be a bridge! Also, the written directions told us to go underneath the road and so upon seeing this (very low) path we thought we were supposed to crawl through. Turns out there was a proper bridge around the corner. 

We also happened upon a fence post that we had to climb over. I stepped on it and the whole thing collapsed! It was actually a tumble-style which I've never seen before (I thought I'd broken a fence).

husband successfully navigating the tumble-style

This time last year we did long walks every weekend. The summer tends to get busy and this one was particularly damp so we're going to try to take advantage of these crisp and dry days to explore until we fill our weekends with looking for houses properly.

Upon getting back to the carpark we decided to go and buy a cup of coffee and a cake from the house since we'd used the car-park. Instead though we (I) got completely sidetracked by the amazing flower and vegetable shop. There were about 45 varieties of squash (pumpkins, courgettes etc) both edible and inedible as well as large bunches of the last of the season's dahlias. The colours in the whole place were amazing.

so many varieties

Mike allowed me to buy 3 different sorts of squash and he also sneaked in a bunch of the Dhalias for me :)

 

 After a 2.5 hour walk and a long time choosing squash, we didn't go on to stratford upon avon and instead returned home. This will be saved for another weekend!

Claire

x

Sunny weekends

Since we moved house we are entirely lacking in a social life which has the unexpected bonus of lots of time to ourselves. The weather over the last few weeks has been my favourite: sunny with a slight nip in the air in the morning so that the leaves gleam.

The new place has two sets of decking with table and chairs on (spoiled I know). One gets breakfast and evening sun, the other gets the rest of the day. I could happily eat all meals outside if suitably wrapped up. Meals of salad and bread for warm days, or soup for cold.

We had some great success with a walk on Saturday afternoon. With a screenshot of the ordinance survey we hadn't known there was going to be a pub exactly halfway around the 6 mile journey! A pub with deckchairs, hampers, cider and icecream next to the river. We will definitely be going back there because the food looked ace! The walk itself had lots of variety - a lovely wood, some open fields and a meandering riverside. I have incorporated some of it into a new running route (though I have to be very careful to avoid tree roots in the wood and so my pace suffers).

morning run

In over-excitement about autumn I spent a fortune on food yesterday, on the menu (literally, a chalkboard menu a friend bought me for my birthday) this week:

Sea bream with smoked paprika spiced aubergine and tomatoes, leek and potato soup, butternut squash and sage risotto, butternut squash, sage and sausage casserole, fish pie...(you get the idea). 

I am also about to give in and use our green tomatoes to make mum's chutney ready for winter. I've got enough plum and blackberry jam to last forever so if anyone would like to swap it for apples (which we don't seem to have any of nearby) then that would be awesome.

PhD is still plodding along. I spent yesterday making sure all the formatting was perfect. Today I am researching residue functions in MRI and how my project may help. Hopefully finished this week!

Does everyone else love autumn as much as me? Wooly scarfs, blankets, lined-boots, tights, still sunny???

Claire
x

Cornwall Day 5: Walk and ferry trip & Day 6: Zipline

For the last full day before returning home we didn't fancy using the car so we did an approximation of the Hall Walk, a good 5 miles with 2 ferries and lots of exploring in Fowey.

The views on the first part of the walk were pretty good, up above harbours of Boddinick and Fowey. I was also delighted by this blue house, and being on a boat but the greatest surprise was that Fowey harbour had been yarnbombed! The whole harbour looked lovely as we sat and ate our sandwhiches amongst the tourists.

Fowey contains lots of art and interior shops, there was an especially cute shop which sold handmade ceramics and crochet/knitting. I also bought lots of greeting cards from some of the galleries (since we can't afford the real art). We debated getting a large serving bowl the same as in the cottage, and I fell in love with a quilt. We ended up buying neither, dissuaded by being less than half way around the walk.

We spied a castle in the distance and walked there via the beach. We didn't have the teapot with us because we were planning on going for afternoon tea, but there were a family on the beach making smores and gosh that was inspiring for the future. It was a lovely looking little beach for swimming (and even had this swimming platform), but the weather was a bit too rough for that day (not the waves and the faces above). The castle itself was mostly ruined but I loved the view back to the town through the window.

After freezing (poor husband in shorts) and been blown about, we deserved our afternoon tea at The Dwelling House. The 'gourmet' earl grey was actually not very good (they were loose leaf but ground, not anything like the amazing Adagio Teas Earl Grey). The scones were delicious though! My visit to this tearoom, however, was spoiled by the toilet. I have a recurring nightmare about having to urinate infront of people in a wide open bathroom. Well, the toilet was just in a bedroom, with windows and stuff. I would happily go in that bath if it were, say, on a beach in the middle of nowhere. But that was the toilet to use for all the customers, and I felt really uncomfortable about using it.

Anyway, after a hasty retreat Mike and I bought some bread and some John Dorey from the fishmongers for dinner, and set off on the walk back. This involved getting the passenger ferry to Polruan (yes, this is really the ferry and not an imposter touting for tourist money as my dad assumed). The walk back along the creek was very muggy, and we got lost twice but it was entertaining to end up in the grounds of an abandoned mansion where the ex-owner happened to appear because he was reminiscing about living there and moaning about foreigners buying holiday homes.

Dinner was very yummy, we were inspired to buy a book of seafood techniques.

________

taken from their website

On the last day, we went home via Adrenalin Quarry - The UK's longest zipline. I consider myself very brave to have done it after the eden project viewing platform, photos on a ledge, and afforementioned toilet fear fiascos - but it was really great! Not too fast but instead serene. Not quite worth all the money they charge but definitely worth a visit.

Coming home on a Saturday meant that by Sunday evening we were relaxed again, and had finished all the laundry and unpacking. At least, we would have been relaxed if I hadn't somehow hurt my back whilst driving over a speedbump which has taken until Friday to heal!

Let me know if you use any of our holiday ideas when you visit Cornwall, or if you too have an irrational fear of toilets or a perfectly valid fear of high places.

Claire
x

Cornwall Day 4: Lizard Point, Kynance Cove, Coverack Cove and Falmouth

Day 4 was a Revalation of sunshine and blueskies! It was also packed, with lots of photos taken so take a deep breath and make a cup of tea.

We set off down to Lizard point packing the swimming stuff with us *justincase*.

Mullion Cove, see the blue water!

The first stop off was Mullion Cove. It was a very pretty harbour, similar to the ones we'd seen in Skye last year rather than the more commercial ones near Fowey. The water was beautiful. Unfortunately, the photo on the bottom right resulted in a bit of an argument in which I accused Mike of being insensitive to my fear of death by trying to pull me off the edge for a photo. Hugs always make these things better though (I think he got a bit of a shock at how much I freaked out) so on we journeyed to Lizard Point.

We'd rejected Land's End since it was too commercial (and we'd both visited it as children, and we'd visited Great Britain's most westerly point last summer which trumps England's). Lizard point is the most southerly, has a free car park (well, donation carpark) and is home to Ann's pasties (basically a pasty shop in someone's garage). We got the last pasties (apparently one is supposed to phone in advance), luckily I wanted the vegetarian one :)

We were supposed to save our pasties until we got to the point (a mile walk maybe?) to sit and eat them. This did not happen. Each of us snuck a little bit ("just testing how warm it is") until there was none left.

Bottom right, I'm much happier

Lizard point itself was still quite touristy. But this little beach with the old lifeboat station was almost deserted. Mike did some stone skimming, and then we tested my ability to stand near a fence for a photograph.

After some messing around, we set off walking to Kynance cove (total walk from the car to lizard point, kynance cove and back 7 miles). During the walk the sky became more blue, the sun and wind stronger. We were fairly wind and sunburnt by the end of it!

see how sunny!

It was a beautiful walk, along the cliffs with breathtaking views. One issue I have with national trust walks is that they're a bit too easy with well trodden paths, but the view was worth it. We did lots of overtaking of slower couples, but stopped to watch people throwing model aeroplanes from the top of a cliff.

I found the cove itself (supposed most awesome in England) a little disappointing compared to others we'd seen in Scotland. It was also packed, due to having a road down to it and a cafe. However, we were very thirsty so actually the cafe was appreciated (we had no money but they filled up our water bottle).  I think my most perfect cove would be one which was hard to get to and dramatic.The walk back to the car was a very speedy and flat couple of miles. 

Coverack Cove - brr

Since we hadn't gone swimming at the cove, we looked on the map for the nearest bit of sand and set off to Coverack Cove (it was about 4pm by this point so swimming was perhaps a little optimistic). Again there was donation parking. Initially we took nothing with us but since the beach was so quiet, Mike ran back for the camera to capture photos of us galavanting in the sea. I didn't do any actual swimming, but happily ran around splashing (like the smallest children on the beach) and preparing tea and cake for when Mike was done. I also wore a bikini outside for the first time in my life. 

The end of day 4 was a drive to Falmouth to get fish and chips from the Rick Stein takeaway. We'd highly anticipated these fish and chips, eschewing others on previous evenings to save ourselves. They were a disappointment. Nowhere near as good as the Wee Hurrie in troon so don't bother going. We got back and made up for the disappointment with dessert wine and hot brownie and icecream in the cottage whilst watching thursday evening comedy on E4...our kind of evening. 

With Love

Claire

Cornwall Day 3: Eden Project and Polperro

Day 3 was a bit foggy...

So we decided to go to the Eden project. We didn't really take many photos of the flowers because we wanted the best chance to see everything. We did take this photo of us on the viewing platform, I don't look happy at the height do I? This was my second attempt to get up to the top and, I think, if I hadn't had to wait 35 minutes in a queue I wouldn't have been so determined. The Eden project was great (and we bought tickets cheaply with our clubcard)! We saw (and learned) loads and bought ourselves some hot chocolate to take home (real stuff that you grate into milk).

After the Eden project we drove to Polperro (a harbour near Fowey), potentially to visit The Blue Peter Inn (which has great reviews) for dinner. When we got there, it was busy and the menu wasn't as exciting as we'd hoped so, instead, we drank tea on the beach (alas we'd already eaten the brownies in the queue for the viewing platform at the Eden project) and I saw a one-footed seagull. Polperro is strange because it has a river running through the backs of the houses but the harbour is very pretty, with lots of rocks to explore.

We spotted some steps up from the beach which pointed to a short circular walk with extensive views (2 miles I think). It soon transpired that the fog meant we weren't going to see anything but everytime there was a viewing point we took a photo as we felt commanded. 

On the way back we tried to be inspired by the various seafood restaurants but the lunch yesterday had spoiled us so we bought some mead and some cider and went back to the cottage for a simple tuna salad. 

Day 3 then was a success, despite the weather. We actually enjoy walks in this sort of weather (and the lack of people). Especially when we came across a smugglers tunnel with a ladder which went down through the cliff onto the beach. Mike went to explore it. I did not. 

Claire

Cornwall Day 1 and 2

The next few posts are going to be more detail about our holiday itinerary- incase you decide you want to go to Cornwall and get ideas.

The cottage was a national trust cottage  which we got last minute and therefore discounted. By FAR the best thing about the cottage was the complete cornish teaset from TG Green: teapots, lots of cups, dinner plates, a huge serving bowl, coffee pot and milk jugs. I loved it, I remember having a cornish coffeepot which  Rachel (from Generation Artisan) had a matching set of, but both ended up broken :(

The cottage was well equipped and comfortable, but the dehumidifier got annoying after a while and the fact that the cottage was split into two (as are lost of their cottages) was a shame compared with our amazing honeymoon cottage.

We took a bit of a detour via Dartmoor to get there which was well worth the extra hour or so. The first evening involved going to the supermarket (requiring a ferry) and to a pub in Polruan where we enjoyed scallops, and playing a game of fluxx.

Playing Fluxx in a pub

Day two was our wedding anniversary. After opening our cards and presents (and Mike doing the crossword) we went to Padstow (to eat at Rick Stein's seafood restaurant).

Padstow Beach

Our meal was booked for 2pm so before that we went for a walk to the beach. Due to the grey day it was fairly quiet and we spent a lovely hour just wandering. We also visited the shops in Padstow - pretty greetings cards were bought.

After the meal we did a small recovery walk before heading off to Beduthran Steps. We parked and set off on a cliff-top loop, returning to the beach (down the precarious steps) for a cup of tea and some gingerbread.

And that was our first couple of days.

Oddington Nature Reserve Walk

Over the winter we almost never missed a saturday morning walk, we saw some beautiful frosty mornings. But the last few months we've not done many at all due to pouring rain. Yesterday we set off on the 6.15 mile route we hadn't done for a while around the nearby RSBP nature reserve (but not all the way around incase it rained).

Oddington Nature Reserve

We had some thundery looking skies but the rain held off and we regretted bringing raincoats! I love these walk and talks with Mike - we've done them since we started going out and I find the rhythm very relaxing compared to our normal dinner time or evening discussion. It  was great to see everything so leafy and the rivers so full as we walked around.

the coats were on and off due to the alternating wind and sun. Happily the rivers look very full! and the path's overgrown. 

I've finally finished all the baking to take on holiday with us (having made half quantities we've still given some away).

1. Lemon & blueberry drizzle, 2. Earl grey tealoaf, 3. Nutella&banana bread, 4. Coconut cookies, 5. Gingerbread 6. Brownies

Our plan is to have a relaxed breakfast (i've packed my jam and marmalade), eat cake and fruit during the day after walks/rain/kayacking and then either cook or go out for dinner in the evening. I don't want to cook anything to involved (so no risotto) but I've packed some orzo and couscous to make either hot or cold meals with. We've also packed a lantern/thermos/blanket for evening hot chocolate on the beach, and plenty of wine.

Sadly the forecast hasn't improved too much (and oxford is going to be very sunny and warm whilst we're away) but it doesn't matter because we have lots of rainy fun planned too.

Have a great week

Claire
x

3 Mile Picnic

Mike and I's 2nd wedding anniversary is coming up on the 26th. We are going away to a cottage in Cornwall for it. This week is a slightly manic blaze of baking (gingerbread, cookies, a tea loaf and lemon drizzle cake), trying to find those tiny travel bottles to take olive oil and washing up liquid in, wine buying (including a very tasty dessert wine) and list making - packing, outing ideas, maps etc. Apparently Mike considers taking the le crueset with us 'overkill', similarly the dutch oven. It may sneak in anyway since it is 'the pot of magic' whereby one puts ingredients in, puts onto a fire and awaits deliciousness.

One thing I have spent a little while making is an anniversary crossword. I used an online crossword maker and all the clues are to do with things we've done or seen this year. For example - 'phone traffic' refers to the apple and blackberry jam we made in the autumn. I will schedule a post of it whilst we're away.

We went for a picnic yesterday since the weather is so nice, sat in a broad-bean field eating courgette flatbread topped with artichoke and grilled haloumi (bacon for Mike) with pea and cucumber giant couscous salad and plenty of squash. I'd forgotton that the view of the Otmoor plain would be obscured by all the broad beans though so the photo looks a bit strange. The walk was a simple 'out-and-back' route (3 miles total) since we'd done the wander down to the river a few times recently. 

In theory a beautiful view of the Otmoor plain

Claire

x

Picnic time

It was such a nice day on Tuesday that we decided to take our dinner with us for a picnic. We made a quick potato, mint and pea salad (with pesto and cream cheese dressing), and a quinoa and sundried tomato salad (with basil, garlic and parmesan dressing) and put them in our picnic rucksack with some ginger beer and some lemon drizzle cake from Jacobs and Field deli/cafe in headington.

We walked up by the river (that was flooded a few weeks ago) and settled into a secluded nook with our picnic rug. This bit of the river is only reachable on walks over 5 miles (you have to turn around to make it shorter) so we thought we'd be alone but there were a few dog walkers and even a cyclist!

After the picnic we walked back to the village where some kids were swimming in the river. I managed a paddle and an exclamation at the temperature before coming home for a warm shower.

Sorry it's been a while since I blogged-a wedding last weekend, and no crochet when its so sunny outside are conspiring against anything blog worthy. For two days I've just sat in a cafe in headington writing my thesis, and last night we went to the pub with friends who just got back from a round the world trip (I drank pimms, ate scallops in a fit of extravagance and an amazing white chocolate creme brulee).

I may do a review of my favourite places to work in Oxford that aren't my lab- because today me and the iPad are off to an icecream shop to get away from the basement an take advantage of the sun

Claire
X

5 flooded miles

this is a picture heavy post!

We didn't get out for a walk yesterday due to having to go into town to look at phone contracts for Mike (and having a very fun afternoon playing blokus and eating cake and cookies with friends). Today when we woke up to blue skies we were desperate to get out so decided to do one of the shorter (5 mile) walks, so that if we came to a flood we could turn back and still get a decent walk.

the route! the numbers relate to photos not miles.

stats: length - 5.01 miles, duration - 1:28:11, pace - 17:34 min/mi (3.4 mph)

First thing to notice is the incredibly slow pace. This was due to taking photos (to put in this post/send to my mum), the necessary detour through a wood, and my fear of wet feet making the no-detour flooded part slow going. The detour also added 0.4 miles onto the route.

1. The first part of the walk is just through the village, passed some lovely thatched cottages, and then across a weir. This persons' garden made me laugh (their house was very safe so it's ok to laugh). It looked like they could still row out to the washing line to peg out. The path to the weir was a bit flooded though so we used the bank instead. Thus far - pressing on

1. someone's garden and the flooded weir

2. After a mile we faced our first barrier. Even walking around the field to the next bit didn't help. Initially, we decided to wade through this incase we could just keep close to the edge but we finally decided to scramble up the bank and found this very overgrown path through the trees. A man was very surprised to see us down there 'did you not just stay in the field?' - no 'cos that's not very adventurous.

2. Attempts 1 and 2, wading through and finally relenting

3. Even once we got back up above the river, there was more flooding. This 'grass' is actually crop and we were on a raised bit. Husband went ahead because he had an extra 2 inch of welly on me.

3. I think husband has longer wellies than me

 This bridge goes over a normally dry river bed. We decided at this point to take the shorter route back towards home.

normally dry river bed

4. This route back goes via a lonning (as we call them in Cumbria where I'm from) next to a manor house which I think is now a school. Anyway, Mike decided that he'd like to live anywhere that has such an awesome treehouse in the garden. 

4. Treehouse

5.  After crossing a few fields, we turn back down the hill towards our home village. I love rapeseed (Mike can't stand the smell) and it makes my heart leap to see so much jolly yellow around.

5. Rapeseed.

 And back to the village. This road goes around the bottom of the village but has been flooded since last weekend.

Flood sign, you don't say

So now we're home and dry and eating mysterious freezer food (do you ever just get a random bit of tupperware out of the freezer? it turned out to be yummy curry). An afternoon of pottering ahead before church tonight.

Claire

xx