Leeds Castle

I know what Sourtherners are thinking while reading this blog – I can’t possibly travel several hours northwards merely to visit a castle….well, good news! Leeds castle is in Kent How bizarre eh?

Anyhoo, it’s a majestically fantastic castle and well worth a visit in Spring/Summer 2012 so put it on your list and have a gander at the images below:

Leeds Castle - An overview

Leeds Castle Front

Leeds Castle has a spectacular moat

Leeds Castle is stunning even in bad weather!

Set in 500 acres of beautiful parkland, Leeds Castle is a lovely day out. It has over 900 years of history in which to immerse yourself through reading the information throughout the castle or simply looking an soaking in the sites!

Leeds Castle Has Some Immense Events On!!

Tickets to Leeds Castle are valid for one year from the date of purchase, so you can visit the castle and grounds as many times as you like – What great value eh?

Leeds Castle - Events

In the last 30 years over 10 million people have visited the castle so why not make it 10 million and 1 this year?

Winchester – A day out in Boutique’s, Castles & Restaurants

If you know anything about Winchester you will know that it was once the capitol of England, the main city under Alfred the Great, has one of the largest Cathedrals in Europe and is home to the famous public school Winchester College.

King Alfred the Great - Winchester

Thanks so a serious fire in 1141 which destroyed much of the city, the bell tower in the City rang out the curfew at 8 o’clock every evening to signal it was time to extinguish all home fires until morning. This is a practise still alive today so if you decide to spend the day and then the evening in Winchester you may well hear it while eating in one of the many Al Fresco restaurants in the city.

Al Fresco Dining - Winchester

Winchester was also home to various famous literary names including Jane Austen who died in Winchester in 1817 and is buried in the Cathedral:

Jane Austen Lived, Died & is Buried in Winchester

Romantic poet, John Keats, stayed in Winchester during early autumn in 1819:

John Keats Stayed in Winchester

A last historical fact (before I get onto the subjects which will interest non-history-buffs), the Cathedral which I have already mentioned to be one of the largest in Europe actually almost sank 100 years ago! It only survives upright today because of the ingenuity of two Edwardian engineers who saved it from the bog below!

Winchester Cathedral Nearly Sank

Now for you non-history lovers there is a High Street full of shops:

Winchester Shopping

There are also some beautiful river-side walks:

River Walks Winchester

And always some weird and wacky street performers hanging out:

Winchester Street Performers

The Hat Fair - Winchester

So, all in all this is definitely an interesting day out!

Versatile Blogger Award!

Many thanks to Sarah. M. Lawton (of Journal of an Adventurous Mother) and Xander J Turian for awarding me with my very FIRST Versatile Blogger award on the 10th & 12th of March! I feel very honoured to be nominated and very much appreciate their readership and support!

About the Versatile Blogger’s Award

The Versatile Blogger’s Award is a way bloggers can support each other and recognize versatile, interesting and helpful blogs. There are a few rules to follow when you accept the award.

• Thank the person who nominates you and link back to them in your posts.
• Share seven things about yourself.
• Pass the award on to fifteen more bloggers that you enjoy.
• Contact the people you have nominated.

7 more things about me

1. I love England
2. I am definitely a Royalist
3. I enjoy home decorating
4. I love being outside in the countryside in any weather
5. I think dogs are FAR better than cats
6. I HATE spiders
7. I am an avid coffee drinker

My 15 nominations
I would like to nominate the following 15 blogs for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Ridiculousauthor
2. Modern Country Style
3. Happy Homemaker UK
4. Xandre Verkes
5. Part of my World
6. Bucket List Journey
7. PhotoBotos
8. Zelmare
9. Tales from cuckoo land
10. Pinecones and acorns
11. Once Upon A Chocolate
12. Marketing Comms
13. Country Days
14. Crumpets In Camelot
15. Emerald Cove

Thanks to you all for providing such great reading material!

Tintagel in the West Country

Tintagel has to be one of my top UK places I’ve visited. It has to be one of the:

1. Strangest places I visited.

2. Most breath-taking places I’ve visited.

3. Most inspiring places.

Basically, if you didn’t know, Tintagel is a small Cornish parish situated on the North coast of Cornwall. The village is also home to Tintagel castle, the ruins of which are found on an island connected by a stairway suspended between the cliffs.

The castle is the mythical birthplace of King Arthur and is associated with many legends of him and his knights of the Round Table. According to Wikipedia (the fountain of all knowledge), it is one of the most visited places in Britain today and you can see why from the pictures:

Aerial View of Tintagel

Tintagel Castle

Antique Painting of Tintagel

Tintagel Castle Stairway

Tintagel Castle Ruins

Tintagel Castle

Tintagel Castle Overview

English Heritage, whose site the above two photos are from, describe Tintagel as,

‘A magical day out in Cornwall, take the family to Tintagel Castle. Its wonderful location, set high on the rugged North Cornwall coast, offers dramatic views, and its fascinating ruins and stunning beach cafe make it a perfect day trip, ideal for those on holiday in Dorset, Cornwall or Dartmoor.

Tintagel Castle is steeped in legend and mystery; said to be the birthplace of King Arthur, you can still visit the nearby Merlin’s Cave. The castle also features in the tale of Tristan and Isolde. With a history stretching as far back as the Romans, Tintagel Castle is one of the most iconic visitor attractions in the south west.

• The introductory video ‘Searching for Arthur‘
• The rugged trail to the ‘island’
• A visit to our stunning Beach Cafe
• The ‘tunnel’ on the ‘island’ what was it used for?’

I can honestly say it’s a fabulous day out!

p.s. I reserve no rights to the above photos

I give you Bath, no not A bath, I give you BATH…Never mind…

Hi all, apologies, it’s been rather busy here but without further ado I give you Bath for 2012:

Bath High Street

 Lots of lovely shops to visit.

Bath's Stunning Architecture

When you’re standing on that bridge you have no way of knowing it’s a bridge because it has a road, pavements and is lined with shops like any other street!

Bath Abbey & The Roman Baths & The Pump Room

Amazing how this little square in Bath contains so much of my favourite thing – History!

Bath Abbey sits straight ahead, to the right is the Pump Rooms, a famous and once fashionable place for the ton to meet and loiter and the Roman Baths sitting happily behind the Pump Room, like it has done for thousands of years…..

City of Bath

And of course this is just a beautiful city to see!

So, whether you want to admire the beauty of the Roman Baths:

Roman Baths in Bath

Look at and try and imagine the splendour of bygone days whilst taking tea in the Pump Room:

Tea in the Pump Room

The Pump Room Built in 1795 by Thomas Baldwin & John Palmer As The Focal Point of Georgian Society

 Walk around the incredible architecture of the Royal Crescent:

Bath Crescent - On one house there is a plaque describing an elopement of one of the women that lived there with a young man!

 Or just milling around, doing a little shopping, popping into the many art gallerys or museums, Bath is a lovely city to visit.

 

I have been and it remains one of my favourite places in England and my favourite part was Jane Austen’s house and Great Pultney Street (I cheated with two!!).

 

How about you? Have you been? What did you think? What was your favourite part?

Tower Of London – Ideas For Days Out Spring/Summer 2012

Hello everyone!

So, I was reading a lovely blog I follow called Part of My World, you should all check it out when you get a chance. Anyway, I read about how the writer had visited the Tower of London, a place I went as a child and have been discussing with my husband on when to take him as he’s never been! So, I thought ‘ PRIME‘ I can do a ‘things to so spring/summer 2012′ blog on ….

The Tower Of London

The Tower of London

 Originally started by William the Conqueror, who built the recognisable White Tower in 1078, this castle has been the home of monarchs, the prison of traitors, the resting place of the crown jewels and the house of the Royal Mint!

The Tower of London

Below is a picture of the infamous Traitor’s gate through which prisoners would travel – Just before they would be passing under the London Bridge where heads of recently executed prisoners would be displayed – EEEK!

Traitor's Gate - The Tower of London

Such famous people entered here including: Queen Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More & Queen Catherine Howard.

Tower of London

I love that it’s such an historic site and it’s right in the middle of modern London – so funny!

So much history has passed within the walls of the Tower of London, it is both an infamous place and the home of the Crown Jewels providing literally an amazing day out!

It’s a little pricey but then anywhere in London is and if you can walk where Queen Elizabeth I herself walked and was imprisoned, if you can walk past where the two Princes were supposedly killed and hidden in a wall cavity or admire the splendour of the crown jewels then I exhort you to go! (I do make it sound a little grotesque don’t I? Sorry, I just love history!)

Crown Jewels - Tower of London

 What do you think for a day out? Good? Have you been before?

Places to Visit Spring/Summer 2012 – Stratford-Upon-Avon

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the Tim Flach Photography series which has now ended – Boohoo! (Thank you Sarah from Modern Country Style for your kind words)

HOWEVER, good news on the series front. As you can tell by the title of this post, I want to give you all some good, nay, Brilliant ideas of where to go this summer! And I’m so excited I’m posting this one a day early!

Me and my husband realised we probably can’t afford a real holiday this year so we may plan day trips instead throughout the spring and summer so we get to do something together and it’s away from the norm.

These are just suggestions and I have to be honest they’ll come a lot from where I’ve been or want to go!

First up - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Yes, I have been here before, the wee town where Shakespeare lived, but I SOOOO want to go back again because it was fabulous…..

Yes it really looks like this...not kidding!

The house where Shakespeare was born

Stratford-Upon-Avon Attractions

Now this town has so much to offer with it’s obvious historical interests, very beautiful setting, array of shops and markets (which sell very nice silver rings if I remember correctly), theatre and of course rowing a little boat down the Avon which I did with my family taking a picnic and eating on the river – So idyllic!

Boating in Stratford-Upon-Avon

And if you venture just outside Stratford then you can visit Anne Hathaway’s cottage – where the young Shakespeare courted his future wife Anne Hathaway. It’s a beautiful cottage filled with history where Shakespeare himself actually stood and breathed and outside are the most beautiful gardens with traditional shrubs and beautiful flowers!

Anne Hathaway's Cottage - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Anne Hathaway's Cottage - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Have you been here before? Would you like to go?

One Last Time

I had to do it! I had to!

I’m going to miss this Tim Flach series so I simply had to do one last post with some of the horse photographs which I didn’t include here.

It’s a bit of a mish-mash collection but there are some stunners!

And you know what? For once I cannot decide which is my favourite – They’re all so good!

I hope you enjoyed this series – Stay tuned for more blogging in a new series to be revealed!

Nah nah nah nah nah batssssss! – Tim Flach

Unfortunately this post has been posted on my blog a few days before I published it?!? So I’m reposting it for you guys in to see!  =

 

Okay, so bats are rather creepy in my opinion. I know some of them eat fruit and insects and maybe a few rodents but that does not change the fact that in my mind they are still some kind of vampiric animal! However, Tim Flach made me look again:

Okay, so these photos didn’t totally relieve me of my feelings toward the vampiric qualities of bats – HOWEVER I just love photo number five, is it the bat version of Zorro or some secret agent?!?! It’s just hilarious and yet I can still appreciate the animal itself – Well done Tim Flach – What’s your thoughts? Favourites? Or are you too a little scared?

We Stop This Series For An Urgent Baking Broadcast!!!!

Home-Made Creamy Tomato Soup  

And now for something….completely different. I’m taking a brief interlude in my photography series to share something delicious with you. A combination of my two favourite ingredients: tomatoes and basil…mmmmm! And if anyone looks at my pages regularly you will already have seen this one appear on the baking section of my blog site brownie points for loyal readers.

When I say this is easy I don’t mean mildly difficult like most chef’s mean – I mean bung everything in, heat it up and eat it up! That’s the sort of cook I am afraid I am so here it is – An easy tomato soup:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion - chopped
• 1 garlic clove - finely chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• handful basil leaf
• pinch baking soda
• 600ml milk

First: Heat the olive oil in a large pan, then tip in the onion and garlic. Cook over a moderate heat until the onion has softened, about 5 mins.

Second: Stir in the tomato purée, then pour in the chopped tomatoes and basil leaves, and bring up to the boil.

Third: Turn the heat down and leave to simmer for about 15 mins until thick and full of flavour. (If you like a smooth soup, like in the Heinz tins, then whizz the mixture at this point (most carefully of course) with a hand blender or some such implement. At this point you can cool the mixture and freeze it if that’s your plan – If you’re like me however and must eat whatever I cook right away carry on….

Fourthly: To finish the soup, tip the tomato mixture into a pan. Spoon the baking soda into a small bowl and pour over 1 tbsp or so of the milk. Mix together until there are no lumps, then tip into the tomato mix and pour over the milk. Bring up to a boil (the mixture will froth, but don’t worry – it will go away). Gently simmer for about 5 mins until ready to serve.

Got it? Good, I’m off to eat mine….