Yorkshire

So our summer holiday this year was a week in beautiful North Yorkshire in the same village (same cottage!) as last year. Barn Cottage was as sweet and lovely as we remembered.

Our first full day on Sunday we took a run to the Fox and Hound for Sunday lunch. It was fantastic and ridiculously large! The veg just kept coming out of the kitchen.

I still had room for pudding, though.

A wee wander round the village found us some sheepy pals.

And my wee photographer was having a field day.

Monday saw us having a lazy day with a wee wander round Northallerton where we fell into Betty's tearoom.

What a cracking scone and cuppa - courtesy of my Mum's holiday pennies fund. *g*

Tuesday was a beautiful day spent doing the red bus tour of York. Chook *loves* a bus tour (weird, right?) and we lucked out with the weather although we had no hat for Spouse and had to buy sun cream! 

One of the stops was near the transport museum so that necessitated a wee visit, too.

Wednesday was quiet - late breakfast and shopping in Bedale (our nearest town 2 minutes away) and I had vegetarian eggs benedict!

Thursday was a slow start - again with breakfast in Bedale.

In the afternoon we were back in York for some shopping up the Shambles.

And then a walking tour with Mad Alice, "The Bloody Tour of York" and she was fantastic.

Friday was quiet again - a wee trip to Masham for some lunch and a wander. We did find a fab artist studio and bought some prints. 

And then home on Saturday. And 10 minutes after arriving home I was rushing Spouse to A&E to get stitches in his foot. But that's another story!

Easter shenanigans

At the start of the year we had half a notion to go away for a city break during the Easter holidays. But being sick during our February time off meant we didn't get to do the local stuff we had planned then. So Easter seemed like the perfect time to get to it!

Firstly was a climb up Dumyat, our nearby extinct volcano. It's part of my beloved Ochil Hills and Chook and I were last up it with Dolores, Don and Maria in 2012.

Spouse hadn't done it since childhood!

This was the week after Chook had all her hair cut off. I love it!

It's a rather dramatic backdrop for photos and was a beautiful morning.

The day after we were off to Roslyn Chapel of Da Vinci Code fame.

It's a beautiful little place full of interest and a fab visitor centre but my favourite was William the chapel cat.

A couple of days later we did the open top bus tour of Glasgow! We visit often for shopping but never as tourists so  this was a great experience.

We hopped on and off at the People's Palace and Winter Gardens and then again at the Transport Museum. I love this mock up of an old street.

And Chook found a kid's piano in the eating area!

Of course, being Scotland in April it was a bit chilly! Chook Chill and I were prepared with hats and gloves.  Spouse? Not so much. *g*

It was lovely and sunny, though. It's a surprisingly pretty city, Glasgow.

And we rounded off our week at the Edinburgh Comic Con. This is the only photo I took! We were on the tram and everything (which I highly recommend for Edinburgh travel! We parked at the airport.)

And that was Easter. For the first time Chook didn't want an egg hunt on Sunday morning! Which was both brilliant and sad - the end of an era. There was still lots of chocolate eggs, though. So it's not all bad.

Last of the summer sewing

A last couple of summery clothing makes were needed before we went to the Canaries last month. First up was a Deer and Doe Bruyere shirt. This fits like a wee glove right out of the packet and is so flattering. I have plans for a black one to wear with jeans.  I also figured out how to use snaps so I didn't have to make a dozen button holes! *g*

And then we had a Grainline alder dress. I bought this fabric with a voucher won in the finish along in the spring but (as you can tell from my expression) I wasn't feeling the shape at all. It feels nice - it's Cotton and Steel double gauze - but I just didn't think it looked that great.

But I belted it on holiday and changed my mind, it's not bad for holidays being looser. 

And that one on the left is a Kielo wrap dress which I DO NOT LIKE. The fabric and the pattern and everything is just not right for me. You win some and you lose some, right? 

Fuerteventura

We also had a holiday in my bloggy absense. Back to Fuerteventura bacuse we loved it so much last year. The hotel had only been finished 6 weeks and was absolutely beautiful!!

Ubiquitous cartwheels on the beach shot! A bad one since these are phone snaps - if I wait to get the decent ones off my big camera then I'll never do this!

A day spent dune buggying. Or as Spouse put it, spinal realignment.*g*

Really what we spent most time doing was this. Happy, happy days.

Chookie did do a little drawing.

She does make me laugh. 

Little Crakehall

We had the most fab week in North Yorkshire last week. We fluked it and last minute rented a smashing wee end terrace cottage in the village of Crakehall,  near Bedale. 

This is the view from the window behind Spouse. That's our front garden, the main road, Crakehall Hall and the cricket club behind the trees. Absolutely picture postcard English village.

Bedale is a little market town less than a 5 minute drive away. It was a great mix of convenience (a Tesco Metro and Co-op), a couple of lovely pubs, tea rooms and independent shops. Including a real greengrocers - the smell took me back 35 years! And a takeaway place selling Parmo - finally, finally got one!  *g* It rocked our socks.

We did a lot of relaxing and eating and knitting and telly watching and played a load of Pandemic Legacy, too. We suck at it but are having such a laugh doing it.

We did get about a wee bit. A trip to Harrogate and a lovely day in York in the sun (our weather was great all week, actually) where I found a Trollbead shop (whee!) and Chook found second hand record and video games places. And we had fabulous fish n chips since we couldn't face the 3 hour round trip to Whitby to the Magpie.

And sneaking into the end of our week was the Pokemon Go! phenomenon. This is in Bedale outside the golf club at a Pokestop.

And Bedale also has a couple of yarn shops - I loved the name on this one and may have relieved them of a few balls. Ahem.

Yes, nice relaxing week was had by all! We loved our location so much we've looked into booking the same cottage for next summer. It was just that nice.

Daytripping

You know how you never do the things on your doorstep? Well visiting The Kelpies has been on our to do list since they opened in 2013 - Helix Park where they are situated is only 20 minutes from our house and we pass the sculptures regularly but had never taken the time to go and see them.

Pretty cool, huh?

The park, marshlands and canal are all worth a visit. We were here at 10am and it was fairly quiet but by 11 was getting really busy. Even though it was freezing! 

When did the kid get so tall?! She's bemoaning the lack of gloves, here.

(yes, I'm in a fully me-made outfit. Even my hoodie/cardy thing which I'll show another day. So exciting to wear stuff I've sewn and knitted myself!)

Definitely somewhere to go another day for the FULL day and chill out. Instead of just being plain old cold.  *g*