Blacksmithing and Beach Huts.

Photos for today; some Dieppe beach huts and a Rouen street view!! Rouen is one of my all time favourite places...there's so much to do and see and the whole place is just stunning... I remember thinking at the time that this street looks like something straight out of Harry Potter!!! The Cathedral put on a light show that totally wowed me every time I saw it.. I've got no idea if it's still the same now, but I think last time I went, there were shows every weekend! I've just found this on youtube so you can see what I'm talking about, but trust me, It's better in person! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKXaflAyLWE

Blacksmithing. Yes, it's on my 'ten things I love'.... Yes, I really do mean it. Last year I had the most AMAZING experience making a sword. A very random thing to spend your summer doing? Well, not so much when you've spent your childhood obsessing over Lord of the Rings and choreographing plastic sword fights with your equally weird friend. So the whole sword experience was great. So great in fact that I ended up going back this year for the axe experience. Which was also great, and now I have a bedroom full of weaponry. Burglars be warned.

Cakepops and Carnage

Today has been one of the most miserable days of the summer so far... so I took the opportunity to stay inside and bake all day!!! It's one of my 'top ten things I love' so I'll grace you with a photo of today's treats, albeit horrible iPad quality!! I'm normally a biscuit kinda girl (there will be evidence of awesome biscuits in future, I promise) but today I went for cakepops... I've done them a few times before, but last time ended in absolute carnage!! Well, not quite, but it made for a catchy blog title. What actually happened was after I'd made and decorated my pops, I put them in the oven to hide them from my ever-hungry and very naughty dog... After going out for a few hours I returned home to find the oven open, cakepops gone, and a very smug looking dog. Seriously, how does a dog open the oven?! Anyway, this time they are safely (I hope) in the fridge.

On a totally unrelated note, here's a photo I took last summer in Picardie, France! This magnificent house is a family home and the current owners have done absolute wonders to the gardens which were previously in a complete state and not really 'gardens' at all! Currently open to the public for a small fee, I can thoroughly recommend a visit! 

http://www.jardin-picardie.com/

A Royal Visit

Earlier today I headed off to Whitstable to get some seaside shots and ended up being caught in huge throngs of people waiting around to see Prince Charles and Camilla!! To cut a long story short, I managed to get to the front of the crowd and get a few photos before my camera died!! 

Also, I had the most amazing cupcake from http://www.whatsupcupcake.com/ ... Literally the best thing ever and everyone should head on down there to try one! 

10 Things I Love

What have I done today? Not much! Certainly nothing photo worthy anyway, so nothing new to put up on that front! This is a photo I took last year, just messing around at my local lake with self-timer and my beloved hat :) The other one is a manor house in France that I'll talk more about another time! The most productive thing I've come up with today is this list of TEN THINGS I LOVE so I thought I would share it with the world! I'm aware that a few things on my list need elaborating on, but all in due course. 

1) Photos and photography :)  

2) Reading

3) Travelling

4) Baking

5) BREAD!

6) Blacksmithing

7) My wonderful boyfriend :D

8) Flowers

9) Sweet Peas

10) Music!! 

Rainy day?

According to the weather people, today was meant to be stormy. So far I've managed to be outside all morning without getting wet and I even think I may have burnt the back of my neck (!?)... So in your face weather people! Here's some of this year's bumper harvest of redcurrants, picked fresh this morning to be magically transformed into chutney tonight!

I've made it to this evening without seeing a single DROP of rain! I'm quite thankful as I spent most of this afternoon wandering around a local nature reserve, (Monkton nature reserve, thoroughly recommend) and it was absolutely SWELTERING! Anyway, it's the best place on the planet for finding 6 Spot Burnets. :)

Because life is beautiful

Ok, so I'm not going to lie; I have no idea what I'm doing here... I've tried blogging before and it's always failed miserably because I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to technology! Oh well, here goes. I want to show the world all the beautiful things I see in day to day life and I hope that somewhere, somehow, I'll make someone's day. :)