The Reading Tag 2014

Hello Lovelies!

I saw this tag over on Catherine's blog and as she tagged 'anyone and everyone' I thought that I would do it too! I've seen various book and reading tags floating around for a while now and wanted to do a video, but then I chickened out! Boo!!

I certainly don't get as much time to read as I did BZ (before Zoe), but that just means that I really savor those moments I do get a chance to curl up with a book! 

Do you have a certain place for reading at home?

There are a couple of places I like to read - number one is in bed - comfy, cosy, sleepy time! I find that I sleep a lot better when I read before bed than if I go on my phone. The second is in the bath - not that I have time for long baths these days, but when I do I like to fill the tub with the hottest water I can stand, turn myself pink like a lobster, and (if it is the evening time) have a glass of cold white wine while surrounded by bubbles (usually from Lush!). Perfect!

Bookmark or random piece of paper?

At the moment I'm using a card that I was sent by Newton and the Apple when I bought Martin's fater's day presnet form Zoe - it's a little card with constelations on that says something like 'You are a star - a super shiny one' and it also says 'thank you anna!' on it - it makes me smile!

Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter or a certain number of pages?

I can usually stop anywhere if I'm tired and then can pick up where I am again quite easily, although if it is a super exciting 'page-turner' type of book, I tell myself 'one more chapter' then ignore myself and keep reading! 

Do you eat or drink when reading?

On the rare occasions I get the chance to have an afternoon read then a cup of tea is my drink of choice. As I said above, bath = booze!!

One book at a time or several at once?

Usually one book at a time, although if I get a graphic novel mid-way through a long book, then I'll take a night or two out to read the graphic novel instead. It's nice to have a break sometimes! I would struggle to read two fiction books at the same time though - I have enough trouble remembering the plot of one!

Reading at home or everywhere?

At home, I don't really have the opportunity to read anywhere else usually. Although if I have to go on a train journey I'll take a book with me (but sometimes it makes me feel a bit squiffy - especially those pendolinos!!). 

Reading out loud or silently in your head?

The only time I read out loud is when I'm reading to Zoe, and then I like to put on silly voices. The mouse in the Gruffalo is always super camp when I read his voice though - and the snake has a lisp! Please tell me that other mums do this too?!?!

Do you ever read ahead or skip pages?

Sometimes my eyes will 'accidentally' skip down the page - especially if it's an exciting bit! I don't like to skip pages in case I miss something exciting, or crucial to the plot. 

Breaking the spine or keeping it new?

Sorry - I break spines! Does that make me a bad reader? I don't care!! 

Do you ever write in books?

No! I did once, a looong time ago - I tried analysing a book like it was some sort of GCSE coursework project. Sad or what?

What are you currently reading?

I'm reading The Tudor Princess by Darcey Bonnette which Martin bought me for my birthday. Or our anniversary. I can't remember! I do have a massive pile of books to read though and I'm eagerly awaiting Insurgent coming out in paperback! 

I will also tag anyone and everyone! Leave me a comment if you do this tag!

Zoe's Birthday Party!

Hello Lovelies!

On 16 August our little Zoe turned two! How did that happen, I do not know! We had a quiet morning opening presents, and then at 2pm family started arriving for the little party. I should have taken some photos of the decorations I did - a yarn-covered number '2', some tissue paper pom-poms in mint green and pink, and a little yarn pom-pom bunting. Very cute!! I also stuck photos of Zoe along the wall which people loved looking at, and finding themselves in the photos too!

Here are a few photos from the day:

Zoe taking a little break from opening her presents to sit in the giant cardboard box!

Zoe's dress was bought by Martin's Mum - it has loads of little shoes and bags on it! She didn't want to wear her pretty party shoes either, but these winter boots - that's some style you got there Zoe!!

One of her presents was this umberella - she walked around for ages saying 'rain! rain!' and poking people with the brolly! Please note the footwear change to blue mock-crocs with socks - another fashion faux-pas Zoe!

 Blowing out the candles on her Thomas cake with Daddy - who managed to singe her fringe just after this photo was taken! 

We sang happy birthday to her three times - the first time she blushed and went so shy - it was super cute!! 

What was your best birthday?

What I brought home from Woolfest 2014

Hello Lovelies

Wow, so this post has been sat in my drafts for a while! Remember back in June I went to Woolfest with my most amazing godmother Penny? No worries if you can't (it was aaaages ago!) - you can have a little read about my exciting day here.

Anywho - I said that I would share with you all of the lovely things I brought home with me and here they are!

First of all I just want to show you all of the lovely business cards and leaflets that I picked up from the various stands and stalls. Aren't they bright and cheery! I love keeping little bits and pieces like these, and if I was a more organised person I'm sure that they would be stuck in a scrapbook. But alas I am not organised and they are in a paper bag on my dressing table. Sigh.

This was my 'big treat' from the day - I didn't have a lot of money to spend so I wanted to get one skein of yarn that was soft and squishy and bright, so that I could have a go at crocheting a shawl/scarf type of thing. This is the yarn that I picked. It's from easyknits.co.uk and it's called Unicorn Dreams. And it sparkles. Need I say any more?!?! It's a 4 ply/sock weight yarn so perfect for a shawl, and I've almost finished it! I'm using this pattern from A la Sascha on Etsy and it's called the Windmill Shawl. There are quite a few mistakes in it, but there is no way I'm frogging it back - it's taken me so long to make!! Once I'm finished I will surely do an Attic24-style 'Ta-Da' post for you all!

This lovely spiral of gorgeousness was my other purchase of the day. Actually, Penny bought me it (thanks Penny!), not so that I could have a go at spinning (as much as I would love to I just don't think I have time for another crafty hobby!), but so that I can use it in my needle felting. I wrote a little post a while back all about needle felting, and even reviewed a book too. But I really want to use these tops for a flat needle felted picture, that I am imaging I would then stick on a bit of card and send to a lovely person. Whether I ever get round to it or not is another matter! In the meantime I just enjoy giving it a squish whenever I come accross it in my stash.

I'm planning on popping to Yarndale at the end of the month, so no doubt there will be more purchases and another post coming up all about that. I want to meet Lucy from Attic24 but am a bit scared I will go all fangirly and scare the bejeebus out of her.

Anyone else going to Yarndale? See you there!

What's it all about anyway?

Hello Lovelies!

I've been thinking a lot about this little blog lately. About why I blog, what I want to blog about, how I wish I had more time to spend on the blog, about other fantastic bloggers, about the type of blogs I read and why I read them.

A lot of thinking about things you'll agree!

I was talking to two of my fellow Cumbrian Bloggers yesterday over lunch - Jo and Anna - about some of these things. I always said that I never wanted to do a 'sorry I haven't updated the blog in forever!' style post, because a) I don't think that many people would even realise that I hadn't been blogging and b) you get all kinds of guilty feelings when you start to think like that.

Jo asked me yesterday "Do you ever not post for ages and then just feel like quitting?" - I know exactly what she means, although I don't feel like quitting. I try my hardest not to feel pressure to blog, but the fact that I actually have a blog is pressure itself, even if that pressure only comes from me.

In all aspects of my life, I seem to want to do everything. At work, I'm the one who volunteers for everything. Martin has said to me recently that I shouldn't start any new hobbies as I have enough stuff going on already. He was talking about loom bands, which to be honest, I lost interest in after about a week.

So what is the point of this (actually pretty random and rambly) post?

I guess it's to say to any of my readers (if I have any) that I'm still about, even though it's like the Marie Celeste over here. I'm enjoying spending time with my family, and enjoying the sunny weather (which now seems to have disappeared), I'm enjoying reading books in bed with Martin, and I'm enjoying spending (some of) my evenings exercising (yes - that's right - me! Exercise! Ha!).

I'm sure that at some point I'll pop back on over - I have lots of posts in my drafts folder (including some Woolfest related ones). They aren't going to go anywhere though, they will still be sitting there patiently waiting for me to sit down in front of my laptop with a cup of tea.

Woolfest 2014

Hello Lovelies!

Last Friday I went to Woolfest in Cockermouth (no giggling please!). I met up with my wonderful Godmother Penny and we had a day filled with yarny goodness, chatting and catching up, and spending money! This is a pretty picture heavy post - just to warn you!!

I've been trying to get to Woolfest for the last 3 years or so, and have been thwarted each year - but not this year!! I was determined to go, so booked the day off work and organised childcare for Zoe (thanks Diane!). And I am so glad that I did.

My Woolfest survival kit - peanut M&M's - standard. Camera, business cards, fancy phone camera lenses, notebook and pencil, pennies, lippy, juice. Ready to go! Not pictured: phone, map, excitement, plan of attack.

While I was waiting for Penny to arrive I went to check out the fleece sale - it was very strange - people were buying and selling these sacks of fleece, straight of the sheep - it all seemed very interesting, with people bartering and cash changing hands like they were dealing!! 

I also went to check out the alpacas which I think are me new favourite animal - well apart from owls!! Look at these cuties!!

We started off with a coffee while working out a plan of action using the programme, then we had a 'structured wander' around, before I pootled off to do a workshop on Tunisian crochet. After I learned my new skill we had the yummiest lunch followed by a bit more wander, spending of money and chatting to some of the stall holders.

Buttons! Hundreds of buttons! (I didn't get the name of this stall unfortunately)

This is the lovely Helen from the Thread of Life stand teaching us all how to do Tunisian Crochet - I picked it up super fast and was showing some of the other people there how to do it! Check out that crochet skirt!

And here is my sample of Tunisian Crochet - not too bad! I bought the hook so I can do some more at home, I just need to find some patterns now!

I definitely had my favourite stalls that I have been stalking online since I got back. I wish I had more pennies to spend on wool and stuff! It would be very easy to spend hundreds of pounds at Woolfest! What I will do so as not to bombard you with another three million photos is do separate posts on each of these stands:

I couldn't believe how colourful the Easyknits stand was - it was a riot of rainbow colours! I bought one of the varigated yarns in this photo - can you guess which one?

I was initially attracted to the H-anne-MADE stand because of Anne's use of maps in her art, but to be honest everything on this stand was beautiful! And Anne herself is the loveliest lady!

 The beautiful examples of crochet shawls and blankets on The Natural Dye Studio's stand is what caught my attention initially, but the yarn was so pretty and squishy and all made with natural dyes (hence the name!). 

 I just wanted to talk about this fantastic woman - Sophie Pattinson - who runs Bangladesh Hand Embroidery. This stand had the most beautiful hand embroidered throws, cushions and little lavender pouches. They are all designed by Sophie and then hand embroidered by women in Bangladesh as part of an income generating project to support women living in remote areas of Bangladesh.

So I will add in links to the more in detail posts above when I've posted them. If you stayed with me this long then well done, that was a big post!! 

But if I haven't bored you to tears with Woolfest talk, you can go and have a look at Amanda's post on her blog over here [click].

Sticky9 Giveaway Winner!!

Hello Lovelies!

This morning I put all of the names in a hat a spreadsheet and used the random number generator to pick a winner at random. Here's the spreadsheet:

 - and that winner is ........

*drum roll

The Lovely Jo from The Perfect Hiding Place!! You were lucky number 5!!

Yay! Congratulations Jo! Hope you enjoy your Instagram magnets!

32 before 32

Hello Lovelies!

So last week I shared my 31 before 31 list wherein I managed to do 12 out of 31 things! I asked you lovely lot to suggest some things to add to my 32 before 32 list, and I've carried over a few from the 31 before 31 list as well, plus a few random new ones too!!

1. Make a dress for Zoe
2. Bake one of my Gran's recipes
3. Make a video of my Gran telling me how to bake one of her lovely cakes
4. Climb Snowdon
5. Climb Ben Nevis
6. Climb Hellvelyn
7. Climb Blencathra
8. Finish crocheting the rainbow granny square blanket
9. Finish of the crochet bunting for Zoe's room
10. Finish the crochet socks I started in May
11. Walk around Buttermere
12. Go to Woolfest
13. Go to Yarndale
14. Visit Glasgow
15. Visit Bruges
16. Visit Wales
17. Start making a patchwork quilt
18. Start a crochet ripple blanket
19. Find a nice pattern and crochet a shawl with lovely wool
20. Make 20 sales, either on Etsy, Folksy or in real life
21. Update the branding for The Dusty Attic
22. Meet some new fellow bloggers in real life
23. Interact more on-line (commenting and twitter are the main 2)
24. Take more film photos on all my film cameras (and get them developed)
25. Cook a Tagine. From scratch.
26. Make a wedding photo album/photo book
27. Put other photos in photo albums
28. Re-decorate the kitchen
29. Re-decorate our bedroom
30. Expand my shop's product range
31. Go on a craft course
32. Do a life drawing class

31 before 31 - How did I do?

Hello Lovelies!

Remember I (belatedly) posted my list of 31 things that I wanted to do before I turned 31 (if not you can go and have a read here). Well I sort of forgot about them a bit, so I didn't do all that many of them. But I did do some of them!

(source)

1. Make a dress for Zoe - Nope, I have patterns and some fabric I could probably use, and a sewing machine and overlocker, but not the time!!
2. Make a dress for me - Nope - see above!!
3. Bake one of my Gran's recipes - chocolate cake or cherry cake - Nope, I think my Aunty has copied them down for me, but I need to get them off her.
4. Make a video of my Gran telling me how to make her cakes - Nope, I saw her this last weekend but it was way too noisy to try to make a recording!
5. Climb Scafell Pike - Yes, I did it!! The day before my birthday, you can read about it in this post.
6. Climb Snowdon - Nope
7. Climb Ben Nevis - Nope
8. Climb Hellvelyn - Nope
9. Finish crocheting the rainbow granny square blanket - Nope, still not finished, I need to order some more wool as I have almost ran out, hopefully I can still get it and the colours won't be too different.
10. Visit York again - Yes, I went in November 2013 with Martin, Zoe, Gene and Diane. I don't think I wrote a blog post about it though. Hmm.
11. Walk around Buttermere - Nope
12. Take more photos on film - Yes, some in Whitby, York and Keswick, and round Carlisle too. And I got the film developed! I'll scan them in and do a little post about it soon!
13. Use my film cameras more - Yes, I've just realised that this is almost the same as number 12, but I have been using my Pentax, my Lomo and an old 35mm camera that belonged to my great-uncle too.
14. Get some digital photos printed - Yep! I've been using an app on my phone where you get 40 free prints a month, you just have to pay postage - pretty awesome!!
15. Visit Glasgow - Nope
16. Go to a craft fair - I think I went to a couple, but I didn't go to one as a seller, which I do want to do this year.
17. Make some crochet or felt bunting for Zoe's room - I've made the triangles but need to crochet it all together, so I'm calling this one not done, I'll put it on 32 in 32.
18. Make a patchwork quilt (or at least start to make it) - Nope, I have some fabric though :)
19. Go to a networking event - Yes, I've been to quite a few, and also arranged one for work!
20. Make 20 sales in my Etsy shop - Nope, only made 8 sales. Sigh. Must Try Harder!!
21. Visit Bruges - Nope - and no I don't have a passport this one is even trickier!
22. Go to my godmother's house for coffee - Even better than going for a coffee, I went to spend her birthday with her and went out for a meal and stayed over! Woop! I mentioned it in this post.
23. Have something published in a magazine - Yes, I was in our local Carlisle Living magazine, for an event I organised at work, along with Jo from The Perfect Hiding Place. 
24. Learn how to use LinkedIn effectively - Yes! Thank you work!
25. Go bowling - Nope
26. Go to Wasdale for a picnic with Martin and Zoe - Sort of. We went to Wasdale and had food in the car, so it was sort of a picnic. Blogged about in this post.
27. Find all of my baby photos at my Dad's house - Nope, they are still missing - booo!!
28. Crochet a bunny or bear for Zoe - Yes! I made her a little crochet bunny, no blog post about that yet!
29. Re-decorate our bedroom. Because it is U.G.L.Y! - Nope, I've started in the kitchen though!
30. Expand my shop's product range - Not yet, but I have started planning some new products, just need to make them and photograph them and add them to the shop...
31. Learn how to wet felt - Nope - I actually know how to wet felt, I did it at Uni, but I want to go and do a little course to refresh my memory!

So I have done 12 out of 31 things - pretty rubbish!!

I'm working on my 32 before 32 post at the moment, I'm aiming to post it next week, and I want you all to suggest things for me to put on it in the comments! Go!!

A Sticky9 Review and a Giveaway for you!

Hello Lovelies!

A while ago I won a giveaway over on the lovely Leona's blog to win a set of Sticky9 Instagram magnets. I'd seen Sticky9 (which used to be called Stickygram) all over blog land, but hadn't really thought about using them (even though we collect fridge magnets!!). I'd had a few Instagram photos printed from various other places, and had always been a bit under-awed at the quality.

But not with Sticky9! I tell you, I was a bit dubious about the quality, I wasn't sure if they would print true to colour, and I've also found some prints tend to come out a bit 'flat' looking.

These magnets are fantastic though! The print quality is top-notch, with a lovely smooooth matte finish (I much prefer a matte finish, don't you?). The colours really popped and were really true to the image - they didn't look flat or dull at all.

The process is super simple too - just link Sticky9 to your Instagram account and upload the photos you want - bingo! Super simple, just like me haha!!

They don't just do the magnets in the photo - they have different sizes, and you can select to have 9 different prints, or one big 'jigsaw' print if you want. And they also do phone cases and iPad cases too! You can view their full range of products on their website at sticky9.com

The magnets I won cost £9.99 (bargain!!) and they do free shipping too which totally sweetens the deal!

Now for the good bit!

Sticky9 have said that they would love to give one of my lovely readers the chance to win a pack of 9 Instagram magnets, and it is super easy to enter! All you need to do is go and visit their website (sticky9.com) and then let me know in the comments what snaps you would get printed.

Will you go for a load of pictures of your loved ones (including the cat), or maybe you'd like to get 9 of your fave #wiwt snaps printed so you can recreate that awesome outfit when you are half asleep of a morning!

The giveaway is open until midnight on Monday 30 June, it's one entry per person and it's open internationally! Remember to leave me a way to contact you if you win!

Good luck!

All the lovely things

Hello Lovelies!

Just a quick one today to show you some of the lovely things I have found in my internet-ting this week!

These pretty photos of Katie from Skunkboy Blog are whimsical and fairy-tale like - won't someone come and take photos of me like this, pretty please?!

Gah! Such pretty colours from the ever-so-lovely Color 'n' Cream (who I featured in my last Blogger of Note post) - she's making them into garlands, brooches, hair clips - eee! I can see them adorning pretty crochet or felt bunting - sweet!

I read this lovely interview with Sallytangle over on Jo's blog Adventures and Tea Parties (link) I love to get a 'behind the scenes' peek at my fave bloggers, and sally is one of my all-time best bloggers ever!

Look at this amazing idea from Heart Handmade - cross stitch canvas art!! (link) I'm totally going to give this a go - I have the cross stitch pattern already! Bonus!!

What have you found this week on t'interwebs? Link me up in the comments!!

Afternoon Tea at Sharrow Bay

Hello Lovelies!

For our birthday this year, my mum took my sister and I for a surprise afternoon tea at Sharrow Bay on the shores of Ullswater. When I was little I used to hate having to share my birthday with my little sister, but now I love it, as it means that we get to do things like this!

My Mum had told us to keep Saturday afternoon free (and to arrange childcare!!) as we were going somewhere - a surprise!! All we were told was not to have a big lunch, and to wear a posh frock. We had an inkling it would be afternoon tea, but we didn't know where until we pulled up in the car outside the hotel.

 View over Ullswater towards Hallin Fell and Helvellyn (and some other fells that Martin would be able to identify but I cannot!!) 

  What a view! It was such a lovely sunny day as well! 

We were taken through to the dining room where we were shown to a table in a corner next to a huge window with a view over the lake towards Hallin Fell. They took our order for tea and then brought out the food - oh man, what a spread!! We had various sandwiches (with the crusts cut off, of course), two different types of scone, tea cakes (oh. my. god. these were the best tea cakes I have ever eaten in my life) and lots and lots of cake!

Posh sandwiches and pretty china

Here's Alice trying tea for the first time in her life - and she loved it! Yes, a tea convert!!!

We didn't manage to eat everything (there was so much!!), but we got a doggy box to take home the leftovers - lucky us!

Everything was delicious, the staff we friendly and attentive, and the setting was awesome. After eating, we went for a little stroll down to the lake where I had a little paddle, and we took some photos. Then a pootle back to Carlisle where we most certainly did not need to have any dinner!

If you are ever in the lake district and fancy afternoon tea - get yourself to Sharrow Bay!



p.s. This is in no way a sponsored post - my mum took us, and paid for it - I had such a lovely time I wanted to tell you all about it :)

Blog Every Day in May 2014 - I did it!! #BEDM

Hello Lovelies!

Yaayy!! Pop the champagne and hang out the bunting - I blogged every day in May! Go me!

[ crochet bunting from BeckyGarratt on Etsy ]

So what have I gained from blogging every single day in May? Well, I'm more motivated in my blogging in that I want to blog more and I have loads of ideas for other posts (err, hello 36 draft posts!). I have also learned (maybe most importantly of all) that I don't need to write a massive long post with loads of photos every single day - short and sweet posts are OK too!

I've really enjoyed reading along with everyone else's posts, and following along with the #BEDM hashtag on twitter - sorry I haven't replied and commented much - I have been reading though!!.

These are some of my favourite posts from the last month:

Passion Projects - Crafting and Me
What's in my bag
A Photo and Hour
Museum Day
Home Sweet Home

So I am going to be blogging more, and hopefully more regularly too, rather than sporadically here and there. It might just be once a week, but hopefully it will be every week.

What have been your favourite posts?

Birthday Weekend in the Lake District #BEDM

Hello Lovelies!

Over the last May Bank Holiday weekend, Martin, Zoe and I went and camped in Eskdale in the Lake District for my birthday. We camped at the Fisherground camp-site, which was great, I would certainly recommend it if you are camping in the lakes. This is what we got up to!

Thursday we travelled down to the camp-site via St Bees, which is a beach that I used to go to a lot when I was little. It was a bit grey and windy, so we didn't have a paddle in the sea, but we still went down onto the beach. Zoe had a little play on the playground, which was half behind barriers as they are putting in some new equipment, she still had fun on the slide! We then pootled down to the camp-site and set up the tent before having a BBQ tea of burgers and sausages in buns. Yum!

Friday we went on the La'al Ratty (which I posted about on Monday), it was a bit wet and cold, but we still had fun! We went from Dalegarth to Ravenglass on one of the diesel trains, and spent some time walking around Ravenglass. We then had a picnic lunch at the station then headed back to Dalegarth on the steam train! Back to the campsite for pasta, potatoes and peas for tea, then bed!

Saturday we got up early and drove to Wast Water to climb Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. You may remember in my 31 before 31 blog post that one of the things on the list was to climb Scafell Pike (also on the list was Ben Nevis, Helvellyn and Snowdon - didn't get to those!!). There were a few moments when I thought I couldn't do it, and that I would have to turn back, but we kept going and I made it to the top! Two things kept me going - one was that there was a pepperami in my bag for when we got to the top (mmmmmmmm), the other was that Martin's ex had made it to the top in 3 hours and there was no way that I was going to give up! I made it in 2 hours and 52 minutes!! Wooop!! Zoe was really good, she even had a snooze on the way up, but she got very cold and shivery on the top so we headed back down pretty quickly, and whizzed back to the car. Once we got back to the camp-site, I took Zoe to the shower, and on the way I fell over and busted up my knee - it was pretty gross. Zoe kept saying uh-oh in the shower and pointing at it. Oww! We then headed off to meet my lovely godmother Penny for a meal in a lovely pub that I have forgotten the name of. After dinner we headed back to Penny's house and Zoe played with 'dog' - so much giggling!! An eventful day!

Sunday was my birthday, and after getting up and opening pressies and cards, we made our way to Muncaster Castle, where we had yummy bacon butties for breakfast before going and looking at the owls, the castle and the grounds. We went into a maze thingy that terrified Zoe, so we quickly ran through it and played on the slide instead. Muncaster Festival was on and there were loads of extra tents and things to do, one of which was a load of musical instruments made from junk, which Zoe loved - she spent most of the afternoon in there! We went to see the owl display, but Zoe got grumpy so Martin took her back to the sound tent, and I stayed to watch. It would have been nice to see them flying, but it was too busy - you can see some photos of the owls in this post if you want. I also had a bit of a play with my new lenses for my phone camera too - so much fun!! Zoe was getting pretty tired so we headed back to the car, Zoe had a sleep on the way back to the camp-site - we drove over some little fell roads, stopping to take lots of photos. Back at the tent we had a bit of a relax before heading out to the Wild Olive for my birthday meal. Unfortunately they seemed to be having some problems in the kitchen, resulting in a few mistakes with our meals, so we ended up getting three 3-course meals for less than a tenner! We left a big tip for the waitresses though, as we had a lovely time and they had been so nice! Even though we had issues, it was a one-off and I would still recommend it to anyone out that way.

Monday was the last day of our little holiday and we packed up the tent before dropping Martin off at the bottom of Muncaster fell - my legs were still too sore from Saturday to do any more climbing!! I had planned to take Zoe to Ravenglass to play on the park, but she fell asleep so I ended up sitting in the car with her doing a bit of crochet while she snoozed. After meeting Martin in the car park after his walk we headed back to Ravenglass for lunch then took Zoe to play on the park for a half hour. We then drove home via Hardknot Pass and Wrynose Pass, through the lakes, then the back way home across Caldbeck Common. Then we had to unpack the car and start the washing - joy!!

Whew! Well done if you read all of that!!