Camping! {+ a video}

Did I mention we bought a new tent? Well we packed up our shiny new car this past weekend and headed to Tarbert for a few nights under the stars. Before Oscar and I met, he used to be one of these minimalist campers. These days however, he has more camping swag than Go Outdoors! I have to take most of the blame (credit) for this, as sleeping on the hard ground is not my thing. So instead, we compromised and bought a heck of a lot of new camping gear. We now have a much bigger tent, some seriously comfy camping chairs and a huge blow-up mattress (amongst many other glamping accessories!). We tested the new tent out in the Lake District a few months ago and on Sunday we pitched our little canvas (is it even canvas?!) home up in Port Ban. 

Our campsite was right on the west coast (near Tarbert) of Scotland and we literally pitched up right next to the beach. I genuinely don't think I've ever seen anything to rival these views. We took a shed load of food with us, but of course decided to drive 16 miles to find the nearest fish and chips! 

If you fancy seeing a little more of our trip, I might've just made a video of all the best bits! You can find it right here...

I'm still trying to find my way around filming and editing, so if you have any tips, please let me know! Please do like and subscribe if you like it! Thanking you kindly! 

P.S. Please forgive me for the Crocs...they really are the ugliest thing I've ever worn, but they are the best footwear for camping (my Birkenstocks got soggy at the beach!)... #sorrynotsorry

E S C A P E :: to the Lakes

This weekend just gone, O and I decided to test our new tent out and escape to the Lake District. We (Oscar) packed up the car and drove down straight after work. We'd chosen Sykeside Campsite right in the heart of Dovedale Valley to pitch our tent in for the weekend. The campsite itself was great. Plenty of amenities and with two pubs attached, what more could you need?! There were lots of sheep with their little lambs roaming about and we'd been warned about badgers, but I didn't managed to spot any. On a side note, I really wanted to take a little lamb home with me, but Oscar wouldn't let me :( He said that it's Mum would miss it, which is true I guess...but I'm pretty sure it would be happy living with me! The campsite was a little too busy for our liking, so next time I think we'll seek out a smaller one, but we couldn't fault the location. We were literally at the bottom of a valley surrounded by the fells. Waking up to such a sight and then watching the sun set behind those great mountains and hills is something I won't forget in a hurry.

We had checked the weather forecast before leaving and knew that we were in for a wet and windy weekend, but luckily our new shiny tent stood up to Mother Nature. We had no service on our phones, so we switched them off for the entire weekend and relied on our trusty camera for taking photos. I didn't take as many photos as I would've liked, but to be honest, it was just lovely to enjoy ourselves without any technology for a change. Switching off and spending time mindfully with each other is just what we needed. 

We started our weekend off in Ambleside to visit our favourite little bakery, The Apple Pie. If you've never been, the food here is amazing and the cafe is so cosy. I really recommend it, even just for the pastries alone! We then decided, in true Oscar and Louise style, to visit the local distillery and brewery! We've been to the Hawkshead Brewery before and it's now become one of our favourite haunts in the Lakes. It's a little tricky to get to, but the beer and food is really worth the trip. The Lakes Distillery only opened last year, so we were keen to visit an English whisky distillery! 

The distillery setting and buildings are beautiful. The tour itself was a little expensive considering the distillery wasn't in production, we spent a lot of time watching videos and we weren't allowed to take photos. But it is a young company, so hopefully these things will improve. The whisky we tried (and that they sell) is a blend, as their single malt is still maturing. For a blend is was actually lovely, which surprised me! They also distill vodka and gin and let me tell you, the gin is fantastic. We may have added a few bottles of whisky and gin to our collection! The distillery has a restaurant attached, so we decided to stop here for some lunch. Alas, Oscar had been making poor food choices all weekend and accidentally ordered a salt beef salad, which he thought was a sandwich. So even though the food was pretty good, poor Oscar left feeling still a little hungry!

The brewery didn't disappoint! Oscar ordered a Ploughman's lunch platter to make up for his disappointing salad and we had a few half pints of their finest beer whilst almost falling asleep on the comfiest leather sofa known to man. I'm a huge fan of their lager, but Oscar is more of an ale and bitter man! 

We found a Booths supermarket in Windermere to stock up on some late dinner essentials. We bought enough antipasti (antipasto?) ingredients to feed an army, and of course some red wine and beer to go along side it. The cheesemonger was really spot on with his recommendations, as the brie, stilton and cheddar we bought were seriously droolworthy. We spent the evening slathering crusty bread with butter, cheese and salami whilst drinking said red wine out of our camping mugs. Unfortunately it started raining around 8pm, so we had to retreat inside our tent and watch the sunset through our little windows. We whiled away the hours playing Scrabble and cards, before falling asleep to the sound of rain hitting our tent. Isn't that sound the most therapeutic? This little escape was just what the doctor ordered before O heads down to Norfolk this Sunday. Now that we've got this camping malarkey down, we're planning on heading up to the Highlands with our tent for a few days when O comes back home. Oscar is trying to persuade me that he'll need to buy a few more camping essentials first...any excuse! ;)

How were your weekends? Have you been camping recently? I've been a little blog awol lately, so would love to hear about your adventures and news :)

C A N A D A

Just in case I haven't harped on about it enough over the last six months...O and I are off to Canada on June 22nd! ;) We're travelling between Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, so I'm looking to you lovely people for some recommendations! Toronto and Ottawa are like second homes for me, but Montreal and Quebec City are brand new! So if you know of anything we should see, eat, drink (I'll be having all the poutine!) or visit in any of these amazing places I would love for you to share it with me. We would especially be interested in tasty food places, coffee shops and beer joints...you know me!

 

Thanks in advance friends! :)

 



The Last Few Days | St Andrews

On Sunday afternoon I headed over to St Andrews with my buddy Machelle. Her parents have a caravan there and we decided that we would borrow it for a little long weekend to celebrate Machelle's birthday. Can you believe I've never been to St Andrews before? After spending four days there, it has captured my heart! The beaches are spectacular, the architecture is striking, there are many many golf courses and of course it's here that Kate and William met at university!

I stupidly forgot to bring my camera, so all of these snaps are from my iPhone 6, but you get the gist, don't you? If you're ever in the area, head to the Vic bar for some seriously amazing gin cocktails. There were many many cocktails (not pictured thankfully) and so much food consumed over the weekend. This was the first time I'd ever stayed in a caravan and it was seriously lush - just like a mini house. 

I'm already planning another trip with Oscar, there are so many parts that I didn't see and of course we will be taking a little detour via Anstruther for the best fish and chips in the WORLD! 

Have you been to St Andrews? What are your favourite places to visit? 

A few photos from our weekend + thoughts on getting outside.

For the first time in a really long time, we had no plans for this weekend just gone. We had nowhere to be, no one to see and nothing to do. If you know O and I, you'll know that we're not great at sitting around and doing nothing...O especially. I can wile away the hours reading a book or watching Netflix, but Oscar always needs to be doing something. So in true W&P style we decided to get outside. 

Now if you live on the west coast of Scotland, you'll know that Saturday was pretty miserable, weather-wise. But we didn't let this stop us! We drove up to a little village right on the banks of Loch Lomond called Luss (points if you know which Scottish TV show was filmed here!). Of course, as soon as we parked the car, the torrential rain began to fall, so we headed to one of my favourite little coffee shops. The Coach House serves the best coffee (banoffee coffee, anyone?) and soup around. They had five soups of the day, for goodness sake! O had said banoffee coffee and I had the Ben Lomond cappuccino. The thick lentil soup and crusty bread was just what we needed to warm us through and prepare us for going outside again. I love the tartan crockery (which you can buy in the little shop) and the waiters even wear kilts. What more can you ask for?! 

We then headed to the opposite side of the loch to meet Mr Tom Weir. Just in case you don't know, Tom Weir was an amazing climber, writer and broadcaster who also presented Weir's Way back in the day. A statue was erected of him last year right on the edge of the loch, beside Conic Hill and we'd been meaning to visit it for months now. 

On Sunday morning we got up early (what's wrong with us?) and went to Lochwinnoch for a little hike. We donned our proper walking boots and packed a little picnic lunch. Of course, the weather had other plans and again it poured from the heavens...needless to say, our lunch was eaten in the car. We met a lovely farmer who pointed us in the direction of some ancient church ruins and we had a little chat with his cows along the way. 

This weekend I also started practising some yoga. If you're a yoga fan, you'll probably have heard of the lovely Adriene of the "Yoga with Adriene" YouTube channel and blog. At the beginning of the year she released the 30 Days of Yoga program and I've been following that this week. Don't be fooled, it starts off gentle but this morning my abs (abs? What abs?!) were screaming at me! This week's been a particularly stressful one for me, so the yoga has definitely helped with keeping calm and mindful. Oh, on that mindful note, I've also been using my Mindfulness Colouring Book to take my mind of things. Yes, I am a child and I love colouring! Just don't look too closely...I'm not so good at keeping inside the lines!

How was your weekend? O and I are huge advocates of getting outside, exploring and blowing the cobwebs away. Even if I've had the worst day and I'm not feeling it, I always come home feeling ten times better. We're trying to increase our fitness levels too, so any excuse to get out into the countryside and walk our asses off has been wholeheartedly accepted this weekend...despite the dreadful weather!