Edinburgh Zoo {during a snow storm!}

We've been meaning to make a trip to Edinburgh Zoo since we moved back to Scotland, but we didn't intend to go when it was -2 degrees and in the middle of a snow storm! O booked the tickets the week before (so we wouldn't have to queue) and when we woke up on that Saturday morning the snow didn't start to fall until we literally walked through the gates! 

We figured we would have a mooch around, see a few of our favourite animals and then go see the pandas at our allocated time. When we went to the desk they said it was so quiet that we could go visit the pandas as many times as we liked! As the zoo was as empty as a graveyard, we pretty much followed the keepers around all day, which was SO interesting! They told us so many things about the animals (esp the Sun Bears aka my new favourite bear!) that we wouldn't have known had we shown ourselves around! As you can probably tell from the penguin heavy photos, we're HUGE penguin fans and we were lucky enough to get to see the penguin parade. This is when they open the gates to the penguin enclosure and let them walk around a little using us as the barrier! Unfortunately for us, most of the penguins were too mesmerised with the falling snow to care about parading around, so we only got to see about four or five of them running about outside! Oh and in case you were wondering, the penguin in the bottom photo with me is Shackleton (as in Ernest), we take him on all of our adventures!

The pandas are pretty awesome too, but they really just sat around and ate bamboo all day (not a bad life!), it's no wonder Tian Tian isn't pregnant yet! I think O's favourite was Darwin's Rhea, mainly because it followed him around and called out to him...a lot! O decided to call him Chris (get it?!?!). On that note, do you know the story behind Darwin and the rheas? Google it, it's hilarious! 

Sunday Mornings #19

Firstly, my apologies for not posting last weekend, I was down South at one of my Bestest's wedding, forgive me. This week has been an odd one. I've been to a wedding and a funeral (three more weddings and we'd have a movie on our hands!), so it's been filled with unbelievable highs and then horribly sad lows. But even the lowest lows were spent celebrating someone's life, so not so bad at all, really. Enough about me, how have *your* weeks been? Have you had any snow? Living so close to the coast we've managed to avoid it so far, but still freezing our behinds off! Here's a little catch up on my week...

+ Seeing one of my bestest friends getting married to the love of her life. Ain't much topping that, is there?!

+ Catching up with one of our friends over dinner (haggis!) and whisky and then slip sliding all the way home on the ice! 

+ O's perfect homemade spag bol served with a cold cold beer. Saturday night bliss!

+ Finding the prettiest little serving tray on sale. For £2. What?! 

+ Having an awesome TV week. Pretty Little Liars, Broadchurch, Big Band Theory and the Musketeers!

+ Making it through the week without breaking my leg on the ice/snow. Unlike my brother, who broke his ankle on it earlier this week! He's now sporting a massive plaster cast which goes all the way from his toes to his knee. Ouch!

+ Buying an almost new zoom lens for our DSLR. We're quickly becoming photography geeks and we've now managed to bag three lenses to go along with our new shiny camera. I fear for our bank balance...

+ Making it through another week of 5:2. I'm loving it so much more than I thought I would. I don't even mind the fast days! I may write a post on this soon...

+ Fitness plans. Next week there may be some yoga and a little swimming. Just need to dig out my swimsuit and yoga mat! 

+ Feeling very proud of one of my bestest of friends when she had to be so so strong this week. She blew my mind and I am so happy to have such strong women like her in my life. 

+ Listening to O making plans for an epic summer BBQ. So far he has grand ideas of building his own smoker and rotisserie. Roll on summer!

Posts I've loved recently...

Rosie's droolworthy three ways with hummus || Sarah's awesome photography tips || For some beautifully written heartbreak check out Tania's "Matters of the Heart" and Charlotte's "I want you with all of me". 

OK, your turn now! Hook me up with all your adventures and stories from this week! :)

Frosty Winter Sunrises {on the beach}.

You'll forgive me for sharing another post of beach photos, won't you? Ah I knew you would! One Sunday morning we woke up *super* early and decided to wrap up and head down to the beach to watch the sunrise. I know, hopeless romantics and all that disgusting stuff! We're so very lucky to live close to a few different beaches and on this particular morning we decided to take ourselves over to South beach in Troon. 

It was so cold that the sand crunched under our feet and we magically managed to have the entire beach to ourselves - when does this ever happen? We walked from one length of the beach to the other, hopping over little streams and clambering over massive tree branches as we went. Before long we were joined by a very jaunty little dog (props if you can spot him in one of the photos ^^) and his owner. We found a little spot to perch and watch the sunrise and before we knew it, the beach was filling up with dog walkers with their morning coffees. It was then we decided to head home for a breakfast of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with a huge mug of coffee. Bliss. 

Sunday Mornings #18

Is is just me or has this week flown by? I'm not sure why, I've not been overly busy or anything but it's been a speedy one. I have to confess to only having just taken down our Christmas tree yesterday. I know I know, but I think I was just trying to hold on to that last little piece of festiveness before it blows away completely. For me, this week has been a chilled out one. No mad rush back to work or throwing myself into anything. I hope your week's been a grand one. Here's what I loved most about this week...

+ Finally organising my make up and toiletries drawer. It was seriously getting out of hand. Thanks to Ikea's awesome storage solutions I can now find things without having a full blown hunt. It also made me realise that I have far too much make up, so I'm now on a spending ban. Yeah, thanks Ikea!

+ Getting the good old job hunt under way and also trying to sort out my CV. I know there's no worse job in my opinion, but at least it's something I can now tick off my list and stop procrastinating. 

+ Feeling the health kick finally kick in. Too many "kick"s in that sentence, I know. I've being doing 5:2 and honestly, I've never felt better. My clothes were starting to feel overly tight thanks to all that Christmas cheese, but after only a week they're more comfortable already. 

+ O surprising me with tickets for Edinburgh Zoo! I cannot wait to see the penguins and the pandas!

+ Being able to stay inside whilst the wind is blowing a gale outside. Friday was spent on the sofa with a duvet and Netflix.

+ Speaking of good old Netflix, someone introduced me to Pretty Little Liars this week and I'm completely hooked! Many hours have been wasted spent watching it this week. Who the heck is A?!

+ Kiehl's Hand Salve is saving my life this week. My hands get so dry in the winter and this is the only moisturiser that leaves them super soft. 

+ Planning our trip to Canada this summer. I'm so excited and am counting the days til June 22nd! It will have been three years since I've been over and that's the longest since I lived there. I'm having serious Tim Horton's withdrawals. 

Before I forget, check out Rosie's inspirational post on New Year's resolutions.  It's definitely resonated with me this week. #IAmEnough.

How has your week been? 

Woodland Winter Walks

Every year on Boxing Day we like to take ourselves out on a big long walk to blow away all the Christmas Day cobwebs. Oh and to make room for more cheese and chocolate, of course! Last year we went to Beachy Head in the South Downs and the year before that we went to a beach in Kent. This year we decided to explore Galloway Forest Park. 

In case you didn't know, this park is the UK's first Dark Sky park. Scotland has some of the darkest skies around and with so few people living close to Galloway Forest Park, it's the perfect place to do some star gazing. We decided we would do a dry (day time) run first, so we would know where to find the perfect gazing spots. We piled on as many layers as humanly possible and braved the weather. As you can see from the photos, Boxing Day in Scotland was a bleak rainy one, sometimes it was even difficult to see the trees in front of us! Luckily the mist cleared up long enough for us to see the beautiful loch and for me to snap some photos of O (much to his despair).

I can't wait to come back in the evening when the skies are inky black, with a big cosy blanket and a steaming hot chocolate (or a dram of whisky!) and pick out all the constellations I can remember from Astronomy 101 at University!

Her.

I'm coming at you with a slightly different style of post today. A film review! What has become of me?!

"Her" was the first film I watched in 2015. I absolutely loved it. Kinda. I was left feeling a little weirded out by the whole premise and at the same time, an emotional wreck. Let me explain! Just in case you didn't know, Her is about the relationship between Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), his OS (operating system). I don't want to enter into any spoiler territory here, but this film is just as heartbreakingly romantic as the real thing. I found Joaquin Phoenix's character to be so like Leonard from The Big Bang Theory...did anyone else find this? And I desperately wanted Samantha to be real! 

The soundtrack is beautifully melancholy and as usual, Arcade Fire nailed it. Director Spike Jonze is quickly becoming one of my faves (please tell me you've seen Where the Wild Things Are??) and although this film left me believing that this could easily be a true story in a few years time, I'm still completely in love with it. 

Have you seen it? If not, what are you waiting for?! Let me know what you think!

{Source}

Sunday Mornings #17

My first post of 2015! Happy New Year lovelies, I hope you had an amazing NYE however you chose to spend it. Where the heck did 2014 go? I know everyone has probably said this, but seriously! In 2014 we somehow managed to live in three very different towns/counties (Essex, Middlesbrough and Ayr), how was this even possible? I can't believe that this time last year we were still living in Essex, it feels like a life time ago now. Anyway, my apologies that my posts have been pretty sparse these last few weeks. I have no excuse except that I've been too busy enjoying myself! ;) I have lots of photos to sort through and many adventures to update you on, but for now let's talk about what made this past week a smashing one...

:: Driving up to the snowy Scottish Highlands. This is one of my favourite places to be. If you manage to get up there either nice and early, or just as the sun is going down it's so serene and seriously atmospheric, all at the same time. We took our new camera out for the day and played photographer for a few hours {the above photo was snapped on my iPhone 6 after I put the camera away}. We stopped at Glencoe, which always feels so haunted and deafeningly quiet. On the drive back down we managed to spot some sweet deer, just before the sun was setting. Such lucky ducks. 

:: Early morning beach walks. On Monday we woke up just before the sunrise and snuck off to the beach for a frosty walk. Is there anything more spectacular than watching the sunrise on the beach? Not for me! 

:: Westmoorland Services. Every time we drive down to Manchester, I always make O stop at this particular services. The farm shop here is the best around and is just a stone's throw away from the Lakes, so the scenery is beautiful. The food is amazing. We had pie and mash, of course and then a take away coffee to see us through the rest of our journey.

:: Five Guys. No visit to Manchester is complete without a trip to the Trafford Centre and a sneaky lunch at Five Guys! Oh the fries...and the raspberry Coke!

:: Spending Hogmanay and New Year's Day with O's family. On Hogmanay we ate take out curry, played Trivial Pursuit and drank cocktails and on New Year's Day we ate tex-mex and played an Egyptian themed murder mystery. Turns out O is a murderer. Who knew?

:: O's Grandad has adopted a little rescue cat. She is the cutest little ginger mog you will ever see! I spent most of the time with her sat on my lap, or being bitten by her for no apparent reason. Now I need a furry animal in my life even more!

:: We also hit up TKMaxx in Manchester and I seriously hit the beauty motherload in there! Got so much Una Brennan and Naobay skincare schnizz for such bargainous prices!

:: After our long drive home on Friday I had the best shower of my life. No exaggeration! You know some days, a nice long hot shower just hits the spot? This was my day. It left me toasty, clean and shiny and ready for a day spent on the sofa. Perfection. 

So tell me, how has your 2015 been so far? I have lots of little goals for this year, which I might share eventually. Some are the usual run of the mill get healthy variety and some are a little more personal. Do you have any goals/resolutions for the coming year?