Spring in the Cotswolds.

It's been a little bit cooler here in the last few days but last weekend really gave me a real vitamin D kick!
And hey, it's England and yeah, I broke out the sunglasses and sandals and yeah, it's a bit ridiculous but it's also completely fine.

After watching the Six Nations at our friend Long's house (I say watching, I didn't really, sorry, not sorry) the following morning was absolutely glorious. It was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of how close we were to the intriguing Cotswolds Water Park.



Long and his girlfriend had other plans so Moon and I headed over with our other friend, Simon. It's truly beautiful and after seeing online that there were activities such as wind-sailing and mini golf and that there was a lakeside beach, I really wasn't sure what to expect. Something a bit lame I should expect, but it totally wasn't, I'd love to head over there again.




Set on the edge of the Cotswolds amongst several lakes, with beautiful Scandinavian lake houses, this place was amazing for good dog spotting. We took a little plod around the main park's lake - there are lots of different attractions by each lake but a lot of them are private - before heading over to the, ultimately terrible but still really fun, mini golf. It was then pub lunchtime before the three of us parted ways with Moon and I riding home with roof down.























Not quite as pretty as a Cotswold lakeside but in other news we also got all the weeding done and lawn mowed when we got home. Needless to say, we were on fire last Sunday!

It was such a wonderful day, so nice to not feel chilly or worry about jackets. Getting out and enjoying the day early seems to be the key to a great weekend, it's worked pretty well for this weekend too! I love a lie-in, but when you're up before 7 on a normal weekday, getting out of bed by 9 is enough even if it's still cosy. Really realising oversleeping doesn't do as much for me as it feels like it should.

So, happy Sunday, hope you've had a nice weekend! ♥

Film Club | February.

Feeling very belated on this one, but then I didn't watch that many last month really. I feel like making a small promise to myself to be a little more timely because I do quite enjoy recording the process quite a bit, especially when it lends itself so easily to a format like Pinterest. Here are this month's films:

18. The Great Gatsby
19. Burn After Reading
20. Dredd
21. The Spectacular Now

22. August: Osage County
23. The Act of Killing
24. Awful Nice
25. Magic Mike

26. The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman
27. Escape Plan
28. The Call

Favourite: The Call – I probably has to be, considering I actually watched it twice in the space of a week, mainly because there's a scene in it that I really needed to talk about with Moon and he wasn't who I watched it with. It was pretty gripping for something I thought would be terrible, so I put my hands up and admit that I judged Halle Berry unnecessarily harshly. I'm pretty into crime stuff right now so I guess it just caught me at the right time.

Second Favourite: Dredd – Probably not one if you're not one for gore, and usually I'm not really but I really quite liked it all the same. It was really fast-paced and tense, just what you need for a post-apocalyptic future action film!

Least Favourite Ha, most of them... August: Osage County/Magic Mike – I seem to have been tricked into watching pretty unnecessarily long films with nothing-characters this month.

I was really disappointed with August: Osage County because I thought it would be A) funny or B) mainly drama but at least relatable, it was neither of those, just stressful and frustrating.

Magic Mike was a really, really popular film while I was working at the cinema so I was finally ready to see what all the fuss was about - not much, there I said it. None of the men in it do it for me at all, which I guess is the point of the film? Matthew McConaughey is nice at all but hardly in it and I'm sorry, no one will ever convince me Channing Tatum really has anything about him. The 'really juicy' bits are just cringe and although parts of it are dark it's ultimately a bit boring. I don't care how many guys asses you see in a film, it's not impressive.

I guess last month was a pretty weak one for good movies, to be honest, this month isn't fairing much better.
Oscar season is well and truly over, I guess. That said, I have been immersing myself in the cracking 'True Detective', which I'd definitely recommend (and so would everyone). Also, The Walking Dead has been amazing since its mid-season break. I guess there's too much good American TV to catch up on and with most of them being an hour long, I've just been watching them instead.

How are you fixed for television and films right now? Anything that you'd recommend I watch before March comes to an end?

Look Back –
Film Club | January.

Great Garden.

Even though there's technically still 11 days to go, it feels like spring well and truly sprung (how many times are you going to read that in the next few days?!) this weekend, the perfect excuse to give a little TLC to our much-neglected garden.

We did have some plans to have some guests this weekend but with hectic schedules and general life getting in the way we had it to ourselves instead, which meant there was no reason to not get out there. We really have not taken care of our outside space with all that rain, and the weeds have loved it.




I must admit that I really am not all that greenfingered so seeing the few daffodils I planted back in August come into flower, with more to come, has me really excited for this new season.


Doll's really not a sun-worshipper, you'll never find her sunning herself like a normal cat, maybe because she knows that as a white cat it's not too good for her, but you can definitely tell she's pretty pleased she doesn't have to worry about getting wet when she goes out at the moment.


Spotted two different ladybirds today and so many bees, it's probably just run-off from next door's (amazing) garden but still makes me happy.






I think of everything I'm most excited to have our lilac tree come back, I've really missed its flowers.

We had an impromptu picnic on the green near our house for lunch today, I quite like this photo of Moon but I didn't know where else I could put it. ♥
When the weather's as nice as it has been and I'm feeling a bit too lazy to really get out and do things, I really do appreciate how lucky we are to have such a usable outside space. We were out in our garden a lot last summer and I'm really looking forward to getting it spruced up for that time of year again so we can really enjoy it.

We love you, Brighton.

Last weekend to celebrate Moon's 25th (lolz) birthday, we took ourselves down to Brighton. After being incredibly disheartened by the crazy hotel prices (it's the beginning of March, what even?), I took a gamble with airbnb.

Looking back on it, I definitely take back the feeling of it being a gamble because it actually worked out really well for us, it meant we could stay the night and not feel guilty about it, plus our host (we rented a room rather than a whole place) was really accommodating and friendly, but more on that later...


Brighton really is one of my favourite cities, it's a big toss up between it being because it's by the sea or because it has so many cute, unique shops, but I just really like it there. Brighton makes me feel like going back to city life wouldn't be so bad, then I remember that I quite like the quiet and time marches on.

We didn't really see anything new so you've probably seen all these kinds of photographs on here before but it was just so nice to have the sun back in our lives for a bit - how nice has it been this weekend? I hope the weather is here to stay! It really gets me ready to get stuff done when the sun is shining.





Utility might be my favourite Brighton shop, everything in there is just so satisfying; the décor, the products(!!!) urgh, it's just all feels like it has so much purpose.




We stopped in at a café called Bertie's for lunch, it was mainly because it was the first place we saw before we got distracted by something else, but boy oh boy are their sandwiches delicious.






Obligatory West Pier scene.




Pizza 7 was our Saturday evening meal of choice. We had set our sights on Meat Liquor but after being told we would have to queue outside to wait for a table (sorry mate, no restaurant is worth that kind of hype) we took our business elsewhere. And I really am glad we did because the Pizza 7 staff were really lovely and it felt like a really unique experience. Their whole thing is artisan beer and stone baked pizza (very hipster but it was kind of Moon's birthday meal so I wouldn't have expected less) and a lot of the beer I wanted was pretty elusive which meant I was able to try new things. What more can I say, pizza and beer is a combination you just can't fail with. ♥




We spent two full afternoons in Brighton, on Saturday we explored The Laines as we always do, while on Sunday - Moon's actual birthday - we headed down to the Marina (I wouldn't really recommend it) for a our first carboot of the year, neither of us got anything but it does make me look forward to carboot season really getting going in the coming months.



We were pretty unimpressed by the Marina, it definitely could be way nicer than it is, but then when it's competing with the likes of more well-known Brighton tourist destinations that are more central and clustered together, it's easy to see why things are quite as thriving round there as they could be - free table-tennis though.





The Marina's chilli shop was a redeeming feature, we tried chilli chocolate brownies, banana chilli jam.
Some of the hot sauce ratings were pretty terrifying though. 40/10 for heat D:


We've been lacking Mexican food since our beloved Taco Shop closed down in Newbury and while we promised ourselves some wonderful Foodilic, Tortilla was just too hard to resist. Honestly the best burrito I've ever had - would definitely recommend their chicken one, my word!







I always try and stop in at Cloud 9, their one of the bakeries that I see as worthwhile when it comes to spending money on cupcakes.

I can't believe it really was over a year since my last trip to Brighton, that was so fun too, I guess we just got caught up in visitors and closer attractions. I hope to try make some more time for the seaside this year, can you believe it's March already?

I feel like I talked about food a lot, but if you're just here for photographs, that's fine too.