Surrey Hills :: Saturday Adventure.

Just a few snaps from our quick stopover visiting our friends, Tom and Matt, at the beginning of the month. Matt was poorly due to a few too many birthday shandies the previous night but Tom, Moon and I had a lovely walk along the Surrey Downs and around Silent Pool after a delicious pub lunch at The White Horse in Shere. (feat. beef rib, oh my!)

Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary.

With Moon and I potentially both working in Oxford come the middle of September, we took a mini road trip over the weekend to broaden our horizons when it comes to an (as of yet) hypothetical move.


While we haven't found anywhere that's quite right yet, we did discover the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary. We found it after spotting a sign for a jumble sale in a car park in Didcot, we were in the mood for a potter and the potential of seeing some donkeys was kind of intriguing.



The jumble sale wasn't up to much but the barn it was held it did feature some interesting décor choices. We were just about to leave before curiosity got the better of me and I found out that the Donkey Sanctuary itself was free.

I just want to say that even though Island Farm is right up my street anyway because it means I get to take photographs of cute farm animals, I think it kind of sells itself a bit short. I'd definitely pay more than a 'donation' to see the donkeys and they're clearly well cared for.


Soft and shaggy donkey.





Some of the donkeys seem to have broken out of their fields, it was kind of refreshing to be somewhere that was a bit slack on health & safety regulations.




Goose!


The donkeys are so relaxed around people and happy to have a stroke.




Spot the hiding chicks. ♥




Granted, we only spent just over half an hour walking up and down the field but I feel like they need way more publicity because they seem to be doing a really great job - all the donkeys were well groomed and seemed really chilled out and happy.

It was a nice little find and I can think of a couple of friends who'd really appreciate a trip there on their next visit.

Indian Summer Breeze.

Because we'd had such an action-packed first day and because Moon had a long drive back to Newbury in the mid-afternoon (but also because Kirstin and I stayed up until 3am yapping), we opted for rounding our little Norfolk weekender off with a relaxed walk along Old Hunstanton beach. Just a short walk from Dan's parent's home, it was pretty ideal and even though we weren't quite prepared for the blustery sandstorm that awaited us, it was so nice to see the sun shine and breathe in the sea air.





Not quite sure how this photo came to be but I definitely commend Moon's photography skills pretty highly for it.









I think this was my favourite photo-spot of the weekend - after the seals of course - I always find that the weather makes such a difference and the bright blue sky made for such great lines and layers.




My best Steve Zissou impression.



I guess the wind and the wonderful sun were signs of the supposed storm, but it was hard to tell as Norfolk is apparently usually windy thanks to it's flatness. I got sand in my eyes and embedded into my tights but watching the sand floating across the beach was pretty mesmerising and it was very easy to get some shelter just by climbing over the dunes.

In other sand-related news, I accidentally filled one of my pockets with sand due to overenthusiastic shell-collecting.

Norfolk has certainly done the job with motivating me a bit more, I'm not sure if it's down to the place or just getting away generally but I feel like I'm full of ideas at the moment(!!!)