Rhinos in The Cotswolds.

...and I'm talking about actual rhinos, not just me visiting the Cotswolds - though that is something I did just do without going to Cotswold Wildlife Park the day before my birthday too.


What I Wore:
Cardigan: H&M // Vest: H&M // Belt: ASOS // Skirt: Charity Shop
For my birthday (last Sunday, I'm behind I know), I spent the third weekend in a row hanging out with animals, I honestly think I might be zooed/farmed out, so I'm clutching at straws to figure out what we're going to get up to with our guests this weekend but I'm not complaining.

I had absolutely no idea what Moon's plans for my birthday were so I was really excited and surprised when he told me we were off to Cotswold Wildlife Park for the day. Do not even start on me that I turned 26, it's totally cool, okay?

Cotswold Wildlife Park is just on the outskirts of the market town of Burford - right next to my favourite garden centre in the world - and it's advertised everywhere. On the leaflets it always says something along the lines of 'get closer to the animals' 'get closer than you've been before' and that's not just a marketing ploy to get you through the gate, you genuinely do. I can't express how impressed I was with this place, particularly after having mixed thoughts on a zoo as popular and large as Longleat Safari a couple of years ago.



I know zoos aren't necessarily everyone's cup of tea and there are definitely some bad ones but when they're doing good work and the animals are happy, well, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon in the sunshine. Cotswold Wildlife Park was actually voted one of the best zoos in Europe too so... All the enclosures were a really good size and none of the animals seemed stressed or annoyed and were actually really relaxed.

One thing that struck me was how trusting they seem to be, there's no electric fences or razorwire here, I actually had my lunch sat less than 10 feet away from a white rhinoceros. Thing is, the few ruin it for the many don't they, so I can be trusted to sit and admire these animals, while someone stupid could take a dive over that fence for a rhino party. It's not quite the same set up for the lions but you get the idea — I hope no one does do that, just because, well, judge for yourself how nice it is...

Braving Bath Christmas Market.

A couple of weekends ago, Me, Moon and a few of our friends took ourselves to Bath for the Christmas Market. A much more stressful affair than our first visit the same time last year, Bath was crammed full of shoppers eager for Black Friday deals - in hindsight the combination of the Christmas Market's opening weekend and the hysteria that seemed to surround the Black Friday, it might not have been our brightest idea, at least, it wasn't ever going to make for the nicest shopping experience ever.



Last year we wandered through at a pretty relaxed pace, but this year we were hardly able to see half of the market due to the sheer volume of people and we spent more time looking around the actual shops. With that being said, Bath has a fantastic selection of shops and a great mixture of both independent and typica; highstreer. I don't know why this was the first time I've been back since last Christmas, it's really so close by it deserves a bit more attention.



We stopped for lunch at a great Italian place called Aio after going to the usual chain places and discovering that despite having lots of seats available, a lot of places were an hour or so wait (I'm mainly looking at you, Carluccio's!) - Aio was delicious, I'm stilling dreaming of this mushroom lasagne...! ♥




Elsie Belle had managed to bag pretty much the same spot as the previous year, I'm always coveting something of theirs, always good to have a nosey.


Not picking up one of these wreaths might be one of my Christmas market regrets, they smelt so good!








These 'Drink More Gin' coaster decorations from The Bath Gin Company were super cute but already sold out by the time we arrived...






Unfortunately the Christmas market did kind of make everyone in our party a little stressed out and it wasn't exactly the perfect environment for catching up but Bath is still a beautiful city and I'd still pick it for another day out, just maybe not (ever) in the throws of mental Christmas shopping mayhem.

Island Retreat.

Last weekend's adventure location was the Isle of Wight and we had the best time!

I guess I will end up having to eat a few of my words about my views on engagement and marriage, where I stand in my relationship is still the same but the first of our friends announced their engagement this weekend and I'm so excited! Please excuse the following friend-bumming below. ♥

You'll be hard pressed to find a better place to propose than in the middle of a National Park in Canada, and that's how our friends, Stacy and Pip, did it, so lovely! They'd kept it a bit of a secret since they'd returned but I had my suspicions that a trip-up on Pinterest only confirmed - what can I say? I'm an excellent sleuther. :)

Not only did our little weekend trip to the Isle of Wight bring fantastic news, Stacy and Pip were also excellent tour guides and we had such a great time being shown around places that we hadn't really been able to go before since we usually visit them around Christmas time instead.

It made all the difference arriving on Friday night, even if we did stay up super-late once we got there anyway - there was a lot of catching up to do.



Saturday morning was spent eating a tasty, mapley pancake breakfast before heading to Seaview Wildlife Encounter - which for just £7 was really worth it, for the ducks alone I'd say.
My favourite were the wallabies because it's hard not to choose them. I've been in enclosures at zoos where you walk through where they are but these guys willing come up to be petted and one even licked me!




I've never seen such a swarm of ducks!



Pretty good idea, especially for those zoo-goers who are a bit more snap-happy.






See? So tame. ♥



Teddy-faced Sheep :)





My new favourite kind of duck, adorable short beak and the best quack!




I've never seen a pelican do this... so gross and creepy.


After petting all the animals (a good weekend would be complete without them), we convoyed to the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm. We stopped there for a delicious lunch after sampling so many garlicky products.





Two words: GARLIC. SAUSAGE.


We finished up our afternoon with a stop off at a vineyard to sample some fruity wine before swinging by the donkey sanctuary, a slightly more legitimate affair than the offerings we have up this way. 'Affair' might be the wrong choice of word given that we saw some quite intense 'almost-action' while we were there, that was something else but this is a family-friendly place.





The evening was spent playing fun and fancy quiz games, celebrating and laughing a lot. Needless to say, our heads needed a bit of clearing on Sunday morning - which involved eating sausages, a walk along the beach and a KFC lunch before waving goodbye.


Stacy and Pip have resident foxes at the bottom of their garden, so cute!


Fancy Canadian dessert wine and champagne to kick off the celebrations.


Posey Puss – she definitely tried to make out with me the following morning, one of the neediest cats.















It's kind of hard to accept that it might be a while before I get to paddle in the sea again. I've been the luckiest with it this month and in September no less!

I feel like last weekend really made a few great memories and I went into the rest of this week just feeling happy and that's just fine with me! ♥