#LushChristmas in Reading.

I was so excited to receive an invite to Lush Reading's 'Lush Christmas' event last Wednesday.




Showcasing a preview of a mixture of both Halloween and Christmas products, it was a kind of surreal evening sat around a table in Lush Reading's party room (which displays some perfect visual merchandising) smelling all the delights that Lush has to offer this season.

Nacho Nacho :: Chilli Fiesta.

On our travels to the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary we discovered the delights of Millets Farm Centre. With their Chilli Fiesta falling on the same weekend that we had visitors, it was ready-made entertainment, a definite no-brainer.

After stopping for delicious lunch of barbecue pulled pork baps in the Millets Farm Centre restaurant, we had a mosey around the festival. The free samples were laid on in spades and naturally a bit of 'ladness' came into it, with silly old Richard trying the 'World's Hottest Chilli' and crying about it (because he couldn't help it, not because he was sad).


Always with the bunting.





There were a lot of 'chilli-heads' there and even though I love spicy food as it's the first one I've been to, you can't help but feel a little timid about what you try.



So pretty, I just know our limited gardening skills would end up killing them off though.



Moon tricked me into eating this one saying it tasted like lemon, which to be fair it did... lemon and fire!



I may not have had the hottest chilli in the world like this champ but I was definitely glad milk was available.





Handsome Dexter bully.
Millets Farm Centre for what it is is great, I can't believe it's just over 20 minutes away from us and we've never been before a couple of weeks ago. Complete with a cute collection of farm animals, we actually ended up spending so much time there that we missed out on the second round of the donkey sanctuary.





It was a fun afternoon out and even though one of our guests was in tears at one point, I like to think we did a pretty stand up job at showing them a nice afternoon.

:: Have you entered my giveaway to win tickets to the Royal Berkshire County Show on the 20th September? ::

Ducks, Puppies, Boats, Oh My!

With last year's Newbury Waterways Festival being such a hit with us last year, we were pretty pleased to see it return last Sunday. Sadly the weather wasn't nearly as nice as it was last time and I was actually bordering on chilly, but the duck race was just as amusing and we even bet on a few this time around.



Pup on a table. ♥



I wore super-apt attire, with a pretty nautical silk scarf my mum got for me and a new stripey dress from Primark.




I thought the feed bags on these hobby horses were super-cute!







Looking super-Chinesey with my 'close enough' ice cream cone from the Victoria Park kiosk.




SO PUMPED! – not quite as much passion as the lady in the kayak curating the race, you go, your passion for the duck race was unsurpassable.







You know me, I basically like anything where I can be nosey and eye-up cute dogs all afternoon, so I was pretty happy, even if I was desperate to rush home and warm up with a cuppa as soon as the ducks crossed the finish line.

I really like the sense of community you get in Newbury sometimes, with my feet itching to perhaps move somewhere new in the not to distant future, I can't help but think that it's something I'd miss if/when we did move.

Afternoon for Cats.

As I mentioned before, on Saturday, Moon and I took ourselves over to the Newbury Cats Protection Open Day. I was reminded constantly that it wasn't to get another cat - although it would be brilliant for Doll to have a friend, realistically we just don't have the space to commit to another kitty at the moment. We went mainly for something to do, but also because I just like anything where I can be near animals and I love a bit of bric-a-brac, it was just a bonus that we were helping to raise some money to help out with the cats there.


The setting and surrounding area of the adoption centre is lovely, definitely somewhere I'd love to have a little walk around.
The main motivator for going was that I'd entered some pictures of Doll into the Newbury Cats Protection calendar competition. I'm not sure what it meant as we missed the drawing of the winners but all three of the photographs I entered had wound up on a display board, I was pretty chuffed to have them on display for people to coo over in the same way I was over others.



We didn't investigate but it looked as though they were serving food too, it was just a shame we'd already eaten.


Cat Calendar Competition Pinboard.


I loved this guy, he looks like a grumpier, bigger version of Doll.


So many great pieces of cat-related bric-a-brac. ♥





One of a couple of purchases - made me so happy ♥


Rufas was our favourite of the day, sadly he's missing a tail because it was infected I would have cuddled him forever, I love his cross face.


This little lady was adorable too; weird that so many of the cats were either black or black & white.
If you want to donate to Cats Protection or sponsor a cat, most regions have their own site to do this, and also include listings for cats that are available for adoption. Newbury Cats Protection even have their own Amazon Wishlist so you can be sure that you're donating items that the charity actually needs.

What a great event, I look forward to future ones and will definitely go to the next one. I did end up just wanting to take all the sweet cats home, surprisingly I actually found myself drawn a lot more to the older cats, feeling a little saddened when it was announced by the following day that all kittens had been reserved with no mention of any older cats I'd seen. I will definitely be sponsoring, it's really quite astonishing that people can just abandon their pets - it's really confirmed to me that it's much better to rescue an animal than buy one.