Shaw House Summer Fête.

I feel like I started off the month really well with my photography but have kind of drifted a bit as the heatwave has taken hold. Like, I took much fewer photos a couple of weekends ago when we went to visit Shaw House for their summer fête than I would usually - maybe it's that, or maybe there just wasn't that much there to take pictures of.



Shaw House is another new Newbury discovery and I must say I was a little disappointed with it. It could have been much more than it was, the fête itself was quite nice but didn't make as much of space as they it could have. There were lots of nice places to picnic if we'd planned ahead though and we were able to get a couple of Pimm's for just £2.50 each, and there were nice wigwams to max-relax in.

At one point I believe Shaw House was a fancy boarding school before health & safety regulations decided it couldn't be anymore. I first took notice of Shaw House when they held their open garden events earlier this year when it was signposted everywhere. We gave them a miss but will definitely check them out if they hold them again, especially after reading about Jenny from Sunny Sweet Pea's great open garden experience.


If we learnt nothing else from our visit, it was definitely driven home that Moon is a 21st century man.


In all fairness the café was cute and reasonably priced, we just didn't fancy being indoors when it was 28° out.
I'm kind of sad to see that most of the inside of Shaw House is now mainly used as conference rooms. I really see it as a shame, but then maybe there isn't all that much history there to tell.

I'd love to hear about any historic buildings near you, have they made the most of them there?

#1Day12Pics :: June

I'm sure that eventually I will get around to taking part in 1Day12Pics with my phone as the lovely organisers Michelle and Emma do but with the all the excitement on Saturday with the driving and the fair, and the fact my DSLR was a temporary limb extension anyway, shooting on one camera just made a bit more sense.

The 7th June 2014 saw me heading down to Kent for the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair with my sister, which you can read more about (and see a ton of more pictures from) here.


1. 9am // Putting my face on and getting ready for a long day.


2. 10am // Setting off for Kent.


3. 11am // Arriving at Hole Park Gardens and taking in its beautiful grounds.


4. 12pm // Catching all-round nice guy and Masterchef, Dhruv Baker,in the Burlanes Chef's Theatre.


5. 1pm // Love a bit of pottering.


6. 2pm // ...and a bit of moseying, our ticket to the fair included access to the gardens so we took full advantage.


7. 3pm // Beautiful secret garden vibes. ♥


8. 4pm // Stopping off at a farm shop we passed on our arrival - a lot of different coloured tomatoes were bought.


9. 5pm // Another necessary pit-stop.


10. 6pm // Ma had dinner ready for us when we got home.


11. 7pm // Latergramming.


12. 8pm // Waiting for the kettle to boil and getting a bit of fresh air post-shower in mum's back garden and witnessing the golden hour ♥
This is the second time now that I've treated this little challenge as a strict 'photo an hour' and I think next time I'm going to allow myself to be a little more fluidity and choose twelve images that sum up my day a little better. Still, I really like the #1Day12Pics project, it's a little more fun to do things like this and see how others are working with it too.

Wealden Times Midsummer Fair

When Rosie (from Cider with Rosie emailed me to let me know I was one of the winners of her competition for tickets to the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair, I was pretty darn pleased. If you've followed me for a while, or even if you haven't, you'll probably be aware that fairs are pretty much my bag - I love testing samples in food tents, eyeing up fancy crafts and of course, if it's a good fair, dog spotting.

Not only was it a chance to spend a day at a fair anyway, but it was in a pretty beautiful part of the country too. My sister is actually at university in Canterbury but I've only been to visit her a couple of times and not for long enough to really appreciate the Garden of England. It's probably the former that made her seem like a pretty good choice as my guest, plus she has to fill her days with something now she's lounging around having 'summer holidays'.

Over to the Garden.

After the many successes of last year, I've been waiting for summertime to roll around for a long time now. If not for the warmer weather, lighter evenings and alfresco dining then definitely for all the fairs and county shows there are to check out.

When the lovely Rosie from Cider with Rosie got in touch with me to let me know I was lucky enough to win her competition to head over to the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair I was only too happy to jump at the chance.

So that's where I'm off to with my sister tomorrow and I can't wait, expect pictures, I'm really looking forward to the food tent(!)

Bumpkin.

We had a wonderful afternoon on Sunday at the Berkshire Country Fayre, a great showcase of all things agricultural in Berkshire. There were so many amazing dogs, and if you've taken note of my main reason behind going to carboots, then you might realise I was pretty much in my element. There were dog shows, car displays and even a (super cringey) Young Farmer's Parade. I really impressed Moon with how actually fun it was and I'm really glad our friends Kirstin and Dan, who also joined us for Dot-to-Dot, had a good time too - who wouldn't? There was hog roast(!)

I'm feeling a little smug because Moon got sunburn and I didn't, but what a brilliant day, frolicking on tractors, bumping on dodgems and basking in the sunshine. If only every weekend could be this chill and the sun could shine all the time.



Tiny sleeping lamb ♥


Mr Moon's hoping for chickens, something I've always been for, we just haven't plucked up the courage to ask our landlady yet.



I wish we'd picked up these cute wooden mushrooms for the garden, will definitely note to myself to pick things like this up rather than come back to them later.




Tiny birds of prey.



Young Farmer's Parade; complete with Mr Bean!





Oh hai! ♥



All kinds of sausage!


So much love for wool(!)


Bit weird.









So happy to have a snow cone.








Ghost Dog, Echo.


Making new friends.








I don't think I remember ever really having one of these before, at least, not for a long time anyway, it was so tasty, oh my. Something I just wanted to eat all over again once I'd finished.



Have you ever taken in your local agricultural fair? We were pleasantly surprised and it definitely has us thinking about looking around for a few more, they're a great day out and a fun way to take in local culture. Perhaps that's a little odd considering we're not 'real' locals, but Berkshire is beginning to grow on me the longer I am away from leafy, familiar Surrey.