Spring in my Step.

Last weekend and the weather have put me a little way towards 'getting back on it'. Such a good feeling for a Monday.


For the most part I just wanted to post this to share the photo below; because who would have thought that when we were first getting hammered together at university in 2007 that we would have been sat around the breakfast table on Sunday morning, eating sausage sandwiches and discussing which vacuum cleaner is best (in value + suction, in all seriousness). It really did make my heart feel quite happy. ♥


When selfie sticks go right (y)
Despite the fact that the 6 Nations final meant we spent most of Saturday inside, the whole weekend was a great opportunity to catch up (& eat & laugh & laugh) and I'm looking forward to the plans we've made together this year already. Speaking of which, WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE?!





We attempted to get an earlier ferry but after discovering it was rammed pointed the car in a direction to explore for a couple of hours. That's how we found adorable baby cows - who were more than willing to slobber all over any hand that petted them (my hand).



I feel like I've been waiting around a while to take decent photos and while these were all on my phone, they've inspired me to get snapping again and to realise that I actually have quite a few more nice photos from other weekends than I realise (stay tuned). The photographer in me will always think that phone photos are a little lazy but my phone camera is pretty damn great and it's too easy to keep snapping. Still, phone photography is a habit I hope to at least break out of a little by the time we go to Hong Kong in May.

Christmas on the Island.

I do love this time of year, it's such a great excuse to get together. It seems that heading to the Isle of Wight for Christmas has become somewhat of a tradition for Moon and I and I don't think I'd have it any other way.

It's pretty great to have friends that live in nice places to visit. Pip and Stacy are great hosts and we really made the most of our short trip, it was such a nice weekend.


Isn't their cat, Puss, lovely? She's so friendly but she used to be as aloof as Doll, still hoping.



We went to Arreton Barns to kill a bit of time before the rest of the guests arrived, it has not one but two(!) glass blowing workshops, a few cute gift shops, a farm shop and a pretty good penny arcade, as well as one hella sad snowman that we caught dragging his feet to an unknown location on the grounds...










After a beautiful walk up along the headland near Brighstone we headed into Brighstone village to catch their annual Christmas Tree festival, a kitsch celebration held across various locations featuring, you guessed it, a lot of Christmas trees. Each tree was sponsored by different businesses from across the Isle of Wight and they'd each decorated them in their own way. It was hard to pick a favourite but I think I liked Grange Farm's offering best, there were eggs and lots of lights! My picture doesn't really do it justice.






The tree on the left is from the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary, which visited last time.



We exchanged our Secret Santa gifts before heading to a great restaurant called, The Coast Bar where I had my first Turducken and the best crab mousse.






For the rest of the evening we played games, sung along to Christmas songs and watched as much as we could of this video (you're welcome).

A slightly hungover early afternoon was spent in Sandown bowling on the pier and eating chips before it was time to head home.



I'm pretty excited that it's now less than two weeks until I see some of this lot again as usually we go for a few months. For New Year's Eve it will be our turn to entertain and the bar has been set pretty high(!) ♥

You can have a peek at the last two Wight Christmases here and here.

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! ♥