Why autumn is my favourite season

While everyone else was basking in June and July's heatwave, I secretly couldn't wait for autumn to arrive.

The house was unbearably hot, the office was unbearably hot, the great outdoors was unbearably hot. Everywhere and everything was unbearably hot and I longed for the day when it would be cool enough to wear my tights and boots again.

August came along and decided to be its usual frizz-inducing hot and rainy self, so I was delighted when autumn finally announced itself.

Here are just a few reasons why autumn is my favourite season...



1. Memories 

I don't think summer will ever feel the same for me after the events of two years ago. The summer of 2016 was riddled with tests and uncertainty, and every summer since has brought back vivid memories of that horrible time. Once October arrives and autumn is in full swing, I instantly feel a little better.



2. The cooler weather 

I absolutely adore dry autumnal days. Cold, crisp and sunny days are far more enjoyable than a sweltering hot day, in my humble heatwave-hating opinion.

3. Ugg boots 

Following on from the previous point, autumn provides the ideal weather for my beloved collection of Ugg boots. Dry and cold is the perfect combination for these comfy beauties!

4. Wearing all the layers

Wrapping myself up in a big coat, jumper, hat, scarf and gloves makes me inexplicably happy. I feel a little incomplete in the summer without all my cosy layers and accessories, and autumn's cooler weather also means I've got more items to colour-coordinate. What's not to love?



5. Pretty trees 

I love autumn leaves, whether they're still attached to trees or if they've fallen on the ground. They're beautifully instagrammable, they make me smile, and they can brighten up the dullest of days.

6. Jessie's favourite season 

Autumn is also Jessie's favourite season. The summer is too hot for her as she's got such a thick fur coat, and I felt so terrible for her during the heatwave. She couldn't go for long walks and couldn't even get particularly cool at home, so she's in her element at this time of year.

7. Catching up with friends

I always seem to cram most of my meet ups with friends who don't live locally into the autumn. I caught up with Sarah, Liz and Fee last month and have got another few outings planned for this month, including the annual Christmas shopping trip with my university friends (which generally involves more eating than shopping).



8. Candles 

I light candles all year round, but I love bringing out the autumnal and Christmassy scents once October arrives. Is there anything better than lighting a cinnamon-scented candle and curling up on the sofa in your pyjamas with a hot chocolate and a good book?



9. Hot chocolate 

Talking of hot chocolate... I know I drink a lot of it all year round, but it feels like an extra special treat when I drink it during the autumn months. I had to stay away from hot chocolate during the heatwave which made me even more grumpy!

10. Christmas! 

Once autumn is here, I can officially start my Christmas shopping. Once I've started my Christmas shopping, it's only a matter of time until I can start sneakily adding Christmas touches to the house and digging out my Christmas jumpers. And now that Halloween is over and November is here, it really is nearly Christmas!

What's your favourite season? Are there any other autumnal fans out there? 

My birthday celebrations

Another year, another birthday... I seriously can't believe it's June already. At the risk of sounding like a carbon copy of everyone else, where on earth has this year gone?

My birthday fell on a dreaded Monday this year so I decided to do most of my celebrating the weekend before. The week leading up to my birthday weekend was pretty dull weather-wise, but the sun came out just in time!

We took Jessie for a long walk on Saturday afternoon then went to Etc for an early dinner. Although I've only been to Etc a couple of times, it's quickly becoming one of my favourite restaurants for special occasions.

The sun was still blazing when I was getting ready so I decided to wear one of my brightest outfits to make the most of it.

When you take a look at what I ate and drank on Saturday evening, it's easy to see why Etc has become a firm favourite...

Lavender Fizz - a gin cocktail 

Sweet potato confit, crispy chorizo and sage 

Cauli-meflower (chargrilled cauliflower steak, spiced red lentil dhal, tempura purple sprouting broccoli, caramelised grapes and curry oil)

Etc Berry Mess 

Banana Daiquiri 

'That all looks amazing!' I hear you say (hopefully). And you'd be absolutely right. 

On the Sunday, we took Jessie for another long walk then drove to Joe's Ice Cream on Wellfield Road for the first time in years. I'd never dream of ordering a tub of plain vanilla anywhere else, but I can't resist Joe's vanilla ice cream. It tasted just as good as we remembered, if not better. 

As always, the weekend flew by and it was business as usual on Monday. I had 5 meetings so it was a long day in work, but I had lots of lovely birthday wishes and a couple of cards from my colleagues. I also brought doughnuts and cookies in to the office, and it would have been very rude of me not to sample a few for myself as the birthday girl.

I opened my presents from Neil (and Jessie!) when I got home from work, then we went to Romeo's by the Sea for a quiet meal. We were home by 8:30pm and finished off the evening by sitting down to watch an episode of Homeland, our new series of choice.

Thank you to everyone for your lovely gifts, cards and messages. I had lots of pink and Disney-themed presents and cards as always, and I'll continue to post lots of my gifts on Instagram over the next few weeks.

I'll leave you with one happy thought... 200 days to go until Christmas Day. You're welcome!

Valentine's Day 2016

Although we don't particularly believe in celebrating Valentine's Day, we don't need much of an excuse to go for a nice meal. So, as Valentine's Day conveniently fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to go to The Captain's Wife for their special Valentine's lunch.

I thought it was the perfect occasion to wear my anniversary necklace with my new high-necked top from New Look... I haven't included a photo of my face as I was in the clutches of a horrible cold and no one needs to see that!

As it was such a sunny day, we decided to walk to the pub rather than take the car. It's only two miles or so away from our house so it's a perfectly manageable distance when the weather is nice, and we passed some beautifully Instagrammable views on our way there. We also thought we'd feel (slightly) less guilty about the volume of food we were guaranteed to eat if we burnt off a few calories first.

We'd booked our table for 1:30pm and got shown to our seats straight away. The pub was really busy, as always, but the order for our starters and mains got taken fairly quickly. I went for the tomato soup to start... you can't go wrong with traditional soup and bread!

The soup was very tasty, and our main meals came to the table just as we finished our starters. We both went for the Vintage Sunday Roast Platter which included rump steak, turkey breast and pork loin, as well as all the usual roast dinner trimmings. Although we weren't given the extra gravy promised in the menu which was disappointing, the meal itself was delicious. The parsnips, steak and stuffing were my particular favourites! 

I was full to the brim after my main meal and probably shouldn't have eaten any more. However, dessert was included in the Valentine's lunch offer so I obviously had to go through with it. Our waitress also took half an hour to remember to take our dessert orders which meant I had a bit of time to prepare myself! I chose the apple crumble with custard and it was pretty spectacular. I'm not a big fan of custard and would have preferred an accompaniment of vanilla ice cream, but the crumble was nice enough (and filling enough!) on its own. 

Although the service was pretty disappointing and put us off from visiting again any time soon, we still had a lovely time and both thought the food itself was great. We got wrapped up again and left for our walk home... cue more breathtaking views!

We blitzed a few boring chores when we got home because we're very romantic like that, then we settled in for the night with a bottle of Prosecco and some exciting holiday shopping on the laptop (equally exciting blog post to follow on that). We definitely didn't need any more food for the rest of the day!

How did you spend your Valentine's Day? Hope you all had a good Sunday, whether you believe in celebrating Valentine's Day or not!

Isn't the sky beautiful?

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll already be aware that I'm a bit obsessed with the sky. I've taken some lovely photos of the sky during the last few weeks so I thought I'd share them on my blog.

These photos were all taken on various days at around 5pm when I got to the gym (apart from the last one)... I'm sure fellow gym goers must think I'm crazy when I stand in the middle of the car park and photograph the sky. However, these photographic opportunities were too good to miss and I never cared much about my street cred.

I just love all the different hues and the vast differences in the sky from one day to the next. In my (non expert) opinion, sunset is probably the prettiest time of day. I also think clouds enhance the sky rather than blotting it. We all love a pure blue sky, but it looks pretty boring without a few clouds artistically dotted around to add a splash of contrast.

Do you also love taking photos of the sky? Please reassure me that I'm not alone in this! 

Restaurant review: The Captain's Wife

The Captain's Wife is more of a pub than a restaurant, but I didn't want to disrupt the title of my series! Just humour me...

We visited The Captain's Wife back in November to celebrate our three month wedding anniversary. I'd never been there before but I'd heard lots of good things (particularly about their portion sizes) so I was pretty excited. We decided a few hours before lunchtime that we'd like to give it a go, so we simply went online and booked a table there and then. Hassle-free!

The Captain's Wife is situated in a little village a mile or so from our house so I'm not sure why we've never thought to visit it before. It was a gloriously sunny day which really showed off the restaurant's beautiful surroundings, and I could have stood outside taking photos for hours. However, I love my food too much for this to be a realistic possibility. Ever.

I'd been yearning for a roast dinner for weeks so I opted for their Sunday roast with turkey. This was my first roast dinner since the wedding so my levels of anticipation were very high, and I was absolutely famished (as usual). We didn't have to wait too long for our food even though the restaurant was fairly busy, and the dinner was rather impressive when it arrived...

I was lovingly gazing at the parsnips and roast potatoes so I didn't even notice that there were no vegetables on my plate. They came along in a separate dish which I then added topsy-turvily to my plate, but I made sure I took the 'before' picture as my presentation skills aren't very good when it comes to food!

It was a proper mountain of food but I valiantly ate every morsel, as I'm sure you'd expect from me by now. The roast potatoes were particularly good, as well as the yorkshire pudding. Parsnips are my favourite vegetable in the world so I heartily enjoyed those too. You just can't beat a massive roast dinner!

You'd have thought we couldn't even consider ordering dessert after eating this lot... you thought wrong. I ordered the peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake without thinking twice as the description in the menu was simply salivating. 

Our desserts did take a while to appear from the kitchen but I didn't mind too much when I saw mine. Just look at that sugary chocolatey pile of goodness! I took a photo halfway through to show all the different layers... so tasty. There was a huge layer of cream on the top and a generous helping of chocolate sauce around the edges, as well as a beautiful chocolate base. I'm not even a huge fan of peanut butter when it comes out of a jar, but the layer of peanut butter on the top and the cheesecake mixture itself were just amazing. I (obviously) ate every bit of this course too. 

Needless to say, we'll definitely be back in The Captain's Wife soon. The location is perfect for us and the food was so reasonable considering the sheer volume of it. It was also exquisite! The atmosphere was very homely and family-friendly, and it was just a lovely experience all round with friendly staff and beautiful views from the rustic windows. It also has a seating area outside if you fancied a drink in the sun. This place is just perfect for anniversary meals, birthday occasions or just a normal sunny Sunday. Or a rainy Sunday, but your external photos won't look so nice!  

Have you ever been to The Captain's Wife? Did you also manage two courses...? Let me know what you thought! 

Walking in a (sunny) winter wonderland

Regular readers of my blog will already know that I'm lucky enough to live near Cosmeston Country Park. We had lovely weather in between Chrismas and New Year so we decided to go for a spontaneous walk around the lakes one sunny afternoon.

Believe it or not, we haven't had a chance to go for a long walk together since we got married over four months ago. Having a mortgage seems to take up an awful lot of time (and money)! We made the most of some rare free time, wrapped up warm and went for a leisurely stroll.

I could never go to Cosmeston without taking lots of photos. Here are the best of the bunch:

Have you been on any scenic walks over the Christmas break? I'd love to see your photos so please feel free to send me some links to your picturesque posts. 

Oh, as an aside, I gravely apologise for the unimaginative title of this post. For someone who works in marketing and communications, I don't seem to be very creative when it comes to titles! 

Cardiff Food and Drink Festival 2014

I blogged about the Cardiff Food and Drink Festival last year, and this year's event was just as enjoyable. We visited on the Sunday this year and Cardiff Bay was flooded with glorious sunshine (and hoards of people) all afternoon.

We were ravenous by the time we arrived so decided to find some lunch straight away. I went for the healthiest lunch option I could find... a savoury crépe! I have got a wedding dress to fit into, after all. I went for the Popeye option which was filled with spinach, red onion and ricotta. 

I did think the crépe should have been a bit fuller as I paid £5.50 for it. It did taste lovely though so I won't complain too much. I've also never tried a savoury crépe before so it's something to tick off my list. 

After finishing our lunch, we wandered around the various stalls to try a few free samples and comment extensively on all the tantalising smells. We suffered from a great deal of food and drink envy in the process as we couldn't physically try/buy EVERYTHING. 

One of our favourite stalls was the Chocolate Brownie Company... we just had to sample some of these beauties! Neil bought a selection of strawberry, orange and caramel brownies and they were amazing. 

A visit to a food festival wouldn't be complete without an ice cream... actually, for me, a visit to pretty much anywhere isn't complete without an ice cream. After hearing lots of positive stories about the legendary Sub Zero ice cream at last year's food festival, we decided to try it for ourselves this year. I went for the Caramel Crunch and the Strawberry and can confirm that it lived up to the hype! Definitely the best ice cream I've had for a long time. 

I enjoyed trying lots of free samples of the various jams and chutneys on offer, even though I had no intention of buying any of them at those prices. So much garlicky goodness! I was fascinated by the copious garlic displays... I'm not entirely sure why. I must really love garlic. 

Last but not least, I mustn't forget to mention the many many cheese stands. I used to think I didn't like any type of cheese apart from a very mild Cheddar but I've now (thankfully) been convinced otherwise. There's a whole world of cheese out there! This new-found enthusiasm for cheese resulted in me trying a few wacky flavours at the food festival. I'm a changed woman, clearly. Actually, I refused to pay these prices too so I probably haven't changed that much. 

I'm already researching other food festivals to visit and am looking forward to next year's Cardiff instalment! Did you go to the food festival this year? What was your favourite stall?