What I Wore 28th September

I took a better photo of the dress I was wearing when we went to Stratford. There were two full length mirrors in the cottage's bedroom, one of which was facing the bed, which I didn't really like and which terrified me, ha. But I liked the other one, in the doorway. Useful for outfit photos!

I bought this dress at the beginning of the summer from Crazy Clearance. It's a J D Williams dress originally. It has a nice v neck and a circular back, and a hanky hem. I could wear this without leggings, and have done, but I put them on because it wasn't that warm of a day and I knew we'd be outside a lot.

I love the paisley pattern and the colours. There's orange and brown and yellow and pink and green, and I love the overall effect. I've had a lot of compliments on this dress which is great as it didn't cost me very much! 

I wore it with a black cotton shrug that I've had forever because the dress is sleeveless and I prefer to have something on my arms. 

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 3

The Monday of our holiday was Shakespeare day! I've never been to Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was from, although I've always wanted to go. So when I knew that's where we were going, I knew immediately I wanted to see some of the tourist stuff.

Thanks to Covid-19, only one of the Shakespeare locations is open currently, and that's his birthplace on Henley Street in the town centre. All five locations are owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and as tourist numbers are so down, they've decided to only open one location to keep costs down. It makes economic sense to me, but it's a shame because I wanted to see Anne Hathaway's cottage too! Oh well, we'll just have to go back in a couple of years or something and visit then!

We had to pre book our tickets, so we decided on 11 o'clock for our tour. They're not guided tours, so you can spend as long as you like there, within reason. We had breakfast in our cottage to start off with then set off. Thanks to reduced numbers we were able to park in a car park just at the end of Henley Street, which was perfect. We got into the visitors' centre at 11am, along with around six other people. They're obviously limiting numbers.

There's a bit about Shakespeare to begin with, including his family tree which I really liked, and then you go through into the garden. It's maintained beautifully. There's a really cool mural there too about all of Shakespeare's works, which I could have spent ages looking at. 

The house itself is so cool. You start off in what was Shakespeare's sister's house - just a simple one up one down. Then you go into the hall, where the family would've eaten. The end of the house is where John Shakespeare had his glove shop. It's really cool as he would have sold them out of the window, which I really liked the idea of. He had apprentices and they slept in the attic rooms.

Upstairs there's a room where lots of visiting people used to sign their names on the walls. These people include Charles Dickens and loads more people you'd have heard of! Most of the name got painted over, which is a shame. Then there's the room Shakespeare was actually born in! He was the oldest surviving child of his parents and had several siblings. 

The house was several things over the years, including an inn, before the Trust took it on in the mid 1800s, helped by Charles Dickens who wanted to help preserve this piece of history. I really liked seeing the whole thing, and all the staff were friendly and helpful. We went into the gift shop too and I bought presents for some friends and some postcards for myself. Everything was very spaced and safe within the whole site.

After this we went into a coffee shop for a drink. I had spiced chai! Now I am not a tea drinker at all, but I know that I do like spiced chai when it's really milky and delicious, so I ordered one. It was gorgeous! We went in a few shops buying souvenirs but then went to see Anne Hathaway's cottage.

It was obviously shut but we took photos outside, and then also went to Mary Arden's farm (that's Shakespeare's mum). It's also closed so again we just took photos. They were doing some work on it. We went back into Stratford to eat a picnic by the river. 

We went back to the cottage and again went swimming before a shower and pyjamas. Lee made pan haggerty for tea which I've blogged about before, it's a north east dish which has many variations but Lee makes his grandma's. She was from Northumberland and hers is just onions, potatoes, butter, and cheese. It's not difficult but it is quite labour intensive which is why Lee makes it on holiday when he has time to! We ate it with vegan sausage rolls. 

Finally, I took loads of crafting stuff with me on holiday so I could choose what to do. I made a granny square for the blanket I'm making for my cousin. 

This advert was on the side of one of the buildings in Stratford. There's a lot of cute stuff there as they're used to tourists

This map was really helpful. Where Shakespeare lived is no longer there, but there's a garden there now, on New Place

I liked this statue of a jester 

Just inside the exhibition

The family tree

These were the murals outside, I loved them

The back of the house

One of the windows on to the street

The room Shakespeare was actually born in!

People were shorter back then, as demonstrated by me standing in a doorway

The garden

This is on the path on the way out of the gift shop

Chai! And a hot chocolate for Lee

Statue of Shakespeare

I was waiting for Lee to come out of a shop and managed to get this shot of NO ONE in front of the house. How amazing is that? I bet you couldn't do this in peak times/pre-Covid

The back of Anne Hathaway's cottage

And the front. I really want to go back and go in 

Mary Arden's farm - to the right of this is a real Tudor farm that is still working, which I would also like to see

Pan haggerty

And my granny square in this gorgeous turquoise yarn!

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 2

On the Sunday of our holiday we went to Warwick. We were only a few miles away and I knew it was a nice town, so we went along and parked right in the city centre. We went into a couple of shops, but most things were closed so we couldn't go far. We looked at a couple of places for lunch, but as I'm vegetarian it can be more difficult. We ended up at Dough & Brew and sat outside in the sunshine which was lovely.

I wanted the vegetarian breakfast but they didn't have any avocado which kind of made it pointless, so I changed my order to a pizza indtead. I also had a really good vanilla milkshakes. Lee had a chicken club sandwich which was the hugest sandwich either of us had ever seen. It was a nice lunch.

On our way back to the cottage we stopped at Hatton Locks to look at the canal. There's a nice walk up the locks there, and a cafe, but we didn't go far. There are 21 locks in all! There were a couple of narrowboats going through so we stood and watched them. I love canals and all the engineering involved. The process of highering or lowering the level of water to get a boat through is just mindboggling! 

We got back to the cottage and went swimming, then had a shower and got into our pyjamas before making veggie meatballs in a peppercorn sauce with pasta for tea. It's a cheat's Swedish meatballs, as the sauce came from a packet, but it was delicious and easy, which was perfect. 

I spent a lot of the week absolutely exhausted, because I just couldn't seem to sleep in the cottage bed at all. It didn't feel uncomfortable, but I just kept waking up and didn't sleep for very long at a time. Plus with a lot of swimming and walking, I kept saying I needed to come home for a rest! But Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We watched a film in the evening and I did some cross stitch. 

Oh, I did a bullet journal spread to write things down about the holiday. I'm not a traditional bullet journaller but I do love using stickers and making weekly to do lists. I love how this turned out - it looks fab.

How old is this parade of shops in Warwick?! I loved it

Vanilla milkshake

Lee

Me!

My pizza, I think it was goat's cheese and mushroom

Lee's massive sandwich

A boat coming down Hatton Locks, from the higher water to lower

You can see just how low the water was at the other side of this gate - the change needed was about twelve feet!

And this boat once it was through! 

Another boat coming up the locks - she had already been through about fifteen gates!

Manoeuvring through the narrow gate

Veggie meatballs with peppercorn sauce and pasta

Here's my lovely bujo layout!

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 1

Lee and I went away at the end of September for a week. We had been thinking about it for ages as lockdown restrictions were easing; we often go away at the end of September/beginning of October as there's no kids around which is great for us. We really wanted a pool because as I've said we really miss swimming, so we looked on all the booking sites filtering for places that had a pool. We weren't bothered where in the UK we went as long as it had a pool and that pool wasn't shared between many people, as that didn't seem very safe. We saw this cottage in Warwickshire, located between Warwick and Stratford, and it seemed perfect. There are two cottages on the site, and the owners' house, so the pool wouldn't be shared between many people at all. So we booked it and then set off on the last Saturday in September. We've never been to Warwickshire so that was exciting, especially as it meant we could go to Stratford upon Avon. 

We put the kittens into the cattery as we couldn't find anyone to look after them. But, it was nice enough and the owner played with them quite a bit and said they were fine, so we would do it again. We couldn't get into the cottage until 3pm so we didn't set off until a bit later in the day. We also did what we've done on a few previous holidays and bought a big chocolate cake from a bakery in our village to take with us for pudding each day. We had already planned our meals and had shopping delivered, which was perfect.

We got to the cottage, near Rowington, around 3pm. We got in and unpacked a little bit and then decided to go swimming straight away. The pool was absolutely gorgeous! It was in a building that had been a barn. You went in and up some stairs and there was a tiny gym area, then down a couple of steps to the pool. It was long enough to swim in, and at the deep end it was about two metres deep. It also had a bunch of rubber rings and toys, which was nice. We could use it whenever we wanted and as I said, we thought we might have to share it. But there was no one in the other cottage to ours, and we heard the owners in the pool on the Saturday evening but otherwise I don't think they used it at all. So we had it to ourselves and it was safe to use as there was no one else around!

I had, hoping that we wouldn't have to share the pool, taken a bikini along with me to wear. This purple bikini top is underwired like a bra, but also really comfortable. It has a snap back and I love it. I wore it with bikini bottoms with watermelons on! It was so nice to wear the whole ensemble. 

We had bits for tea in the evening and then the cake. It was gorgeous - four layers with white icing and chocolate ganache in the middle. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We watched a film and basically relaxed.

On our way to Warwickshire!

The bedroom in the cottage. The bathroom was en suite and had a barn door which was the most annoying thing ever

The beams in the living room, the cottage had obviously previously been a barn

Bikini! I think this top is a Flirtelle one, I've had it years but don't get to wear it often

The pool! The cottage bedroom wall attached to the end wall here

Me floating - blissful

The cake! I feel like this photo does not give you the size of it

There were tny meringues on top

And a slice cut to show you the layers