Wordless Wednesday – Scarborough

Wordless Wednesday – Whitby

The BEST fish n chips!

I’m off on Holiday!

I’m heading down towards York next week to stay in a lodge by a lake and I can’t wait!

I’ll be away from Monday 20 January until Friday 24 January. Any orders placed in my Etsy shop during this time will be processed from 25 January onwards.

Wordless Wednesday – Longdowne Activity Farm

It’s Time for a Holiday!

I’ve had a pretty busy few weeks (hence the lack of posts) and I can’t wait to go on holiday next week.  We’re heading back down to the New Forest for some well deserved rest.  I’m hoping to go on a couple of day trips to Oxford and Southampton as well as lots of relaxing walks through the beautiful countryside.

This does mean that any orders placed at The Candy Tree between Saturday 14 September and Monday 23 September won’t be posted until Wednesday 25 September.  The relevant processing times will apply to made to order items from Monday 23 September.

I’m planning on taking a couple of knitting and cross stitch projects along with me so I’m sure I’ll have some exciting new goodies to show you on my return.  I’ll also have access to the internet whilst I’m away so feel free to get in touch with any queries and I’ll post the occasional photo on my Twitter feed.

On a separate note, I went to the Leuchars Air Show on Saturday so this week’s Wordless Wednesday will feature a small selection of the photos I took (I snapped around 1,000 photos on the day, so I’m hoping to have managed to get one or two beauties)!

Applecross & Rothiemurchus

As I’m just back from my holiday I don’t have much crafting planned for this week – so this week’s “The Week Ahead” will instead be more of a “The Week Just Gone”!

So we started off our summer adventure by heading off to Applecross, on the west coast of Scotland, for three nights at the campsite.  Applecross is legendary amongst the more adventurous traveller due to the remoteness of the beautiful bay which is seen as the reward to those brave enough to drive over the mountain pass to get there!  The road to Applecross, known as “the Pass of the Cattle” takes you on a single track mountainous trek up Bealach Na Ba which towers 2053 feet above the coast.

Courtesy of Google Maps – A street view of the pass

Although I wasn’t the one doing the driving, I can say that the stress of the road was well worth it!  The coast of Applecross lay before us as we came down the other side of the mountain and we were greeted by a beautiful campsite overlooking the bay.  We spent our time travelling to Skye and going on some picturesque walks in the area.  The local pub, the Applecross Inn also served up the best fish and chips I’ve ever had!

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Instead of braving the mountain pass again, we decided to take the coastal road north of Applecross which also offered up stunning views of the peninsula.  Our next stop would be Rothiemurchus, just outside Aviemore, where we would be spending another three nights at our usual haunt – camping in the woods.  We visit Rothiemurchus every year and I always feel at home when the tent is pitched and I can sit in my chair by the stream with my knitting!

As we’d been to Rothiemurchus so often, we had a slower paced few days with a trip to the Highland Wildlife Park and some lazy walks.  I even managed to squeeze in a massage at the local Thai Lodge 🙂

It’s always good to get back to a proper bed after a camping trip but it was a lovely break and I think it’s going to take a day or two for me to get back to my usual working pace!

Coming up this week – on Wednesday I will be sharing a couple of photos from our trip to the wildlife park.

The Week Ahead – “Summer” Holidays!

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon after having spent the weekend trying to tidy up my jungle of a garden.  It’s still far from perfect but I’m absolutely knackered so that will have to do for now!  I’m definitely not much of a gardener but seeing as my neighbours on either side have immaculate gardens (they’re both retired so have all the time in the world to potter about outside) I felt like I was letting down the neighbourhood with my weedy mess.

Applecross Bay by L Grove

Next weekend however we will be getting ready to head off on our Summer holidays!  We’re not jetting off abroad, but instead driving up to Applecross (on the west coast of Scotland on the mainland across from Skye) for a few days of camping, before heading towards the highlands for a couple of days in Rothiemurchus.  I really can’t wait – we’ve had a busy and emotional few months so it’ll be nice to get a break and some peace and quiet.  Depending on the weather we’re hoping to be able to sit on the beach at night (albeit wrapped up in jumpers) with a bucket barbeque and a bottle of wine while the sun goes down.

This week I’m not planning on doing too much on The Candy Tree.  I’ve been working on a dragonfly cross stitch piece and have a new Red & Black Chunky Beaded Necklace but I doubt either of these will be in the shop before I go.  My shop will remain open while I’m away and I should get some internet access to answer any queries.  Any ready to post orders received up to Saturday afternoon (GMT) on 1st June will be posted as normal before I head off, whereas any made to order/custom orders will be dealt with on my return on Saturday 8th June.

So you won’t hear much from me next week apart from a Thursday Feature which I’ve already scheduled.  However I’ll share some photos of our trip the week after.

Back to The New Forest

I recently went back to The New Forest for a week of beautiful sunshine.

We really tried to make the most of our time and below is a slideshow of the photos I took from my phone.  We visited Beaulieu Motor Museum (which has fantastic James Bond and Top Gear exhibits), Winchester, Salisbury (where I got a photo of Stone Henge through the fence as we drove past) and Poole which is right on the south coast.

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As always, the week passed so quickly but I’m sure we’ll be back to visit again soon!

Hollybobs!

I’m heading back to The New Forest in the first week of September – from the 1st to the 8th and I can’t wait!  We’ll be driving 450 miles which will take about 8 hours…so I’m going to need a lot of sweeties to keep me going!

My shop will remain open whilst I’m away, however any orders made between 31st August and 8th September won’t be dispatched until Monday 10th September.  I will however have access to emails so feel free to get in touch with any questions and I’ll get back to you.

I’m also planning on bringing my knitting needles with me so I should have plenty of new goodies on my return!

My Adventures in The New Forest (which is actually pretty old)

I recently visited The New Forest for a long weekend of glorious sunshine.  It was a great way to escape the horrible gray, rainy weather we seem to have had in Scotland for the past couple of months.  I would be staying at my brother’s house just outside Bartley in the south of England – next to the forest which is shared by wild ponies, cows and other wildlife.  It’s such a tranquil place to visit it would have been the perfect place to relax with my knitting but alas I wasn’t allowed to take my needles on the plane!

The view outside my brother’s house – I’m so jealous!

I was travelling with my mum so our journey started off with a visit to the airport pub.  Our flight was called about 20 minutes before we were due to take off so I figured we had plenty of time to finish our drinks and nip to the loo before boarding the plane (plane toilets scare me).  However, I didn’t realise how far away our terminal was so we ended up being last on the plane which was a little embarrassing (but luckily they hadn’t had to call our names over the tannoy!).

It took an hour to fly down to Southampton so we had another glass of wine on the plane (we were on holiday after all!) and the rest of our travelling went without a hitch.   It had been almost a year since my last visit to the pretty house in the forest so I was excited to pull into the long driveway and see the familiar field of sheep out the front.  We were looking forward to spending the next few days exploring the surrounding towns and villages so we had an early night (after more wine) so we could be up nice and early the next day.

Day 1

What’s left of Bishop’s Waltham Palace

We decided to get a head start on the day by heading out for breakfast and our first port of call was Bishop’s Waltham where we had delicious rolls of bacon and egg in “Stainers” cafe.  Bishop’s Waltham is everything you would expect from an English village – quaint and friendly where everybody seemed to know each other.  It’s the kind of place I would love to live one day and open up a little gift shop for the locals.

After filling our bellies we needed to walk off our breakfast by wandering around the palace which was now a ruin.  We actually drove round in a large circle through the countryside before parking at the ruin across the street from the tea room – my sat nav was being mischievous and we hadn’t spotted it behind the trees!

After clambering over the ruins it was off to Winchester where we wandered through the market before exploring the Cathedral.  I’m not religious in the slightest but I could appreciate the beauty and intricate detail of the building.  The stained glass windows and carved statues all helped to create a moving atmosphere where it was easy to get lost in your own thoughts…until we decided to go down into the crypt to look for zombies.

Winchester Cathedral

Our legs were starting to tire so after we had confirmed that the crypt was in fact full of water and no zombies were to be found we headed for the UK’s oldest pub – The Royal Oak.  It was after midday so we felt it was appropriate to have a drink and rest our legs under the wooden beams of the traditional old tavern.  We didn’t order any food but there were plenty of yummy smells coming from the other tables so it seemed like a good idea to head to the supermarket before home.

It was safe down here – zombies can’t swim…

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing until it was time to head out for dinner.  We were going to The High Corner Inn which is hidden away in the middle of The New Forest.  It has a beautiful beer garden which we enjoyed in the sunshine before heading in for a delicious meal.  The staff were so friendly and really went the extra mile to please.  I guess a restaurant needs to serve amazing food with great staff to survive in the middle of nowhere!

Day 3

We awoke to more beautiful sunshine and decided to head to Beaulieu.  We wandered around this adorable town before going to the fete at the Abbey Church.  I decided to try my luck with some raffle tickets and won a bottle of wine for the evening’s bbq – result!  It was getting rather hot in the sunshine so we wandered back towards the high street for some delicious home-made ice cream at the Beaulieu Chocolate Studio (not before stopping off to say hi to the donkeys!).

It was too nice a day to head straight home so we headed for Hurst Spit next which is a strip of pebbly land which reaches out towards the Isle of Whyte.  It wasn’t until we were about half way along that I realised how exposed we were and I had nothing to protect me from the sun which resulted in some pretty serious sunburn (and an embarrassing array of white lines left by my bag and jewellery!).  We did make it all the way to Hurst Castle though so it felt like quite an achievement – not to mention a great way to burn off the cream tea and ice cream!

Hurst Spit – use suntan lotion!

That evening we were treated to an amazing bbq of rump steak with plenty of yummy side dishes, champagne and a lot of wine!  It was such a pleasant evening that we could sit outside chatting well into the evening and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Day 4

Miraculously I woke up without a hangover – it must have been all of the good food and fresh air that soaked up the alcohol!

Hurst Castle

It was our last day so we were going to take things relatively easy with a car boot sale in the morning where I managed to nab a bag of embroidery thread for only £1 – bargain! The only downside was it was all tangled together so I had hours of unravelling ahead of me!

It was another glorious day so we went for a walk to my favourite pub in The New Forest – The Gamekeeper.  Here we had a leisurely lunch which because of the time of our flight was going to be the main meal of the day.  I enjoyed a massive bacon cheese burger and glass of rose under the umbrella (I was burnt enough already!).  Luckily we had a half hour walk back to the house to burn off all the calories, and I managed to get a power nap in before we had to leave for the airport – it really was the perfect Sunday!

I was sad to be leaving but the weekend had been the perfect mix of exploring and relaxing so I felt content to head back to my own bed.  The frustrating part of our journey was being delayed by over half an hour and getting off the plane to discover that Edinburgh was cold, gray and very windy…the complete opposite of what we had been enjoying over the last four days.

I recommend The New Forest to anyone who has the opportunity to visit.  It has everything you could possible want – friendly people, quaint villages, great food and beautiful surroundings and wildlife.  I’m hoping to head back soon!