Photo Diary: The Cotswolds

Last month I had a short break with my grandma visiting the villages in the Cotswolds district. Yes, it WAS indeed a coach trip and I WAS the only guest under 55, but so what?!

An amazing lunch we had in a tea shop. Had to take a picture, it was gorgeous. 

Stratford-on-Avon. 

Shakespeare's birth place in Stratford. 

I thought their library was pretty - especially in comparison to the one in my town. 

The Jester statue (still Stratford)

Thanks for looking,

Have you been on any trips or holidays recently? :)

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All photos in this post belong to Danielle at cupofloveliness. Thanks.

London trip: Sherlock Holmes & Carnaby Street

Good Morning! Just thought I'd update you with a few things I've been up to these past few weeks.
As my dad works in London, I visited him for a week to 'help out'. Basically, I did pretty much no work and he took a few days off work for us to be proper tourists and visit some of the places in London that I have always wanted to go.

My first impulse being of course the Sherlock Holmes museum in 221B Baker Street! After queuing for almost 2 hours, we explored the several storey house that is basically a replica of a real Victorian place with features to please all Conan Doyle fans. The gift shop is also fantastic - I couldn't resist buying a few bits of merchandise :)

One of  many great tea/cake experiences.

This was my first ever visit to Carnaby Street and I thought it was great. Spent a while in Brandy Melville's lovely boutique, mostly just admiring the wonderful decor (and bought a few things for my holiday to Greece in September too!)

As a self-confessed tea lover, Camellia's Tea House, also in Carnaby, seemed right up my street. While I mostly prefer the normal 'English Breakfast' tea, the variety of teas was immense. If I was feeling risky, some of the options included Brain Tea, Sleep Well Tea, Happiness Tea and even the Bobby Marley blend. However, I fancied a cold drink for once so I opted for their Very Berry Iced Tea, and tried my best to resist their chocolate brownies on display (and failed, clearly). The ice tea was OK, but the brownie was absolutely gorgeous. I'll leave you on that note.

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House/garden inspiration: My grandma's house

Seeing as my grandma and I are both pretty much deranged with idleness (her with sortof-semi-retirement and me with my summer-holiday-with-no-job blues), lately we have been spending many warm afternoons in each other's company. I took advantage of this opportunity to snap some sneaky photos of her fantastic garden and house, which gifted me and my sister many many adventurous days during our childhood. Forget The Secret Garden (although I adore that book), this garden is the absolute business.

Features (in order of appearance):

• The garden shed
• Her lovely conservatory (which we often pronounce as 'con-serve-ah-twar', i.e. the misuse of the word 'conservatoire', because we are Welsh/English folk and therefore use french ironically)
• A tree bench (minus the tree)
• Her new front loveseat area
• Some flowers in full bloom
• A pretentious Roman bust (are all busts Roman? are all busts pretentious? My grandmother is neither, btw)
• An rusty old bicycle-turned-flowerpot
• A handcrafted birdfeeder area (that's safe from cats etc, but allows the birds to come and go freely through the mesh)
• A pond that homes dozens of fish (years ago there was a stepping stone going across this pond, much to the delight of my younger self)

 

 

Thanks for reading,

hope everyone's having a great August so far.

P.S. Why not check out some of my other summertime captures here

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(All photos in this post belong to Danielle at Cupofloveliness)

Photo Diary: Summertime

I'm lucky enough to live around some brilliant nature spots. These are some of my favourite photos that I've taken in the past few weeks during the transition from spring to summer, in locations including my local park and from when I recently visited a public hothouse/wildlife centre with my friends (strange day out, I know).

Thanks for taking a peek. What are your favourite places of nature that you like to visit?

View more on my Flikr

Danielle x

All photos in this post belong to Danielle at cupofloveliness.blogspot.com