A HUGE photo catch up from the last few weeks if you'd like to see {the beginning of May until now}, I've been rubbish with blogging recently - whilst I've had some spare time waiting for this baby to arrive, I just haven't really felt like opening up my laptop. So anyway, a huge photo dump of happy memories for me to look back upon - alas they're not really in any order but I've kind of given up minding right now. You've probably seen most of these on Instagram/stories but I wanted to have them on here too. And er, sorry not sorry for the amount of bump photos it includes, she's just getting so big that I want to capture it at every stage! Also, can we talk about this crazy amount of rain we've been having? Looking back on these photos makes me seriously miss the rare sunny, warm days that we have had so far. And I feel like most of these photos could be captioned 'before it started pouring down'. Please come back soon summer! 

On Easter Monday, we kind of gatecrashed my parent's week away and all drove up to Norfolk with the pup. We just went for a night but managed to fit all of our favourite spots into just two days. I'm sure long time readers of this blog will know just how much we adore this part of the country, and have visited a few times over the past few years. It's so laid back, has so much to do in a small-ish area, isn't too far from where we live compared to Devon/Cornwall and has the best mix of beaches, countryside and gorgeous towns along with really great local produce. It's also remarkably quiet even on a sunny hot Easter Monday compared to say, the beaches on the South Coast. It's still our absolute dream to buy a cottage to renovate in Norfolk one day, but until then we'll enjoy going back each year I hope. You can find my past guides on Norfolk online here and this full feature on Little Norfolk Cottage where we stayed for the first time last August online here. It's so perfectly located for all the best spots of North Norfolk, and is really beautifully done up {my Husband loves the old fashioned sweets it comes with too ha}. My Parents had booked it after seeing our stay last year, and Zara very kindly offered us a discounted stay for returning.  - There's 10% off stays at the cottage between the 3rd June-29th September 2019 with the code BEACHHUT.

I guess you already know by now that I'm always one for a Birth-week instead of a single day. I love to stretch out the celebrations for as long as possible so this year was no different. Just little traditions spread out that make it feel extra special. And this year I feel particularly grateful and emotional about everything, being pregnant and this last Birthday before everything changes! Photos below if you'd like to see.

You know when things get a little crazy, just life/work wise and just in general if you've had a bit of a blah time for various reasons? But then you have a weekend that can change everything?! Yep. That. Last weekend restored all. And so I wanted to share some photos of our sunny Saturday in Bushy Park, the first day that it felt properly cold, seeing the stags, having a lunch date in Five Guys and then an afternoon on the sofa finishing Informer {aka the best series we've watched in a long long time}. And then on Sunday, taking our parents up to Columbia Road Flower Market before a roast at Shoreditch House. Watching the sunset over the skyline of our favourite city in the world. London. And just feeling really, really happy. THAT. <3 

new shoes online here. SO comfy

Hello November! And wow, wasn't that October beautiful? I think I've mentioned before how I kind of miss writing my weekly updates and weekend posts on here but with Instagram stories these days, I share most photos and updates on there. As they're pretty temporary I like to still document the month's musings on the blog so a few more photos from October below before I clear my ever-growing camera roll. If you'd like to see...

It's Halloween tomorrow {!!} and it's suddenly just crept up on me. If you know anything at all about me, I'm sure you know what a huge pumpkin lover I am. In fact, just a huge halloween lover in general. Spooky houses, fun costumes, pumpkins and pumpkin spice everything please. I'm slow in blog writing this October {have probably spent too much time on Instagram instead...} so please forgive me, but I wanted to get these photos up before this month of the pumpkin ends.

Last week, Claire Graham {you might remember her coming to shoot our house this summer for her lifestyle blog Coco Lane? Which you can see here}, followed Ben & I around some of our favourite North London spots for a sunny morning, and snapped away. The idea was that she'd create a little lifestyle feature for Coco Lane and we'd have some photos of us doing what we do best, wandering around our favourite city in our favourite season. It was a really fun day with her and I'd love to share the photos below, if you'd like to see? 

I adore Claire's photographic style, her eye for detail, her camera and editing work, her natural vibe that made us forget at times she had a camera. We joked that it felt like an engagement shoot all over again! We started at Panzer's deli, which makes us feel like we've gone to New York for a couple of hours and is full of pumpkins at this time of year then walked through St John's Wood across to Primrose Hill. This area of London will always feel special to us, as we spent a few years living in Maida Vale so these areas are our old haunts and somewhere we constantly return to throughout the seasons for a weekend wander. Like a selection of villages in the big city, with views out from Primrose Hill. I really love the way that she's captured us, we haven't had any photos together for ages, and the small things like our feet in the leaves, or me taking a photo for Instagram. I can't recommend Claire Graham more if you're looking for a photographer. <3

Last week I took Ben for a bit of a different date at Belmond's Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire. It's somewhere that's been on our bucket list for a long time with our love of both food and gardening. Famed for Raymond Blanc of course, the two michelin starred restaurant and expansive kitchen gardens which were way ahead of their time before the trend for growing your own produce came about. As well as the restaurant and it's famous Raymond Blanc cookery school, there's also the Gardening School which we were there for to learn more about growing our own vegetables and make the most of our allotment plot.

I'm sure you know by now just how crazy I am about flowers. I love growing them, buying them, and having them in my home. But what I was really lacking were the skills for arranging them or knowing the best vases to display them around the house or having the confidence to create my own arrangements. So imagine my delight when last week I got an email from Philippa Craddock {one of my favourite London florists and of course the florist for this year's wedding of the year, Harry & Meghan! Remember that arch?!} inviting me along to one of her flower workshops taking place this summer in London. I jumped at the chance, a real treat of a day to spend in Shoreditch learning all things flowers. 

A few photos from that ridiculously sunny day where we played hooky before our anniversary a couple of weeks back and spent the day reading by the lake and revisiting Daylesford {two of our favourite ever places}. You know me and sharing photos by now to know that I couldn't resist posting these that I couldn't fit into our anniversary post yesterday....

England is at her very very best right now. We're two weeks into a heatwave that shows no sign of shifting, full sun and 28c+ on the weather for the next ten days. No cloudy skies, no muddy fields, no grey. I LIVE for days like these. When you wake up and can smell the heat in the air already, you pull out clothes you normally only wear on holiday, you have so much energy and want to be up and out, savouring the outdoors. You cover over 20k steps daily without even trying, you pick summer produce from the allotment, you eat summery berries, frozen watermelon, you BBQ, this is no time for proper cooking that will make you hot. You enjoy the garden you've worked so hard to create, you eat dinner alfresco, hell you eat breakfast and lunch alfresco as much as you can, you go on picnics, you go to the markets, you sunbathe and soak up the Vitamin D, your skin goes brown and you wear sun hats and picking up your sunglasses on the way out the door becomes second nature. You only wear socks to run, instead picking out sandals each day, your legs haven't been covered in weeks. You sleep with the windows wide open, waking up to that bright sunlight as the sun rises at 4am every morning. You feel like you're on holiday in your own garden. You have less spare time and you sleep less {longgg light days}, battling to keep the garden watered and fit the allotment in but you wouldn't swap it for the world. You know it won't last forever. But that makes it all the more special. Please stick around summer! {and if you're reading this in Winter on one miserable February day where summer feels world's away, KNOW that this will come around again}. - note to readers, this is full of photos I've shared on my Instagram stories over the past few weeks for me to look back on, but I warn you it's full of countryside photos that might be boring to some! But I just can't get enough of those views. 

I'm in the middle of writing up the travelogue from our couple of nights in Cornwall last week so in the meantime, here's some photos of when we stopped off in Bristol on the way home - well Clifton in particular. In which I fell in love! It helped that it was such a glorious day, England at her finest. Bright blue skies, a sunny Saturday, the trees all green and leafy, everyone sitting outside brunching, young beautiful cool couples wandering hand in hand, people buying BBQ gear, picnicking, enjoying the summer. If only we lived closer or in Bristol! When you think about it, it's just 2 hours from Cornwall, 2 from London give or take, near to the Cotswolds, on the coast, near Bath, such a perfect location. But I think I'm getting carried away. We won't leave our beloved Hertfordshire or house for a long time but Bristol just seems SO cool. It was the perfect half way stop off on our journey home and the perfect way to extend our trip a little. We were also here for Wahaca after seeing their new menu launch on Instagram earlier in the week. A dreamy Saturday all round! 

Last bank holiday, we'd planned to be mainly at home other than going out for a couple of BBQ's we'd been invited to. Yet Saturday came around and was far hotter than we expected so we decided to be spontaneous and jumped in the car for a trip to Mersea Island {remember this post?}. 

I'm sure you know what a huge fan of Chelsea Flower Show I am after these past posts? Last week I was lucky enough to be invited with Joules for the day and I thought I'd share a few photos, and some of the gardens which inspired me this year.

A long-overdue photo catch up from the past few weeks! Picnics, Royal Weddings, Summer Dinners and all...