easter feasts

Easter Sunday is a thing I really love. Having worked practically every Sunday (minus the 4 or 5 weeks of holiday I get per year..) since I was like, 17, I really enjoy getting Easter off. I did have to do a horrible shift yesterday, though, in which I chipped my tooth (on the most inconvenient bank-holiday weekend when NO dentists are open!) so I feel that I really deserve this day off. Anyway, Easter isn't anything, really, without Rice Krispie nests - I had to go to three different stores to try and find mini-eggs because apparently they were sold out everywhere on thursday? What is up with that. Anyway, they're the laziest 'cake' to make, but they looked cute in these giant Ikea cake cases I had lying around.

This week, my younger brother is back from uni, and my older bro and his girlfriend are popping by for lunch today, so I'm looking forward to a lunch-time roast with the family and Easter chocolate and chilling with absolutely nothing to do all day except try not to cut my mouth on what feels like the fang I have. Now I'm off to read some books, do a bit of knitting, eat Lindt bunnies and roast veg and probably have an afternoon nap like on Christmas day, haha.

Happy Easter if you're into that, if not, enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

an edinburgh getaway - town

I recently came back from a far too brief visit to Edinburgh. I've been struggling a lot with my mood of late (as I do every January and February - they are bad months for me) and it was a great little trip to take my mind off a few things. It's been somewhere I've wanted to visit for such a long time, and finally got the chance too. Me and a friend managed to squeeze in a lot in the two and a bit days that we were there, but I really enjoyed it, overall. It was a very beautiful city that I could really see myself living in, in the future... 

These photos are from the first day we got there, we walked up to the castle and the sun was setting over the city, stopping in St. Giles Cathedral on the way back. It was great to see the city on the first day like that, thankfully we were staying just off the Royal Mile so it was a really good place to get to-and-from locations. 

So it wasn't exactly a 'winter sun' break, but we were very lucky with the weather and it was a lovely little time away.

continental jaunt - bruges

(all photos are mine, not to be used without my permission)

Last Friday me and some friends went to Bruges for the which was perfectly Christmassy and just lovely. Cold, and a long travel and a very early start, but worth it for the beautiful architecture - I've never been further north than Paris, so I haven't any German, Dutch or Flemish cities before, and I think I'm completely hooked, I have to say. Whilst Italian and French towns have a certain distinct beauty, there is something about the Gothic buildings there that I really loved, and the gabled buildings they have that look just like those in Amsterdam. Anyway, we had a great time, visiting the chip frites and chocolate museum and walking along the canals and looking in an amazing Christmas store that had the most fantastic baubles and eating frites and drinking gluhwein.
Anyway, I highly recommend it if you ever go - I don't think you could spend very long there but it would be a beautiful weekend away or something, so definitely worth a look!

all roads lead to the beach

So I am here in Devon, and it feels like I am home. It is weird how that happens, isn't it? My parents used to drag us here every year when I was little, and I always felt like I was missing out because my parents never took us anywhere 'exciting' like Disneyland Florida or Majorca... it makes me laugh now to think like that! I love this corner of the world, it feels so perfect and like nothing has changed. The small little high-street of the main town and the walk down the lane to the beach are exactly the same: and the sea.. Coming round the corner on the slightly terrifying coastal road and seeing the water stretch out in front to the island.. It's bittersweet, in that I am not a happy little carefree child anymore, content to make sandcastles - and so much has changed since then.. but it's still the same lovely place and I am so happy to be here. I wish my older brother could be here too, but unfortunately he couldn't make it. I am tucked up in bed writing this, but wondering what I can get up to tomorrow..