Exploring in Sunderland.

Last weekend Dixon, Eva and Me went up to Sunderland to visit Dixons parents. Whilst we were there we went for a walk through the woods with all the pups. It was a kind of dull day, but it was soooo warm! The dogs had a swim and chased some sticks, and I got excited by all the plants that're ready to bloom. We found some wild garlic too! Dixon filled a whole bag and we made garlic bread with it that night, and roasted some veg with in the next day. It was tasted awesome! The floor was covered in mushrooms too, I haven't been able to identify these ones yet though?! The lads and dogs did some climbing! Eva was the best at it. And at the end we walked to the top of a huge hill which had an amazing view. It was a good day!

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Searching for signs of Spring.

Every year, around this time, when it starts to get a little bit warmer I go to the woods every chance I get in the hope of it being full of snowdrops and bluebells. I've done it 3 unsuccessful times already this year... but this weekend I was sure I'd be the day. Some flowers are starting to show on the streets but in the woods? NOTHING. Well, a few green bits poking through and the birds are definitely letting us know its Spring. But other than that, it's definitely still pretty bare. As much as I love the Autumnal look, I'm over it for this year. Come on Spring! I want to press some flowers.

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Outside on Film

These photos have no running theme, really. They're taken in Leeds and back at my parents in South Yorkshire over the space of a month(ish) but I'm so happy with how they came out I really wanted to share them. I carry my Olympus XA almost everywhere and I'm trying to get into the habit of taking photographs of anything that I like the look of. This batch is a pretty good example of that! I love taking photographs of trees (which you can see from this older post), the second portrait photo of the peeling bark tree is my probably a favourite of any photo I've ever taken. I really love the shadows in the one of Dixon throwing a ball for Eva and the flare on the Keep Out tree is amazing. Getting film developed will never not excite me.

 

Camera: Olympus XA // Film: Expired 2006, ISO 200.

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Dale Farm, Hunmanby.

Last week we packed up and headed out, three trains later we arrived in a tiny village called Hunmanby, North Yorkshire and to our little log-cabin for the next few days. The cabin was perfect. The log-burner totally made it. I have never wanted anything in my life as much as I want a log-burner right now. This post is kind of picture heavy, so click through!

Foraging - Take 2

Last year I went on a foraging walk, and this weekend Dixon, Eva and me set out to go and find the apple trees I was shown back then! I could hardly remember where they were, we went wrong a few times. BUT, I actually learnt loads on the walk last year which meant I spotted a load of other things on the way so it totally didn't matter! I was SO happy with some of the things we found. Its still a little early in the year but we found rosemary, red clove, rose hips (that weren't ripe yet!), sea-buckthrone (which we tried, and regret not picking), a tonne of blackberries, mushrooms, horse-radish then, finally, a loooad of apples. The orchard was a lot more over-grown than it was last year, so we missed it a couple of times! Having a 6foot+ Dixon with you when you're fruit picking is definitely an advantage. 

I'll be sharing some recipes soon on what we did with our finds! Dixon really wants to make blackberry wine but it can take years to be ready to drink. We want to give cider a go too! I'm definitely going to make an apple sauce, blackberry jam and I've no idea what to do with the horseradish yet! But I'm sure I'll figure something out. Go nature!

^^ We didn't pick these because we weren't 100% sure what they were! ^^

^^ I spotted the Horseradish bush! And Dixon pulled out some of the root! ^^

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Williamson House Butterfly House.

A rained off trip to the beach turned into a trip to a butterfly house. I loved the butterfly house, all those beautiful colourful insects flying around, but it definitely made me skittish. I am not a huge fan of moths. And, moths and butterflies are pretty similar. So, Williamson House Butterfly House, its an Edwardian glass building and pretty impressive, although small. They had a pretty good selection of butterflies and moths, a little house for the pupa too (which was amazing), a few quails handing around and water running around the outskirts with terrapin and koi swimming around. I tried to remember as many names of the butterflies as possible.... but didn't do too well. 

The Owl Butterfly; see the owl eye on its wing!? 

The Atlas Moth, this photo doesn't portray how MASSIVE it is, super beautiful but ever so giantly creepy.

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