My weekend up north

Hello lovelies,

We had a grand weekend up in Ramsbottom in Lancashire, and here's what we got up to.

We left home after James finished work on Thursday. Sometimes we drive straight to a destination, but if we're going to our friends R & M in Lancashire (almost 300 miles) we usually break the journey up. We stayed at a bargain hotel on Thursday and took a leisurely drive through the Peak District on Friday. The highlight of the drive was Stoney Middleton, a small village in the middle of huge towering rocks, with babbling brooks right by the roadside and little caves peeking out from behind the trees. We'd love to explore it on foot some time. We stopped for lunch at a pub we've been to before, the Lamb Inn in Chinley in the High Peaks. It's a cosy pub with friendly staff which does great food. I'd recommend it if you're in the area.

On the journey - a church in Basford, Cheshire/Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire/The Lamb Inn/Stoney Middleton again.


My lunch. I rarely eat healthily when we eat out. It's rare to eat out (we generally only do it on trips away) so I treat myself!


On Saturday we went to explore the local area. We drove most of the way to Bolton and stopped off at Jumbles Country Park, but there was a ferocious wind whipping up off the lake and I get horrific muscle spasms for hours if I stay out in the cold so we headed back to the warm car within about 2 minutes! Ha. After that we went for a drive along all the high parts of the surrounding areas, and we experienced the most changeable weather we've ever seen. Within about half an hour there was sunshine, snow, hail, torrential rain and sunshine again - the photo of me by the lake was taken in the same hour as the photo of me with snow in my hair. After the drive we stopped off in The Railway in Rammy for lunch. I had a cheese pie. James always has chips, so I never take photos of his food. The food was great and the staff were friendly, and it was so warm in there, which was much appreciated as I was freezing. It was much colder in the north and I really felt it, especially with the constant high winds up there. I need a coat made of a duvet. ;)

Our friends' cat KD/Me at Jumbles Nature Reserve/me in Holcombe/lunch in a pub in Ramsbottom

The lake at Jumbles/one of the many beautiful views we saw on our drive

Look at that snowy peak! LOVE.

On the way back from the drive and before lunch we stopped off at Holcombe Emmanuel Church, which has an absolutely beautiful graveyard with views of the Peel Monument, and rolling hills all around. We've never really explored locally on our visits to Rammy before and I fell in love with those rolling hills and snowy peaks. I can honestly say I didn't miss our sea view once.


On Saturday evening some friends came round and we got riotously drunk. I had vodka, chili vodka, Fire Eater cinnamon/whiskey liqueur and pink champagne. We watched R & M's wedding video and laughed and cried (well, I cried anyway!) It was especially sad as we were having fun and R was in hospital with complications from pregnancy, so I felt guilty for having a good time. I only felt tender the next day for about 5 minutes (miracles!) but James was rather ill and had to pray to the porcelain god a couple of times. Oops.

We had a horrible drive home because the weather threw everything at us again - snow, rain, hail, high winds etc. There was also a car crash - 4 lanes on the motorway went down to one. We stopped off in Kent at my aunt's house for tea - she lives right by the M25 - and headed on home after a couple of hours rest, getting home about 9 and a half hours after we first set off. Was it all worth it? Of course! I had a great time -  I got to fuss a cute cat all weekend long and saw some friends I hadn't seen for about 7 months. I just wish R had been there to experience all the fun with us.

So that's my weekend! How was yours?

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

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