A sweet potter

I'm a SIMPLE sort really.  As long as i get plenty of sleep and i've got a full tummy then there isn't much else i care for to make me HAPPY.  I'm not one for galavanting to far-flung places {not at the moment any how - maybe one day the wanderlust bug will catch me} or spending my weekends being fancy pants or extravagant.  What i really like to do is just POTTER:  Meander, mose-y about or TOOTLE slowly around and about and explore some hidden little treasure close to home.  I guess we are lucky in that we have plenty of little treasures not too faraway from our sweet doorstep.  And if i don't fancy doing that, well then i'm quite content just exploring new streets and sweet routes on my two-wheels.  Last weekend though, i discovered that garden-envy was definitely a 'thing' and that my sweet-peas were not as grand or as great as i'd kept telling them that they were.  The photo above shows you just that!  As it turns out sweet-pea envy is totally a 'thing' too…must try harder next year!  
Last Sunday we took ourselves on a little ADVENTURE to a food festival nestled just outside the town of Penrith and in the grounds of a beautiful old country house called Dalemain.  And, predictably; became far more excited by the site of a HUGE and whopping open to the public-type garden than we did the actual food festival itself - lovely as it was.

{You could smell these roses before you could even see them!  Why don't roses smell this way anymore? }

{The prettiest greenhouse that you ever did see and then me and my knobbly knees and tatty jeans!} The gardens were filled to the BRIM with all kinds of weird and wonderful greenery that my little eyes had never even set eyes on before.  There were pear trees and the TWIRLIEST most wonderful of apple trees twisting their ways prettily up the ancient walls that housed the beautiful garden.  What i fell in LOVE with most though, aside from all of the pretty colours and sweet-peas that almost felt as tall as little sky-scrapers in comparison to mine, was the old and crumbly old-fashioned greenhouse hidden right at the back. It was SO full of charm and was surrounded and part-concealed by the lovliest-leafy wall of greenery.  I couldn't get close enough to see what was hidden away inside or even if the pretty greenhouse was still in use now {the sweetest little sign above was also a hint that maybe i was a little closer than i should have been anyway!} but i imagined sweet vine tomatoes curling up its insides or pots of summer-sweet berries sitting ready to be picked.  It looked just as i might have imagined a Victorian greenhouse from years gone by to have looked.  Ladies might have sat, embroidery on their skirted-knees or TWIRLING their summer parasols, whilst gardeners worked away in this sweet spot.  You can have all of your modern bits and bobs but isn't there something ever so LOVELY about getting a little bit lost in the past sometimes…?

{The sweet-pea skyscraper in question!}

We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from exploring the magical little garden and the house {we were short of time but vowed that next time we must explore the insides of the house and not just the garden!!} and re-visited the food festival, filling up on warm toasted pitta-bread piled high with salad, homemade falafels and the most generous scoop of delicious hummus, from the most beautiful little van hidden away at the very back of the field.   *  * *   It was a pretty perfect way to spend the end of the weekend. It didn't even matter that the sun decided to stay away because so did the rain which looked like it wanted to drench us from the get-go!

{The sort of sunsets that all of the dreams are made of!} And despite the angry skies all day, the end of the day turned out to be really rather BEAUTIFUL after-all!  We are always so LUCKY with the skies out of our little flat.  Whilst the weather this summer-time has been less than ideal, we've really been treated to some magical sunsets.  Which sort of makes up for it…kind of!  
Have a WONDERFUL week dear ones!  And remember to stop back through on Wednesday for my dear sweet #wonderfulwednesday nonsense!