Visiting York

Travel

//Hiya,

Last week I took some time out of work to visit Yorkshire with my family and, while I was there, me and my boyfriend decided to spend a day in York ❤

The house we were staying in had a massive mirror in the hallway and I could not resist taking a photo (this was actually in the evening after we returned from York. It was a very soggy and wet day and I needed a green tea to get warm!).

The night before we Googled bakeries and found this really nice one that sold really good looking pastries. We were hoping for a pain au chocolat but they had sold out when we arrived, as we never ended up getting there until 2pm (oops)…so we got a couple of tasty croissants and fresh orange juice ❤ (they were very good btw).

Then we headed to ‘Diagon Alley’…or at least the Alley that Diagon Alley is based on! It was BUSY, but very very cute. It has very old crickety houses like the one above and lots of shops dedicated to, you guessed it, Harry Potter. I made sure to grab a few post cards.

The funny thing is that I have no idea whether the Alley always has pumpkins, black cats, and broom sticks all over the place because of Harry Potter or because it happened to be Halloween?!? Does anyone know?

Either way, it was really fun visiting at halloween because it was very on theme lol.

The Alley also had this cute Bao Bun shop and…omg…it was too cute. Didn’t go in because the queue was literally taking up the whole street, but they looked delicious.

Finally, while we were walking about we came across an Italian restaurant that was in an old girls school building. It smelt so good when we were walking past that we decided to eat there and it was a great choice. The place was stunning and the food was SO SO good.

We ordered starters and mains. I had breaded Brie (below) and then risotto balls and Harrison had calamari and pork belly. It was insane how much they gave us as the starter was like a main course on its own. We were both rolling out of there we were that full (in the best way of course).

We then headed back to the house and spent the rest of the evening watching movies in bed. A day well spent…//

~Charlotte x

Autumn Leak and Potato Soup

Food

//Hiya guys,

I thought I would pop on here and share with you the recipe for the tastiest leek and potato soup I made recently ❤ .There’s something about Autumn that just makes me want to cook really hearty food…Am I the only one? I just love to be cosy and warm, having a warm bowl of freshly made soup while I light a candle and watch T.V. It’s just the best thing in the world to me in the autumn months!

So…the other day I went to Curry’s and got a hand blender (I like my soups thick and hearty) and did a leak and potato soup and, guys, it was out of this world. Seriously. And it was so so easy to make (I’ll link the recipe below).

Here’s everything I used in one photo:

  1. 3 Large Leeks
  2. 5 Large Potatos
  3. Butter (I used vegan butter to make the soup vegan)
  4. Lemon Juice
  5. Bay leaves
  6. Fresh Coriander
  7. Dried Rosemary
  8. Dried Thyme
  9. Olive Oil
  10. 1 Large Onion
  11. Salt and Pepper
  12. 1 Can of Coconut Milk
  13. 1 Veggie Stock Pot
  14. Garlic

Firstly, I added the butter, olive oil and a bit of salt before throwing in the leeks and onion and sautéing them for 5 mins or so. I then chopped and added the potatoes, garlic, rosemary, and thyme. I saved the coriander until last as I used fresh coriander and did not want it to loose its taste by adding it too quickly (Make sure you wash the leeks well as they tend to have a lot of dirt buried inside!).

Once the potatoes and leeks have simmered for 5-6 mins, I added the veggie broth by adding one jug of hot water to a veggie stock pot. I like my soup quite thick, so if you wanted it runnier than in the image below, I’d recommend a jug and a half or even two jugs of broth. Once the broth was added I also threw in 2 bay leaves and added salt and pepper. I then let it simmer for 15-20 mins until the potatoes were fork tender.

Once the potatoes were tender, I removed the soup from the heat and removed the bay leaves. I then added the coconut milk, lemon juice, and coriander before I got out my *new* hand blender and blended it all together until smooth.

It was then ready to serve!! I had a bowl right after I finished blending it and also had some the following days, but I have to admit it tasted the best right after I made it (so so good). It’s also recommend you garnish it before serving with some spring onion, croutons, or pieces of potato (saved before blending).

I really recommend giving this soup a go as it’s really simple to made and tastes amazing. If I can make it, you can!

Here’s the recipe I used: https://veganhuggs.com/creamy-vegan-potato-leek-soup/

All for now,

~Charlotte x

Lost Gardens of Heligan

Travel

Good morning,

Welcome to PART 3 of the Cornwall content ❤

During my recent visit to Cornwall one of my favourite places to visit was the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

It was around a 40min drive from where we were staying and, like the rest of the week, we had the most beautiful weather when we visited. Above is me having just woke up and put my make-up on (not a morning person!!).

The gardens sit in the grounds of a privately owned estate and it is huge. There are flowers everywhere, lots of open fields to walk through with tents hosting countryside games and activities, woodlands, lakes, greenhouses…it’s really beautiful and there is so much to see! It look us around 4 hours to walk around the gardens.

They even have cafes and restaurants dotted around that you can grab a coffee and some lunch at <3. I really liked the one below – I had a chai latte of course!

They had one section called ‘The Jungle’ where they had tropical plants and trees surrounding this lovely lagoon. I couldn’t get over how blue the water looked ~

We sat on a bench under some trees here and just enjoyed the lake as it was so so warm out while we were there. (It’s currently raining as I’m writing this…)

It was such a lovely day and I’m so glad I visited. 10/10 would go back again. Something fun to note is that if you pay to enter once – you can come back as many times as you want for the rest of the year for free :). I wish this place was on my door step as I would love to spend the summer having picnics here with friends and family and using it for my after work walk!

~ Charlotte x

The Eden Project

Travel

Hello guys, happy Monday ❤

Welcome to PART 2 of the Cornwall content!

While in Cornwall in June I visited the Eden Project. I’ve wanted to visit the Eden Project for many years since I learnt about it while in school as a child, and I FINALLY got to see it.

Here I am morning of the visit enjoying my new bucket hat and fresh tan ~

In the below photo you can see my new (ish) sandals from Inuikii which is a Swedish designer footwear brand that I absolutely love! They do the nicest summer sandals ever and their snow boots are out of this word. I’ll link them here if you wanna check them out: https://inuikii.com

In love with these sandals. They never rubbed me the entire day either which is unheard of for me and my unreliable feet…and we did a lot of walking too.

As a bit of context, the Eden Project is an educational charity that aims to let people have a better relationship with the environment and the planet. You learn about biodiversity and the importance of nature and ecology while you visit while having a lovely day surround by biodiversity from around the world. There are two main biomes (the domes) – the rainforest biome and the Mediterranean Biomes.

Both of the biomes are very warm inside as they have a regulated artificial climate to keep the plants and trees healthy, as if there were in their natural habitat. The rainforest biome was 28 degrees while I was there.

They have some of the prettiest flowers 🌸

Compulsory photo time in the rainforest biome ~

It was actually crazy how beautiful the rainforest biome was. It really did mimic an actual rainforest really well!

And they even had a waterfall ❤

It was such a lovely day and I’m so glad I finally got to visit after so many years ~

On Wednesday I’ve got a post prepared about the Gardens of Heligan so look out for that one too 🙂

Much love,

~Charlotte x

Summer in Cornwall

Travel

Hi Guys,

Back in June I visited Cornwall with my family for a week and we had the most gorgeous sunny weather ❤

I thought I was post some photos below of some of the things we got up to that week. We also visited the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, but I will make separate post for those places as I took too many pictures!

This beautiful seaside town was called Looe, and it was SO pretty. So many people were out on the water canoeing, paddle boarding and jet skiing – I really loved it there.

This was just after we arrived.

This was my car journey outfit – which is literally always the most comfortable clothing I can find in my wardrobe haha..(I clearly thought it was photo worthy at the time lol)

The first pic is my parents little double bedroom and the second picture is the bedroom I stayed in. They were both so cute with old beams and patterned curtains. It was very ‘cottagecore’ <3.

On the first day of our trip we visited Tintagel Castle were I took this beautiful photos. There is a walkway up to the top of the cliff and the views are stunning. You can see for miles on a clear day.

We also had some lovely coffee while we were there. Although, mine in the above picture is a chai latte as I’m recently intolerant to coffee 😦 …but I will never be unhappy with a chai latte so I can’t complain haha.

All for now,

~ Charlotte x