Ruthlin, the cottage in Wales

To celebrate  the first anniversary of our marriage, Denty and I rented a little (well, not-so-little as it was a four-bedroomed barn conversion) in the middle of nowhere in Wales. The building was a barn once belonging to a nearby-ish farm called Ruthlin Mills, hence the converted cottage was named Ruthlin.

It was a mere 200 mile journey, so Denty and I thought it would be nice to make a little detour to visit Stonehenge on the way there.  You see, about 20 years ago, little Denty found a Stonehenge souvenir bookmark in church and has used it ever since. What was once a leather bookmark with the respectable amount of tassels is now a sorry piece of cow hide with 3 and a bit strands of tassel. Since Denty had never seen Stonehenge, we thought it would be a great opportunity to get him a new bookmark.

After the little detour, we continued our journey to Ruthlin.

Yorkshire tea

Denty, Paddy and I went to Harrogate last weekend. We almost made a beeline to the teashop after parking the car. Well, what else do you do in somewhere so quintessentially English? To make it even more English, we even (Denty was very keen) queued up at Betty’s Tea Shop for 30 minutes.

The wait was definitely worth it. I had a sapphire blue ceylon tea and a fresh fruit tart. The tea definitely tasted better than the ones in the Ritz and Claridges.

After a happy face-stuffing session and a little wander, we headed to the apartment we rented for an evening of loafing.

Paddy enjoyed watching the autumn leaves from the window.

It IS spring, right?

Today is the sixth day of April, which is officially the heart of spring. The crocuses are gone and the daffodils are in full bloom…

My garden green and lush, the signs of spring everywhere from the leaves shooting from the branches to the defluffing of the pussy willow.

Muks seeing the overnight change in the outlook braved the elements and sauntered out to errmmm… inspect the garden. Mitch, who was woken up by ermmm… some banging on her door at half eight in the morning was behind the camera in support.

Denty who was woken up too early on a Sunday morning by a moderate amount of squealing came to see what Muks and Mitch were up to. Can you see Denty?

Stinky was released…

from etaiyy.vodpod.com

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… and promptly proceeded to eating my blueberry bush.

So Mitch and Muks built a blue-eyed Yorkshire (it’s the flat cap) snowman (no relation to anyone or anything around us… honest!)…

… and a little army for Paddy.

Who would have thought that a bit of water made very cold could be so much fun!

Paddy at the Peak

Paddy was getting rather restless from the months of inactivity, so we took him on an expotition to the Peak District. I baked blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, and we went on our way to conquer the Heights of Abraham and the Roaches.

Paddy admiring the view from the Heights of Abraham.

Paddy admiring further view from the Victorian Prospect Tower on the Heights of Abraham. Nobody was out of breath at all…

Paddy resting mid-descent…

Paddy on the Roaches. Nobody was tired, huffing, muddy, squelched an entire foot into smelly water or aching at all…

We return as conquerors, with an Imperial Star Destroyer in tow. Now, just don’t make me walk the next 3 days and I will be with you fine and dandy.

Paddy at Old House

This is Paddy (Paddingtonus Bearus). I found him wandering around in Paddington Station looking rather lost while I was enroute to Rotterdam. I rescued him and he has since become my traveller. We have been to many places together and he had posed for many a photos (a bit of a poser this one).

Paddy is always ready to travel. He waits around all day every day dressed in his mackintosh and wellingtons for protection from the elements. His suitcase is always packed and at hand.

Paddy likes to come out of my bag to look at interesting stuff and this is one of them. Paddy is standing in a field in the front of our old house. Anttyk and I have many fond (and less fond) memories of the place where we were not much more than vegetables.

What better place to start introducing Paddy the Intrepid Traveller than the place I outgrew my vegetablehood in?