Wholesome Living

Experiencing hope

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I’ve been on nights at SMH this week which basically means sleeping in the school and getting paid for it. However, it does get a little tiring when you’re there all day and all night! 21 hours a day at your place of work is too much!! 😱 Basically I’m doing it for the holiday fund! 😉 To break up the monotony we visited Ilkley, a very pretty town in Yorkshire where there was a band playing in the park, as many charity shops as you care for and the best named pub for that particular place, Bart'at(!) AMAZING! 🙌🏼 I got some cheap books, had a pint and some food and then we visited the Cow and Calf stones above the town. A welcome reprieve from this life of graft 💪🏼😉👫🍦☀️🍔🍺🎸📚

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The second wedding of our summer at Kelmarsh Hall in Northants. We stayed in Rothwell (apparently pronounced Rowell!) and made our way to Kelmarsh for a full day of smiling, eating and drinking! Again the dancing went on into the early hours but this time we were fortunate enough to wake up feeling fresh! It was a great day meeting new people, exploring the manicured gardens and trying new (Burmese!) food. Delicious!

😁🍲🍷🍺👍🏼👫💃🏻🙌🏼

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It’s been a damp summer so far; misty mornings but warm and sunny afternoons…

🌁☀️

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Wedding season is upon us! Gemma and Matt were the first of our summer and what a wedding it was. The bar was supplied with 3 choices of real ale, the setting was gorgeous at Higher Standen farm and the band were out of this world! Really impressive stuff! We danced all night and made it home in one piece at some point in the early hours. Needless to say, the day after necessitated a swift visit to the Golden Arches.

👫🍷💃🏻🍺🍺🍺🍔🍔🍔

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‘ASBO’ illustrated polaroid

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Haha!! I love this, Danny! 😂👌🏼

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June - Rain showers. Reading. Real ale. 👣☔️📖🍺🙌🏼

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We've booked a holiday!! We're heading to Crete in October for 11 nights of 5 star all-inclusive!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 the hotel looks gorgeous and the weather should be perfect 😁☀️ To celebrate we visited the Middle Earth Beer Festival in the village and ended up with a team of all night drinkers following us home and painting our faces. What a cracking night; new friends, good memories. 🍺👫👌🏼🐼🐷🐵🐸🐻🐨

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On Thursday I 'blagged' a mid-week day off work and headed up to Ullswater with Tracey to climb some hills. We bagged a Wainwright and some other smaller peaks and then found a small plunge pool half way up the next hill and sat for an hour or so sunbathing, paddling out feet and having a picnic. Although I had more walking planned it seemed more than sensible to head back to the car, drive up to Pooley Bridge and have a pint in the Pooley Bridge Inn, a gorgeous place in the centre of the village. Plus, the hills that I missed give me an excuse to get back up there and finish what I started! 😉🗻👣🍺

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Last week our neighbours came for an evening of music, laughter and Tracey's fine cuisine! We talked and danced until the early hours but by mid morning the following day I was desperate to make the most of the good weather so headed towards Clitheroe and followed any roads and paths I could find to make a healthy 10 mile circular back home. Good food. Good company. Good weather. Good walking. 🍲👫👫👫☀️👣

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tracethebase and I headed up to Great Langdale to re-ignite her relationship with the Wainwright fells. One year after that hot, strenuous day on two smaller fells where Tracey had enough and hung up her boots for ‘good’, she was back and smashed Lingmoor Fell with a visit to Side Pike on the way up. We had great views of the Langdale Pikes for most of the walk and our journey back down was one of the most simple and gentle that I’ve come across. On re-entering the valley we had a quick pint at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel before setting off to ‘Chesters by the RIver’ for coffee and cake. A good day, back with my favourite walking partner. 🙌🏼👫👣👍🏼🌁🍻🍰

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Spring cleaning! I’m in the process of converting my old study to a guest room. Unfortunately, for the guests, they will always be accompanied by my ‘Walking, Wine, Beer and Travel’ shelf! 👣🍷🍻🌁🙌🏼📚📖

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I was up on the roof of Stonyhurst, taking down the flag from the Great Academies weekend, when this Kestrel flew on to a ledge just below where I was standing. For a few special moments it was unaware that I was watching and I managed to capture this photo before it saw me and startled itself away with tremendous speed and agility. 🐦💨

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Great Academies weekend. The major prize-giving weekend at Stonyhurst College where the students’ parents come from all over the world to attend the celebrations. There are meals, sporting activities, the prize-giving ceremony itself and a huge ball to finish the weekend. It’s a lot of work for everyone involved but the weekend is a positive culmination to the year to that point and the extra effort is appreciated and gratefully received. Next year will be my 10th Great Academies! 😱 On Sunday afternoon, with 90% of the college back to how it should be I escaped to the Aspinall arms for a couple of pints and listened to the swing band they had performing.

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Look at that beauty 😁👌🏼🍼💦💧

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We've devised a beautiful 6 mile wander for after dinner; 2 hours, 12,000 steps 🙌🏼☀️👣👫

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On Saturday we were invited by our next door neighbour to go and watch him work... at King George's Hall as he conducted the Hallé orchestra! At 23, Jamie has done pretty well for himself 🎼🎻👍🏼 We sat with his girlfriend in the balcony for the evening and the music was fabulous. The orchestra sounded sweet and full and the guest pianist was mind blowing, playing his entire concerto from memory. Jamie controlled and guided the musicians through a wonderful few hours of music and I was held, spellbound for the entirety. A great evening and hopefully the start of regular visits to classical evenings at KGH. 🙌🏼👌🏼👫🎶

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We arrived in Harrogate the night before my graduation and checked in at our guest house. Our room was gorgeous. The colours were rich, the furniture was grand, and from our window we could see the venue for tomorrow’s ceremony. On that first night we had supper at Café Rouge, a French themed restaurant in the centre of Harrogate, and then sauntered around the town taking in the architecture and cafés and bars. Both of us instantly fell in love with the place, it felt welcoming and safe. On the morning of the graduation we had breakfast at the guest house then went to buy last minute ‘bits and bobs’ for the ceremony (a suit was on my shopping list!😉). At the Harrogate International Centre we felt good, looked good and thoroughly enjoyed the day, it was perfect! 👫 After the presentation we visited Betty’s famous tea shop for Champagne afternoon tea. Ladies what lunch! 😋 Then, in our finest attire and with our new 'sparkle’, we continued our exploration of Harrogate’s places of interest, having a great time laughing and talking. For supper we visited Zizzi, an Italian, where we had 'skinny’ pizzas, butter bean crisps and roquito pepper pearls. Beautiful stuff! With an amazing day coming to an end, we had another couple of drinks and then hit the hay, exhausted but content. 😊👌🏼🍷🎶👣👫🎓🎉☀️