My summer in a nutshell

It's been more than two months since I last wrote a post so I thought it was time to give a rundown on how I spent my summer. I've been back to work for more than two weeks now and it already feels like the summer is long gone.

I spent the first week of holidays in Switzerland visiting my brother. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great, but I still got to see some beautiful places, including the Reichenbach Falls (where Sherlock Holmes died) and the Aare Gorge:

 

After that it was a summer of dissertation writing! I finally rushed to the end and headed to Aberystwyth to submit. Here's me attempting to look intelligent, holding my year's work, bound very nicely by the good people at Aberystwyth University Media and Sales department:

I visited the Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary:

Went on a beautiful walk on the South West Coastal Path near Sidmouth:

And visited Montacute House and Gardens:

Now that I am back into the routine of work it's time for me to start working on my chartership again. I'd love to have that almost finished by Christmas, but we shall see. Other than that the coming months will include:

• Heading home to Ireland for a weekend for a family reunion of sorts
• Seeing a live feed of The Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary from the Royal Albert Hall
• Seeing Mark Kermode talk about his new book, The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex at the Exeter Picturehouse
• Visiting Ireland for a week with Rik for some West Coast sightseeing
• Reading some more books and maybe joining the Exeter Waterstone's Reading Group
• Baking lots more
• And most exciting of all (hopefully!) seeing Jurassic Park again on the big screen for its special re-release!

An exciting couple of months ahead...

Sunday baking adventures

I have been neglecting this blog of late due to my dissertation, which, I am sorry to say, is still not quite finished. Nonetheless I have still found time whilst procrastinating to be a little creative. This morning I baked my first attempt at carrot cake. I used this recipe from the BBC Good Food site, which I always love. It was really easy to follow and is supposed to be a little healthier than some, using oil instead of butter and wholemeal flour.

I love my Le Creuset mixing jug. Rik got it for me for my birthday and it's wonderful.

The finished result was pretty darn tasty! I cut the cinnamon out of the frosting and replaced it with orange zest. The recipe makes quite a lot of frosting so next time I make it I will cut it in half I think.

Unfortunately my dissertation has been taking up a lot of my time recently. I have been using most of my weekend free time to work on it. I should have an almost full draft finished today (only a week behind schedule). Last weekend we did take some much needed time out and enjoyed a relaxing weekend in Cornwall. We visited Glendurgan Garden:

And I got to see Frenchman's Creek of Daphne du Maurier fame:

It was a pretty great weekend, even with my car breaking down, costing me £300 and forcing me to commute by train to work for the week! Let's hope there are many more weekends like this to come...

The magic of Fowey

I spent this weekend enjoying the special charm that is Fowey, Cornwall and the Daphne du Maurier Festival. This was my fourth time to visit Fowey for the festival. I went first in 2007 for the centenary conference as part of the research for my MA dissertation. On that occasion I stayed in the beautiful Fowey Hotel, as everywhere else was booked out. It was a wonderful experience and has become a very special place to me.

This year time was rather limited so we only booked one event on the Sunday and spent the Saturday wandering the town and its surroundings. I just adore the shops and cafes. We had tea and cake at the delightful Dwelling House and did a spot of shopping in the local craft shops. I found myself lusting after pretty teapots and teacups, something that seems to be leading to a bit of an obsession... I also bought my copy of The Doll, which I've been looking forward to having for some time. Dinner was a bit disappointing unfortunately. When I visited in 2008 with my good friend Sarah we stumbled upon a great restaurant called The Other Place. Last year Rik and I had a delicious meal there too, so we decided to book again for this year. Unfortunately they seem to be going through some sort of transition phase and now only serve fish & chips or burgers. As we wandered back through town though we had a sneaky listen outside the church to the Mevagissey male voice choir, which more than made up for it!

Sunday afternoon was spent on the My Cousin Rachel guided walk. We saw some beautiful countryside and had sections of the book read to us by our guide on the way.

We finished up with an extravagant cream tea at Coombe Farm.

All in all a very pleasant afternoon!

Highlights of the weekend:

• Tea at the Dwelling House
• Being recognised in the book shop as a du Maurier fan!
• Buying new pottery
• Meeting the churchyard cat again
• Our lovely b&b, Artist's House and its proprietor

Our new purchases...          

Cornwall and a spot of shopping

Now that I have returned to the world of work and reality (at least temporarily) I thought I would reflect back on what was a wonderfully work-free and reality-free month. I worked a total of 9 days in the month of April and thoroughly enjoyed the other 21. I am only working two days this week as I am accompanying students on a residential to Torquay on Thursday, but it does still feel like today ushered in a return to normality.

I've already covered most of the month of April in my last two posts, so thought I would talk about how I spent the Royal Wedding long weekend. Firstly I have to admit that I got completely sucked into the fairytale world of the royals; castles, princes, jewels, dresses... 

I had no intentions of watching the wedding, but found myself wikipedia-ing the royal family the night before (never a good sign for an Irish person). I was thus reliably informed on all matters royal (for instance I knew all the options for Kate's title post-marriage and the fact that only five members of the royal family have obtained university degrees). The following morning I ended up watching live on the BBC website as the wonder unfolded. I only watched for an hour but have to admit I welled up on more than one occasion. The Middleton ladies' dresses were beautiful! And her Dad looked so proud. Then at 11.30am it was off to Cornwall.

En route to Padstow we paid a visit to Lanhydrock. The house is the most beautiful National Trust property that I've visited, with parts dating back to the 17th century. The Long Gallery (below - please excuse poor camera work) is stunning - in particular the plasterwork ceiling. There was a young guy playing the piano at the far end and it transported me to a world of the past and helped fuel my royal daydream. Following a cream tea and walk in the gardens it was off to Padstow.

The 'Obby 'Oss festival happens in Padstow on May Day every year, but we were cleverly avoiding that and went to enjoy the peace and quiet of Padstow Touring Park. I still haven't gotten my Rick Stein fish and chips, but did have a tasty pasty and chocolate crepe. I love listening to rain falling, but I think it is even better when you are in a caravan/mobile home on holidays. I managed to get through some more of my latest Carnegie book, Prisoner of the Inquisition, but am still not quite finished.

Yesterday I was feeling a little extravagant, having just been paid last week, so decided to do a little shopping in Exeter. Considering I was once a massive spendthrift I think I have been really good in the last year. My main purchase was this glorious bag:

I've been looking for a brown leather satchel for some time and this fit the bill. It is may be a little smaller than my ideal but other than that it is great. It was £69 in M&S, but luckily there was 20% off and my lovely Mom had given me a gift voucher, so it only cost me £14. The day was topped off with lunch at Wagamama and tea and cake in Boston's. All together a very pleasant end to a very pleasant month (even if yesterday was May). Back to Cornwall again in less than two weeks for the Du Maurier festival. Excitement...

Easter holidays and visit home to Ireland

My Easter holidays got off to a really nice start two weeks ago with a picnic at Woodbury Common, consisting of lemonade and strawberries amongst other yummy things. The weather was so beautiful, about 22° and it was really peaceful. I had planned on reading a bit as I have recently started the Shadowing Carnegie programme at work, but it was just too warm and sunny, so instead I dozed and listened to the new Mountain Goats album All Eternals Deck, which I am already in love with.

I spent the first few days of the following week working on my dissertation. I got another 3000 words written and some charts done so felt pretty productive. My plan to submit it by the end of May doesn't look like it is going to happen, but I have until September so am not going to stress unduly. My questionnaire is already showing some rather interesting results and viewpoints so that is pretty cool.

On Friday Rik and I flew from Exeter to Dublin. We met with my good friend Sarah and her Dad for a spot of lunch at Eddie Rockets (yum) and then wandered Dublin a little; visiting the Birkenstock shop and the National Museum. I am not a huge lover of Dublin, but I do like visiting from time to time and there is no doubt that it has a lot to offer.

The next few days were spent relaxing in Birr and photographing our cats (just noticed that the majority of photos from the trip are of cats!) Went for a lovely walk in Portumna Forest Park on the Sunday morning and visited the monastic ruins at Clonmacnoise afterwards. In Portumna we saw red squirrels playing in the woods and lots and lots of fallow deer.

Rik flew back on Monday and I spent the next few days catching up with family and old school friends, reading in the garden and generally enjoying being off work. I also cleared out my wardrobe and presses (cupboards) and donated two bin bags full of clothes to a charity shop. I had already finished the first of my Carnegie Books, White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick, a book I found well-written and atmospheric although without any depth of character, and so started The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff. I went on to finish this on the train back from the airport yesterday and really enjoyed it, if a little guiltily.

It was really nice to escape everything for a week, but also good to come back yesterday. The weather was amazingly warm when I got off the plane in Exeter. It actually reminded me of my first trip to a really warm climate when I was 19. When I stepped off the plane in Majorca I could not believe it could be that warm. Exeter was not quite to that level, but still lovely. We had some great thunder showers in the afternoon too and watched some Gilmore Girls and Harry Potter 6 in the evening.

Not quite sure what today has in store. I have already made blueberry pancakes for breakfast (yet again) and think I will go for a run shortly. The podrunner podcasts were recommended to me as a great way of getting into running (I have always been crap at it) so I am planning on starting that. We may also rent HP7a tonight. It's so nice to have tomorrow off work too and only a three day week ahead. Next weekend we are planning a visit to Cornwall, but for now it is time to enjoy the sunshine...

A weekend before holidays

So this is my first official blog post! I have had this blog for almost 2 years now and have completely neglected to write anything until now. I set it up at a library conference I was at in the University of Limerick while I worked at the National Library of Ireland. That was June 2009 and it's odd to think how much has happened since then. I am now living in Devon and am a qualified librarian, working in a secondary school (who would have guessed that!)

I got my Easter holidays on Friday. I had been looking forward to them for so long as this half-term has felt really long. I don't know how I will ever go back to a job with a standard 20 or so days of holidays a year! I do tend to get bored with time off though so I am hoping to make more use of the next 2 weeks. I am hoping to get quite a bit of work done on my dissertation in the next 4 days and then Rik and I are off to Ireland on Friday morning. It will be great to catch up with friends and family and have the opportunity to use my Irish only vocabulary (words like 'press' and 'eejit' that people here do not understand). I also hope to do some sight-seeing too, as my trips home are sort of my holidays now.

Yesterday Rik and I spent the day in Exeter. It was such a beautiful day, perfect for wandering the city. I picked up a birthday present for a friend and some birthday cards. No shopping for myself unfortunately, as I am trying to spend as little as possible. We then went to see Cave of Forgotten Dreams at the Picturehouse. It's the first 3D movie I've seen in a long time. I enjoyed certain aspects of it, particularly the sequences inside the cave set to music. I had quite a few reservations about it though. A lot of it was a little too odd for me; the questions asked by Verner Herzog in interviews in particular. I am also still unsure how I feel about the 3D. I think for the cave sequences it worked really well, but other than that I felt it was pointless. It hasn't changed my overall view of 3D though and I am still hoping that the producers of HP7b decide to release it in 2D.

This morning I made pancakes (sadly without blueberries as both Sainsbury's and Co-op were out of them). It's another gorgeous day so I think some outdoor activity and a picnic are on the cards. I do love the sun!