Meadow flower

Hello again beautiful writing space. How are you doing today? Marvellous I hope :)
It's certainly been a busy June! No wonder it's flying past me like a flock of ducks in the summer sky.

At the beginning of this month, I nipped back to Cornwall for a week to work at the Royal Cornwall Show which was long, but fun! Not only did I get to work with some of my old lovely colleagues/friends but I also finally got to meet Alex from On Serpentine Shores blog who is as cool and snazzy in person as she is online ;) I was super excited when I found out she'd joined our little Helford based work team and it was certainly a delightful surprise ^.^ We had many a giggle over the three action packed days!
When I wasn't serving tea, pasties and Scones to the farmer gentry of the Duchy, I was wading about rockpools, rowing in the sea with George, climbing down windy cliff paths to secret beaches, munching cream teas in Marazion and whizzing through the sunny Cornish lanes on the back of dads motor bike. It was really therapeutic, and beautiful, and wonderful - and I've been homesick ever since.

It was peaceful in many ways, my little trip home - I made the decision not to take my camera back with me to Cornwall and have a week off taking photographs. This was difficult for me. Making my visual journal, my documentary of life and the world I love has become such a large part of me and my routine that sometimes I found myself feeling a little lost. The sea reflects the sunshine with such beautiful enchanting sparkles on its surface, or the shaft of sunlight comes through the old mining engine house window in just the most spectacular way and I wanted to immortalise that moment forever, tell it's story - but I couldn't. That moment couldn't never me shared. It's a secret, just it and me. me and it. mine. no-one elses.
After a bit, I found peace in this quietude. In these secret moments. I inhaled, reflected, treasured and relied on my eyes and my memory to hold onto them for as long as I could. Those moments are special to me, and going unplugged for a week - no computer, no camera, was truly liberating.

I've been back in Bath for a few days now and today was the first day off. The sun was shining, the birds were twittering and my yellow car back in by my side (all fixed! (for now)) and so Jess and I trundled over to Bradford on Avon for a delightful light lunch, to take some photographs for her Boohoo style swap blog post and (of course) to EXPLORE!

Just a note: prepare yourself for a silly amount of photographic bombardment 

Upon arriving in this gorgeous, historic town we obeyed the demands made by our tummies and wandered past Bradford on Avon's many many cafes before settling on the perfect one. 

We chose the CO-OP cafe for many reasons. The main ones being that it was fairtrade, organic, vegetarian and had a garden. 

This place is a real winner. I can't recommend it enough. The food is sooo reasonably priced (I think we had gotten used to Bath prices so much, that we were really surprised at our value for money) The food is delicious and the seating area - well it doesn't matter if it's raining or sunny, the inside is as beautiful as the outside. This cafe is authentic- no pretentious, hip, try-too-hard interiors and gimmicky plates/enamel ware here! It was real, pleasant and proper. Most importantly - the food was bang on. 

We found some hidden, narrow, windy streets behind the streets! with minuscule, fairtrade pop-up stalls and craft shops. It was like Diagonalley.

Jess has traded her usual Coke for a fairtrade, organic Cola! (and she says it tastes better) woo! :D ethical AND tasty. job done. 

My super snazzy early birthday present from my splenderific Jess-thing :) 

I love little things like this. When nature forces it's way back through what man has put there. These darling flowers are like "Oh hay! we're back!"

The other week, my friend Ava and I had a moment of pure joy and nostalgia when we happened across a pack of temporary tattoos in superdrug. We were all over that, and yes... I am reliving my childhood. I regret nothing. 

Drum roll for a rare little outfit appreciation! So recently, my latest obsession is recycling clothes (more on that to come!) and the various ways we can do this ^.^ This top, I obtained from a good-old-fashioned game of 'swaps' with my best friend Jess during a wardrobe clearout and I flipping love it. I love it even more that it's free. and it's breezy around my tummy! I just have to avoid jumping about/handstands! (I learned this the hard way) 

Top: Swapped |  Skirt: Cath Kidston  |   Sneakers: FatFace  |   Hat:  FatFace

  Vintage Floral Transfer:  Superdrug |   Sunnies:  Claire's Accessories  (Don't judge kay?)

I found a fallen tree over a river! 

So many beautiful, old warehouses along the river - think of all the barges once lined up there taking goods to and fro!

Such history in this quaint little place! 

After lunching, Jess making some important phone calls (because she's all grown up now and finished Uni!) and doing the photographs with her camera for her boohoo style swap, we got to do my most favourite part of the day... the adventurific explory part! 

We went over the teeny tiniest footbridge which led us to a spectacular meadow (the traditional, quintessentially English type) filled with meadow flowers and sunshine! heaven is a place on earth. At that moment - it was this field. 

We crossed a train track! 

and I went in the river! because I LOVE WATER. that stuff is just so swell. It makes me giddy with happy feels. 

I convinced Jess to come in too! much fun was had, splish sploshing about and watching the minnows darting around. There were hundreds of the tiny silver fishies!

We made dog friends 

and duck friends 

and we pretended to be fairies 

I love transfers. I'm far too indecisive to pick something to decorate my body with that I could wear forever without thinking "Oh no, that was just a phase!". I go through alot of phases and the only thing I've loved consistently for a long time are my family, the sea and narwhals. None of which I think would make a great tattoo :P Plus I'm a total needle phobic. I love tattoos on other people, I've seen so many beautiful ones! But I'm extremely happy to draw on myself/stick to the kiddies version :P

As I mentioned earlier - this top isn't good for jumping in! You can sort of see that it's a little blurry around the teeshirt area. That was some sneaky (but not very skilled) photo-shopping on my part because yes. The before version of this photograph was bra-tastic. In all it's pink, lacy gory, I was flashing the world and it gave us a belly full of laughs when we went back and looked at the photographs. We'll be going back to Bradford on Avon again, (hopefully on bikes!) because we didn't have time to find the secret Weir or the Saxon barn. wah. The meadow though - we just got so sidetracked by the meadow. 

I've been busy busy taking photographs for clients which you can find on my kinda secret-serious (never really serious) photography blog and I've got a backlog to upload! Only two weeks left in Bath now, before I head home for a summer of ocean and naturific fun! If you've managed to get through ALL of these photographs and find the bottom of this post, hats of sirs and ladies. I commend thee. 

I really must dash - there's not enough hours in the day and there's a Game of Thrones season finale begging to be watched and I can't look at Social Media until I've watched it for fear that it'll be ruined for me and there'll be no surprise. I logged onto facebook earlier and had to scroll like crazy past any post that started with "OH MY GOSH, GAME OF THRONES LAST NIGHT..." and trust me, there were many. My newsfeed was like a minefield of spoilers. 

b y e   b y e :)