Things To Do

A TRIP TO WALLINGTON’S CROCUS LAWN – NT

Published on March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 by simplycarinaxo4 Comments

I may have mentioned my anxiety in passing on this blog before, and I’ll probably talk about it in more detail one day, but for now, let’s just say my anxiety essentially impacts all forms of travel and just generally being out and about. I’m telling you this because for me a trip to Wallington wasn’t the easiest, but as part of my action plan to overcome my anxiety I have to face my fears head on in the hopes of creating positive memories; and thus I pushed myself to finally go tick another National Trust site of our list.

For us Wallington is about a 1h drive away depending on traffic, and for me a journey this long, is very anxiety inducing, especially when it’s one I’ve not done before. However, after multiple checks of google maps to see which way was the fastest there and locating a good halfway point should I need to stop, we eventually set off.

We decided to travel up the A1 and head for breakfast at The Running Fox cafe in Kirkhill before heading to Wallington, after seeing Chloe from New Girl In Toon’s recommendation on Instagram. Although this was another 10 minutes further than Wallington, I’d pinpointed Dobbies Garden Centre as a good half way point stop should I need it, which made the journey feel a bit less daunting. I ended up feeling okay as we reached the halfway point and I decided to brave it and continued on without giving into my anxiety to make a stop.

It was such a lovely sunny morning that when we arrived and saw there were outside tables we immediately decided to make the most of the glorious weather and sit outside. They had a decent menu with plenty of breakfast options and although I was very tempted by the French toast, I decided for the Avocado on sourdough with fried egg and siracha , whilst Luis went for the full English. Now usually I would be wary of eating a big breakfast and having a cup of coffee when out and about in case it upsets my stomach and raises my anxiety, however, as the drive from The Running Fox Cafe to Wallington was only 7 mins or so I decided to face my fears and enjoy breakfast.

The food was good, portion sizes were huge, and my filter coffee was ok. My only complaint would be that the coffee came quite a while before food and whilst it was nice to have something to sip on, I didn’t want to drink a whole cup of coffee on an empty stomach, and so it was lukewarm by the time I drank the majority of it alongside my breakfast. We took our time savouring breakfast and basking in the sun.

We were both rather full when we finally left and annoyingly my anxiety did end up spiking because as drove up to Wallington we ended up joining a very long queue to enter. The stop and start and uncertainty of how long we’d be waiting made me very anxious. What should have been a short 7 minute drive ended up taking at least 20+ minutes, but I made it through.

Once parked we grabbed a map and a very friendly lady greeted us and answered our questions regarding the site. We were told the biggest walk marked on the map which takes you around most of the site would take about 1h and so we slowly set off to enjoy a spring walk in the sunshine.

The sun was out the whole time we were there and it was warm enough to enjoy a walk without a coat which was so nice. The 1h walk meandered through some forest and along the river, with streaks of sunlight bursting through the trees making the water sparkle. Although it had been very busy on arrival, the path we followed wasn’t crowded and with a gentle breeze and bird song in the air, it was really rather peaceful. I would recommend sturdy outdoor shoes however, as the path was quite muddy in areas and not properly paved as in some other National Trust sites.

Just over half way round the circular walk, you come across these cute little stepping stones to cross the river and Maya, who does not like the water, was very unsure of how to cross. Luis tried to guide her across but she just ended falling straight into the water as if she didn’t quite grasp there was a gap between the stones and she had to hop over; it was rather amusing. Don’t worry though, the river isn’t deep so she didn’t get fully drenched. After her second attempt went no better than the first however, Luis decided to scoop her up and carry her across.

Once you’ve crossed the stepping stones, you soon come across Wallington’s famous crocus lawn and it really was stunning. We were so lucky to have snagged such a glorious day for a visit. This was definitely one of the busier areas as people stopped to admire and take photos of the beautiful purple crocuses.

Following our wander round the walled gardens we slowly made our way back to the main entrance. Passing small lakes and snowdrops scattered around the shady woodland we also came across some beautiful nature inspired sculptures and a tree that looked strangely like the Dark Tower from Mordor and was just missing the eye of Sauron haha.

By the time we got back to the car at around 3pm Maya seemed rather exhausted as she just plonked herself on the cool grass refusing to move – too cute! All in all we had a lush day out and I’m really glad I pushed myself to face my anxiety and make the trip.

Have you been to Wallington before? What are your favourite National Trust sites?

Opening Times:

All Week | 10am – 5pm

Admission:

Ticket type	With Gift Aid	Without Gift Aid
Adult (18+)	£22.00	£20.00
Child (5-17) under 5s free	£11.00	£10.00
Family (2 Adults and up to 3 children)	£55.00	£50.00
Family One Adult	£33.00	£30.00

Main Season from March 24th (includes house)

Facilities:

Car Park, Cafe, Shop, Kiosk, Adventure Playground for kids, Toilets (albeit, in my opinion, not many for the amount of potential visitors)

VISITING WASHINGTON OLD HALL – NT

Published on March 9, 2025 by simplycarinaxo3 Comments

On our way back from our holiday at the caravan a few weeks ago we decided to make a stop off at Washington Old Hall; another National Trust site which we’d not yet visited. Although it’s the second closest National Trust site to where we live, about 20mins in the car, we’d just never made the time to explore it yet, and so I was eager to finally go and make the most of our National Trust passes before they run out in May.

Having checked out of the caravan at 10am, we arrived at around 10.50am and found somewhere to park along the side of the road (which was free) as there didn’t seem to be any parking onsite.

Note: Being a weekday and not the best weather when we went, we didn’t struggle to acquire a parking spot close by, however, I’m not sure what the parking situation would be like on a busy sunny day.

Washington Old Hall is a relatively small yet picturesque National Trust site that sits in the heart of historic Washington village. The stone manor house and gardens feature parts of the original medieval home of George Washington’s direct ancestors, from where the family took their surname of ‘Washington’.

We must have come on one of the coldest days as snowflakes danced from the sky I wrapped myself up in my big scarf. The first signs of spring were slowly showing their face though as snowdrops were out in abundance next to daffodils still shrouded in their protective layers.

Exploring the Gardens didn’t take too long as in my opinion there wasn’t really too much to see this time of year (it would be interesting to see what is in bloom later on in the year). Saying that I do think that with the big field at the back, I can imagine it’s a great place for kids to have a run around on a slightly warmer day.

Dogs are welcome in the gardens, but not in the manor house, and so we took it in turns to have a quick look around, albeit a short one, as we didn’t want to leave the other waiting with Maya in the freezing cold outside for too long.

The manor house is set up to reflect gentry life following the turbulence of the English Civil War and incorporates parts of the original medieval home of George Washington’s direct ancestors. The staff are attentive, letting you explore in peace or at hand to tell you more about the history of the place.

Being a small enough exhibit means you can take your time to read all the information given without feeling overwhelmed or it taking too long. It’s a shame I only had time for a whistlestop tour on this visit, but perhaps I’ll get another chance when the weather is warmer to read all the information boards and learn more.

On our way out, near the entrance, the friends of Washington Old Hall also run a mini second hand book & antiques shop and although tiny, they allow dogs in, so we decided to have a quick nosy. There’s not much admittedly but I did find a cute little vase and bought one of their mystery books*. At only 50p a book I though it was a nice way to support them.

*the mystery book I ended up picking was Greyfriars Bobby. Although I loosely know the story from having seen a movie as a kid, it’s a classic I’ve not read before, so perhaps I’ll make time for it this year.

All in all we enjoyed our little mooch around Washington Old Hall and it makes for a nice half day trip I would say – especially when the weather is warmer and you can enjoy being outside a little more.

Have you visited Washington Old Hall before? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Opening Times:

Thursday – Monday | 10am – 5pm

Admission:

Ticket type	With Gift Aid	Without Gift Aid
Adult (18+)	£7.20	£6.50
Child (5-17) under 5s free	£3.60	£3.25
Family (2 Adults and up to 3 children)	£17.90	£16.25
Family (1 Adult and up to 3 children)	£10.80	£9.75

Facilities:

There is no cafe on site, but there are toilets, a picnic area and a small play ground for young children.

A TRIP TO BEAMISH MUSEUM

Published on September 2, 2024March 2, 2025 by simplycarinaxoLeave a comment

Last week my partner’s parents flew over from Portugal to visit us and although neither of us could sadly take much time off work, Luis did manage some half day trips out with them and I got to take the August Bank Holiday Monday off so we could all have a daytrip together. Having taken Luis’ brother to Beamish Museum earlier in the year when he visited, we thought his parents would also enjoy a day out exploring Beamish and so we set off late Monday morning.

If you’ve not heard of Beamish Museum before or had the chance to visit, I would highly recommend. Beamish is a world famous open air museum in County Durham, which brings the history of North East England to life at its 1820s Pockerley, 1900s Town, 1900s Pit Village, 1940s Farm, 1950s Town and 1950s Spain’s Field Farm exhibit areas. It is such a fun day out for the whole family and I would advise you plan for a whole day there, as there is so much to explore.

It was a bit of a grey morning when we set off and we made the mistake of not really considering how busy it might get being a bank holiday as well as school holidays. We arrived to a traffic jam of cars waiting to get in and then also had queue for a good half an hour to buy tickets for Luis’ parents. We were probably one of the last few lucky ones to get in as the overflow car park we were directed to was almost full when we parked and by lunchtime they had a post on socials saying they were at full capacity.

Tip: especially if you’re going on what is likely to be a busy day, leave early and book ahead online for quicker access once you arrive.

Once through, we made our way to the 1900’s Pit Village, an area with a lot to explore from going underground in the drift mine (although I’ve not done this myself as I suffer from agoraphobia) to seeing how miners used to live in the replica terraced houses and visiting the school house where you try your hand at popular yard games played by children at break time.

Having spent quite some time in the pit village, we walked on to the Farm and, amongst other animals such as turkeys and pigs, came across these cute little chickens running around trying to avoid being chased by little kids. If anyone knows what breed these chickens are, please do let me know in the comments as we’d love to have chickens one day and I fell in love with these fluffy little gals.

Continuing along the road we headed towards the 1900’s town passing Rowley station and a summer fair ground along the way. The fair was bustling with kids enjoying the rides so we didn’t stop there long, but the small fair ground a nice addition to Beamish in warmer summer months.

Arriving in the 1900’s town we were greeted with live music from a brass band playing in the band stand. The sun was shining at this point and it had turned into a beautiful warm afternoon with people milling around the Edwardian high street, enjoying a pint from the Sun Inn or lounging on the grass by the band stand listening to the music, and soaking up the atmosphere.

Once again there is a lot to explore in the 1900’s town. From visiting the bank and chemists to hearing gruesome stories from dentist practices back in the day. You can fill your pockets with yummy freshly baked goods from the bakery or pick from the vast array old school treats in the sweet shop, where if you’re lucky you might also catch a live sweet making demonstration. The 1900’s town really is quite spectacular.

Tip: wear comfortable shoes; there is a lot of ground and various terrain to cover. As you can see in the photos, Beamish does operate trams and old double decker buses throughout the museum, however, although they are admittedly fun to experience and ride, on busy days the queues for transport around the museum are usually very long, so if you don’t want to waste time waiting around, I would come prepared to walk.

Just on from the Edwardian town you entre the 1950’s town, Beamish Museum’s newest exhibit area. Before visiting with Luis’ brother earlier int he year, I hadn’t been to Beamish in years and was thus excited to finally be able to see the new addition of the 1950’s town. When we were there in May there were still some parts in development however and so this time round, there was even more to see including the addition of the cinema, record store and toy store etc…

You’ll find a fish and chip shop in the 1950’s village and I would recommend stopping for some. We did so on both our visits and thoroughly enjoyed!

Tip: although dogs on leads are very welcome in the museum they can’t actually entre any of the indoor exhibits or the main canteen/cafe in the 1900’s town; so I recommend coming prepared with a picnic if it’s a nice day (the huge lawn by the fair ground is a great place to enjoy a picnic to do so with toilets close by) or grab some some yummy fish and chips and find a bench.

Once we’d enjoyed our very late lunch, it was past 4pm already at this point, we sadly didn’t really have much time left to explore the rest and so after a quick whizz round the rest of the 1950’s town we slowly made our way back to the entrance and had to leave out the rest. Here’s still a few photos from our visit in May where we did still managed to squeeze in a stop at the old Pockerley Hall.

It surprises me every time just how quickly time does fly at Beamish and how much there is to see, which is why, especially if you’re local, and can make a few trips a year, I think the tickets are well worth the money as there really is so much to get out of this wonderful living museum here in the North East of England.

If you’ve visited Beamish Museum before I’d love to hear what your favourite exhibit is!

USEFUL INFORMATION:

Opening Times:
20th March 2024 – 25th October 2024: Open daily, 10am-5pm
26th October 2024 – 3rd November 2024: Open daily, 10am-4pm

Tickets:
Tickets are admittedly quite expensive, however I do think you get a lot for it and they are valid for one year, so especially if you’re localish and can get a few visits in, they’re definitely worth it in my opinion. (*prices shown for September 2024)

Adult: £27.95
Senior (60+): £21.25
Student: £21.25
Child (5-16 years): £17.25
Family (2 adults + 2 children): £71.00

Accessibility:
Beamish is a large open air museum with many historic buildings, some of which are not always completely accessible to all visitors. To create an authentic feel, there are a variety of ground surfaces, some of which are uneven by nature. There are also steep slopes in places, and some buildings and exhibits have stepped access. Beamish does operate a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle however which is available on-call every day that the museum is open, although limited to its seated capacity.

*Disclaimer: please note that pictures featured are from both our August Bank Holiday trip as well as our visit in May earlier this year.

A SUNNY STROLL AT CROOK HALL

Published on August 25, 2024January 23, 2025 by simplycarinaxo2 Comments

Although it’s just down the road, we don’t often head into Durham City Centre, but with the weather being so nice that weekend we fancied a little outing and decided to head into Durham for some breakfast and a stroll around Crook Hall. We renewed our National Trust memberships again this year and wanted to make the most of our local sites with the closest being Crook Hall. These beautiful gardens set against the backdrop of a medieval hall are only 12mins in the car from us and thus perfect for a mini outing.

We opted for the Riverview Kitchen as it’s dog friendly and we hadn’t actually been before, so it was somewhere new to try. I chose the avocado on sourdough with bacon and eggs and Luis opted for the full English. Prices were expensive enough, but what you’d expect in the city center. Saying that portion sizes where generous and I struggled to finish. We enjoyed the food and the coffee was decent too, so we would definitely return. However I would say the atmosphere is not the cosiest as the tables are all very close together. I understand they want to maximize on space, but it does make it feel very cramped, and not very suitable if you have a dog. We were lucky and managed to snag a table in the corner with a bit more space which was great as we had Maya with us, but if we’d had any other table, I’m not sure it’d have been as enjoyable a experience, as we’d have to be continually watching Maya wasn’t in the way of anyone and she wouldn’t have settled.

Once we finished our breakfast we walked over to Crook Hall. We love having Crook Hall on our doorstep as it’s perfect for a gentle afternoon stroll enjoying some fresh air amongst the wonderful flowers and plant. It’s not admittedly very big, but filled with lots of little nooks to sit in and enjoy the gardens, it’s also the perfect place to spend an afternoon with a book on sunny day.

What I love most is being able to come back throughout the year and watch the garden transform. From the crocuses and snowdrops in spring to vibrant and lush scented roses in Summer, It’s beautiful to see.
If you have a National rust membership and love a good garden mooch – I would highly recommend, however at £3.30 parking and £8.50 per adult it it perhaps a bit pricey an entrance fee if you do not have a membership.

Have you been to Crook Hall before and do you have a favourite time of year to go?

DESTINATION ALNMOUTH

Published on November 9, 2018September 2, 2024 by simplycarinaxo8 Comments

Good morning beautiful souls,

My travel blogs are coming at ya a little belated, for which I am sorry, but I’m finally getting back into mu blogging and I have a lot of belated content to share haha, plus it is nice to reminisce all the cute mini getaways I had this summer! A couple of months ago I had my last holiday of the summer which was a couple of days in Alnmouth with my family and I just wanted to share a few photos from my time there with you!

We had a lovely few days together just relaxing by the seaside and enjoying each others company. We went for walks along the beach…

Let our creative juices flow spending time painting together, exploring an art gallery and taking a trip to Potadoodledo to paint some pottery which was great fun!

I cooked everyone delicious vegan food every day from tofu scramble to pea risotto all the while enjoying some delish holiday G&T’s whilst doing my thang in the kitchen haha – anyone else love a drink whilst cooking dinner?!

My sister and I introduced our parents to Queer Eye (if you haven’t seen this program you’re missing out- it’s the cutest) and we chilled watching tv or reading our books in the evenings…

All too soon however it was time for me to go home and back to work, whilst my mum, dad and sister were allowed to enjoy another couple of days there (I totally was not jealous!)

I love Alnmouth! If you live in the north east and haven’t been yet I highly suggest you take a trip to this cute coastal village with a beautiful beach!!!

DAY TRIPPING – DESTINATION ALNMOUTH

Published on August 6, 2018September 5, 2019 by simplycarinaxo8 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

Last week I was lucky enough to have 3 days off, which for me is very rare and thus meant that I actually had time to do something nice for myself once all the housework and various other tasks were completed. The weather was so nice and I was craving a beach trip, but not being able to drive made this wish a bit problematic. Sadly there aren’t many easily accessible by public transport beaches around, well not unless you want to sit on a bus for over an hour which for me is a big no no as I get serious travel anxiety when it comes to bus journeys that are longer then 20mins! After some research however I discovered that Alnmouth station was pretty easy to get to only being a 30min walk away from the beach and so I had my day trip destination.

The walk to the beach is quite a pleasant and easy to follow as it’s just along the main road. From the station you firstly walk through a small housing estate and then it’s out in nature with wild fields on your left and glimpses of the sea on your right. After about 20 minutes you reach central Almnouth and walk through it’s floral hanging basket lined street until you reach the golf course and the beach.

On my way down to the beach I came across these beautiful roses and I had to stop and give them a sniff – does anyone else do this whenever they see roses?! They smelt divine and I’m not going to lie, I was very tempted to snap one off and take it with me!

The beach was relatively busy, the sun was out and there was a light breeze rippling through my hair as picked a little empty spot to put down my picnic blanket. Once settled I sat back with my feet in the sand just enjoying being in the present moment and watching the world around me; the grandparents sitting in their folding chair reading their papers, children hopping from stone to stone and family’s running around playing Frisbee and flying kites. It was a beautiful afternoon.

It wasn’t long until I unpacked my picnic full of healthy vegan goodies and read a bit of my book whilst savouring my lunch. I had grapes, blueberries, pretzels, veg, hummus and crackers as well as a little can of G&T. It was the perfect picnic! Afterwards I lay down with my headphones on listening to my audiobook (The Count of Monte Cristo) and relishing the feeling of the sun warming my skin.

Sadly the clouds came in not long after and they didn’t seem to want to budge meaning I got chilly quite quickly and ended up deciding to pack up and head on home again, but not before I took a stroll along the beach and dipped my toes in the chilly sea of course. Although I was only there for about 2 hours, it really was worth it and I enjoyed every minute of my mini excursion!

I hope you’ve all found the time recently to go out and do something nice for yourselves too! I know I need to make time for myself like this more often. I don’t do it enough and it did me the world of good!

BEETROOT BROWNIES

Published on April 8, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo19 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

It’s time for me to share one of my favourite recipes with you – I hope you are excited!!!

This recipe is from the beautiful vegan cookbook Peace & Parsnips. I love this book and everything I have tried so far has been super tasty, so I can’t wait to try more recipes in the future!

I’ve made this beetroot brownie recipe a couple of times now; the brownies are super easy to make, perfectly moist and of course taste amazing! So no excuse not to try this recipe for yourselves!

I have altered the original recipe a little, but it is quite flexible so don’t worry about experimenting. Anyway, let’s jump right into it!

Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate
150ml vegetable oil
125g Flour
100g Prunes
100g Nuts
200g Silken tofu
125g Beetroot, finely grated
150g Unrefined brown sugar

(I also added some dried apricots and a little rosewater – although apparently not enough of the latter as I couldn’t taste the rose flavour – I need to experiment more with this I future)

Method:

Firstly, melt the dark chocolate carefully in the microwave on a low heat/defrost setting making sure you don’t burn it. Once melted stir in oil. Leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 190 degree.

Whisk tofu and sugar together in a bowl before stirring in the cooled down molten chocolate. Next add the beetroot, Prunes, and nuts (as well as apricots or whatever else you want to add) then slowly fold in the flour until all is combined.

Pour the mixture into a ca. 27×17 cm tin lined with banking paper and level out.

Pop in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes on the middle shelf.

Leave to cool in tray then lift out onto wire wrack and cut into squares. The brownies should be nice and moist with a slight crust on the outer edges.

Best served warm with vegan vanilla ice cream or fruit compote.

And there you have it! Brew yourself a nice cup of coffee, sit down, pick up your favourite book and enjoy this yummy treat!!

Please let me know if you try these as I’d love to see what you think!

CHRISTMAS !!!

Published on December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 by simplycarinaxo7 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

I’ve had a lovely couple of days off celebrating Christmas with friends and family. Being both German and Irish my Christmas traditions are a mixed bag and I love it. Here’s what I got up to.

I have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve – that’s the German tradition and I love it! This is the first year I have my own place and am not just home from uni for the holidays, so it was the first year I didn’t have a family breakfast on Christmas eve with my parents and sister. Instead I made a yummy brunch for Jessica and myself and we had a relaxing morning watching Santa Claus, drinking coffee and enjoying a cheeky sausage on avocado & egg toast.

After a lazy morning I packed all my things up to take to my parents later that day and got ready. I enjoyed the routine of glaming up and putting a full face of makeup on whilst listening to Christmas songs and feeling more festive with every song I sang along to. I decided to pair my LBD with a wine coloured polo neck as my parents house tends to be on the cold side compared to mine and then went for dangly earrings as a statement piece and dark lips to match the polo.

Just after 2pm my mum and sister picked me up and we went into Durham to go to the 3pm 9 lessons and carols service at the Cathedral. We didn’t stay for the full thing however as sadly being right at the back we could hardly hear and had to stand; however we did enjoy belting out some descants to our favourite carols before we left. As we’d left a bit earlier we decided to grab a coffee before heading home to give my dad a bit more time to rest because he wasn’t feeling great. We popped into Flat White in Durham and treated ourselves to some nice peanut butter bar thing too.

Finally it was time to head home and for me to see our Christmas tree for the first time!! I love our Christmas tree; we always get a real one and the pine just smells wonderful. After adding my presents to the pile under the tree I finished painting my nails (as I’d totally mis-planned my time getting ready earlier) and then we all sat down together for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was time for another first this year as we changed up our family traditional meal for some salmon with rice and salad. It was very tasty but I have to say I missed our usual Christmas eve meal.

After dinner we read the Christmas Story and sang some carols together in both English and German before sitting around the tree to open all our presents. We always take it in turns to open gifts so everyone sees what the other received and also so the process of opening gifts lasts as long as possible. About half way through we usually pause to make some tea and enjoy some Lebkuchen and Stollen some of our favourite German Christmas goodies. I’ll do a what I got for Christmas post soon, but for now I’ll just share my best present with you. I got a cello on loan!!! I haven’t played the cello in about 6 years as I’ve never owned my own instrument so when I stopped lessons after 9 years I had to return the cello to the music school. I’ve been itching to have another go at the cello for years now and so to finally be able to do this was the best present I could ask for – and it was a complete surprise! What made me even happier was that I remembered a lot more than I thought I had!

Eventually we were all tire and crept to bed, but not before filling each others stockings. You see with also being British we still get stockings and Santa on Christmas Day, even though Christmas eve is our main celebration. The last few years we started a new tradition where everyone in the family was responsible for one persons stocking, this year I had my mum. So the next morning I got everyone out of bed at around 9am – no more 6am wakeup calls like when I was younger, although I ma still always the first one up who gathers everyone together so that we can open our stockings together. Once opened we made breakfast and enjoyed a lazy morning. In the afternoon we went to pick up Jessica who was joining us for Christmas dinner and some games. It was a lovely afternoon which we ended with snuggling up to watch the Call The Midwives Christmas special before my sister drove Jessica and myself home.

On Boxing Day it was our turn to host and we invited my family over and my good friend Anna from work for a yummy spread, cocktails and games evening. We got stuck into Cluedo and Settlers which were both great fun!

So all in all it’s been a lovely couple of days relaxing and enjoying each others company with good food, drinks and lot’s of laughter. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Love Carina xo

GINGERBREAD BISCUITS

Published on December 23, 2017December 25, 2017 by simplycarinaxo4 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

A couple of days ago Jessica and I decided to bake some gingerbread biscuits and apart from placing them too near one another on the baking tray they turned out fab. They were super easy to make and I thought you might like to have a go too, so here is the recipe!

Ingredients

350g plain flour – 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda – 2 tsp ground ginger – 2 tsp of ground cinnamon – 115g butter – 175g of dark muscovado sugar – 4tbsp golden syrup – 1 egg

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas mark — Lightly grease or line two baking trays.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs; stir in sugar.
Beat syrup into egg then stir into flour mixture.
Knead the dough until smooth. Roll out to 1/2 cm thick on a lightly floured surface; stamp or cut out desired gingerbread men shapes.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden and puffed, about 10-12 minutes. Let them sit on the tray for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack.
Cool completely before decorating with icing.

Love Carina xo

MINI GETAWAY – DESTINATION EDINBURGH

Published on December 8, 2017September 2, 2024 by simplycarinaxo8 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

I have been savouring my last two days off relaxing in gorgeous Edinburgh with my sister. For once I was lucky enough to find a really cheap first class ticket from Durham to Edinburgh and I enjoyed the finer things. Well, I tried to; I kinda messed up the first class thing never having been before and missed out on half of the breakfast I could have had. Oh well, I’ll know for next time. I still enjoyed my croissant and chamomile tea whilst gazing out at the ever-changing scenery and listening to the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

It was a peaceful journey up, and I arrived with plenty of time to have another cuppa in a cute cafe near Haymarket before going to find the German consulate to get myself a German passport. Once that was all sorted I got on the bus google maps told me would take me to my sisters, however here was me failing at my finest because I didn’t think to check in which direction I would have to get the bus and so of course I soon realised I was half way out of town going in the wrong direction. The bus driver made my day though when I told him what I’d done and he gave me a free day ticket before letting me off to catch a new bus in.the correct direction. So a good hour later I finally found my sister.

We spent the whole afternoon relaxing at hers, but it felt nice to just chill drink tea, eat good food and really catch up. We don’t get many chances to spend quality one on one time together so it’s always nice when we do.

Today after athe relaxed start to the day we wandered around Edinburgh almost freezing ourselves to death it was so icy. But it was lovely all the same as the sun was out. Once we got to the Christmas market we treated ourselves to some delicious mulled wine to warm us up. It was yummy, and I decided to keep the cute mugs too. I love walking through the Christmas markets, they always make you feel so festive. It’s good I didn’t have much cash on me either because there were so many cute stalls with beautiful goods, I’m always especially attracted to the handmade wooden things, from tree ornaments to bowls.

When we’d seen most of the market and with still over an hour to spare till my train home, we popped into costa so I could finish this blog post. I bought a large Americano and was thoroughly disappointed, it came in what looked like a soup bowl with two handles and did not taste grear either. I swear I am spoilt with coffee now aha, since getting used to good coffee, its difficult to not compare coffee to my dads nowadays. Anyway after a short but sweet stay, I am now on my way back to Durham, but sadly not in first class.

Here are just some photos from my brief time with my sister in Edinburgh, enjoy!