Saturday 20 September 2014

A Summer in Shropshire - Part 1


So at the beginning of August after we left Scotland, we headed to my parents in Shropshire to stay until it was time to move to Wales.


They really do live in the middle of nowhere!


Ella and I loved going on walks down the little country lanes to check out the animals!


Sadly the cows would not moo on demand for us!


We had a good little route worked out that didn't involve diving in the bush too many times when other traffic came! Fortunately it's pretty quiet around there!


That's my parents house peeking out...


One of the things I missed most living in Scotland was the abundance of farm shops that England has! So the first week we arrived we rectified that by going to 4 different farm shops in one week!



We went to Apley farm shop after reading it was one of the top 50 recommended in The Telegraph.


It was a lovely sunny day and Ella liked making friends with the baker!


They had a little petting zoo and lots of great things for older kids to do like be pulled around on mini tractors!


Ella was loving taking it all in!


even the chickens!


After we headed to our nearby favourite spot of Ironbridge



Is it not the cutest little place?


We had to pay a visit to Queenie's Cupcakery




Their cupcakes are delish! My Snickerlicious one was seriously one of the best I've had in a long while!





Ella slept through the whole thing! so missed out on her first try of cupcake ;)


Sadly the milkshakes weren't quick thick enough for my liking, but what's new! They certainly looked pretty!


We posed on their famous bridge!





and I loved all those cute little wildflowers in the front there!



We also checked out a new place with Granny in Shrewsbury called Eat Up!


It was very cool inside!


and Ella loved her little clip on to the table highchair that meant she was part of the action!



Milkshakes in milk bottles with stripey straws make me happy! if they were thick it would have made me even happier ;)


This was their naughty table full of treats! I had the chocolate malteser cake which was yum!

Whilst we're talking about treats, we headed to Liverpool for the day and checked out this cupcakery called Cuthbert's



They made Nutella cupcakes especially for our visit! No really, I asked them to on twitter! and this frosting was dreamy!


My Mom and I entered a guess the jelly belly competition in John Lewis trying to win a hamper of goodies! We're still waiting to hear if we were successful :)


We ate at Byron, because we love their burgers!




and because I was in desperate need of a thick shake - they delivered!


Mom dazzled us with her talents on one of their randomly situated pianos!


 Auntie Alli finally let us take her pic! these fountains were doing far more impressive displays but we couldn't quite catch them at the right moment!


Ella rode her first carousel!


and loved it! look at that little face!

 

 It was a great day out!


 We're lucky it's not too far from us!

 


We also got Ella acquainted with her new local community by taking her to 'rhyme time' as it's called now in England...no more book bug for us!


She loved it, as usual, and was entertaining everyone by getting very excited indeed about every song we sung! She was quite a hit, and all the little girls gathered around at the end to chat to her - it was super cute!


We also took her swimming at the local pool so Granny and Grandad could see our water baby in action! she loved all the floats and getting pushed around!


Sorry for the bad quality phone pics, I was trying to be sly!


Kicking out of the water is her favourite thing to do, so in the water she just goes crazy! her legs are like two crazy kicking machines!


and then we borrowed this float thinking it belonged to the pool but it actually belonged to another little girl there! Ella enjoyed it for the few seconds she was in it! haha


We went to Fordhall Farm, just 5 minutes down the road from our house


Ella loved the chickens the best!


I'd be scared of that giant pig too!



 and we stopped in for a spot of cream tea on the way home! where we got served warm scones with clotted cream!! none of this other cream we used to get in Scotland!! it was the real deal!


and Ella slept her way through it again, it's tiring work being such an adventurous baby!