Hen Do Spa Weekend, Bit Of Gardening And SNOW?!

I had a lovely weekend on my wonderful best friend's Hen Do; we went to Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire (near Silverstone). As Jess had been here before and said it was lovely it was decided a while back that we'd go here and she was right. It's a lovely hotel and spa and I enjoyed the relaxation and giggles with my bestie. The food was wonderful too - a bonus because I adore food (just in case you didn't already know!). I hope Jess had a good time anyway; only 5 weeks until the wedding now!

I had a dessert for once! I had paid for it after all and it was delicious!

I said goodbye to Jess and the other girls on Sunday morning after we had checked out and made the short journey home. A very excitable Barry was waiting for me, crying like mad when he saw me. He enjoyed his boys weekend with Jack but was pleased his Mummy had returned. I took him for a nice walk around Sunday lunchtime and then spent the afternoon in the garden with the dog and the tortoises.

I had a good tidy in the garden; edged the lawn where it is overgrowing into the borders and path, looks much tidier now. I gave my herbs a spruce up and planted a new Mint; I went with a Moroccan mint as it smells lovely, but I did almost come away with a Strawberry Mint - amazing smell! The Montana Clematis is covered in flower buds so will look beautiful in another couple of week's time I should think. I'm also pleased to see everything has already grown somewhat in my wildflower/Alpine bed. It's already serving its purpose of attracting the bees and I saw a butterfly yesterday too. Just a few more plants to go in and it will hopefully be a nice busy and colourful flower bed. I think the bulbs that have come up are Alliums but I can't honestly remember what I planted last year!

Finally, it's Tuesday afternoon as I write this post and we've had snow showers on and off all afternoon. What's happening with the weather?! Does it not know it's May next week and we're meant to be having a garden party at my parents with family and friends this Sunday. I hope it warms up a little anyway, I've got so many plants waiting to go outside that I almost did put outside on Sunday only to have a harsh frost last night. I had to scrape the car this morning before work! I know I've moaned already about hay fever but I would rather the temperatures were in double figures!


I'm very excited for our dinner tonight; I put a beef brisket joint into the slow cooker this morning before work. I made a spice mixture of cayenne pepper, black peppercorns, mustard seeds, cumin and paprika, all grinded down in my pestle and mortar. This was then mixed with brown sugar and rubbed all over the meat before I added it to the slow cooker with some beef stock. When I got home from work a short while ago the house smelled delicious and sweetly spicy. I'm going to have a go at making a homemade barbecue sauce and then I'll mix this with the beef once I've shredded it. We're then having it in tortilla wraps with salad and coleslaw, yum! I'll let you know how it goes anyway and try and take some photos if I haven't already devoured it all.


Have a good week everyone!


Em x

Spa Weekend Turned Into An Eventful Weekend :-(

This weekend my best friend and I visited Ragdale Hall; it's honestly the most amazing spa and I'd recommend it to everyone! It's not cheap but I think it's totally worth it and this was my third visit. We have had this booked for weeks; I needed a bit of de-stress and I wanted to take my best friend away somewhere special to try and help her relax a bit given it's approaching two months since her Mum passed away (and quite understandably she is struggling with it all). So I had everything well planned to make this a special weekend for Jess, I even arranged for a surprise bottle of sparkling wine to be waiting in our room on arrival... only our arrival was a little late due to the fact I crashed Jack's car on the way there :-( I feel so stupid and guilty and my main worry was just the fact that I had damaged Jack's car and quite considerably too. I went into the back of a tractor/fork lift type vehicle, so you can imagine which vehicle came off worse! We're fine (everyone keeps asking if I'm ok but I'm just worried about Jack's lovely car!), but the damage to the front of Jack's car is substantial. I was a bit hysterical saying "Jack's going to kill me!" but he's been so lovely and keeps reminding me it's just metal and that he'd rather have me in one piece. I still feel so stupid and guilty though. The car was driveable so we got it to Ragdale and parked up and after a phone call to Jack he started sorting it with our insurer. We still went to the spa (couldn't get a refund that late anyway) and I think Jess still had a good time but I do feel like I ruined the whole weekend for her and I couldn't relax at all despite being in the best place to relax! The car was recovered yesterday morning after our one night stay at the spa and is being taken to somewhere in Newbury today to await assessment - we think it's a write-off but will have to wait and see. Jess' fiancé very kindly came and picked us up from the spa and dropped me off at Jack's parents and then Jack's Dad gave us a lift back to Newbury last night. I dropped Jack to work this morning in my car and hopefully we'll have a courtesy car soon.

Anyway, despite the fact it's all I can think about, enough about the car and let me share with you a few photos of our trip to Ragdale, http://www.ragdalehall.co.uk/, which is located just outside of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. It's in beautiful grounds, the rooms are beautifully decorated and comfy and the facilities are just amazing! There's lots to do there but all very relaxing and the food is lovely, which included a three course dinner on our first evening there, breakfast in bed (you pick what you'd like the day before) and then a hot and cold buffet lunch. Our package included a facial and back massage treatment which I really enjoyed using Clarins products which are my favourite anyway (I blame my Mum for introducing me to expensive beauty products, but considering mascara is about the only thing I wear make-up wise I think I can afford to spend a little more on a nice face cream!). I won't go on and on about our spa experience, but here's a few photos of our time there.

A little surprise for Jess on our arrival

 

Love it just because it's different!

 

This room is called "The Retreat" and it's a no talking room filled with sofas, bean bags and duvets to either chill out and read a book or just to snooze

 

My breakfast in bed!

 

The pool area

 

This is the outside area of the thermal pool - I've been here before when it was snowing and being outside was amazing. This is located in their thermal spa area which has multiple different rooms including a thunderstorm shower, volcanic rock steam room and a rose sauna

 

The Pavilion - Just another lovely sitting area

 

Lovely Food

 

... and lovely desserts!

 

Just a quick note to say thank you for the congratulations on the job front, very much looking forward to starting a new adventure there late next month!

 

Em x