Sunny Sundays (and the rest of my birthday week)

 

Our week's holiday has come to an end and I have enjoyed every moment. I was feeling really poorly for a few days (thanks Keto) but I seem to be over it now. 

On Friday, Mr Poachie and I had a slow morning and then headed out for a bike ride.

We have a cycle path really close to where we live, it is an old railway line which means its easy to cycle, the views are gorgeous as it takes you through the rolling countryside and halfway along the route there is a village pub so we popped in for a drink, natch.

The path goes from Groombridge to Forest Row and takes a few hours to do the whole journey, I am hoping to cycle this route a lot now that we live here.

I really enjoy being out on my bike, I'm too much a calamity to do road cycling so this path is perfect for me. 

When we got home, we made up a picnic lunch and headed over towards Groombridge Place to sit and enjoy the afternoon sun. You can't picnic within the grounds, we were sat just in front of it as I wanted a picturesque setting!

In some ways, Friday was my favourite day and it was the least expensive thing we did all week. Just goes to show that it doesn't always have to be about fancy 'things' or eating in expensive restaurants.

I love being outdoors and having slow days. 

We saw this tree covered in wisteria so I had to go over for a sniff.

I wanted to include some photo's of my birthday cake that Mr Poachie ordered for me.

Isn't it fantastic?! 

I love Alice in Wonderland so he contacted a few local cake makers but they either priced it too high or said there wasn't enough time to make it for when he needed it, typical man left it to the last minute!

Then he found Great cakes by Gina and she made this wonderful, amazing cake! 

It was a surprise for me when I got home from the Cotswolds and it literally blew me away! It must have taken ages to make and the attention to detail is awesome.

Alice in Wonderland is in my top three of Disney films and when I was sixteen, my best friend and I were obsessed with the film, We used to watch it all the time and thought the Mad Hatters tea party was hilarious. I have always wanted to host a Mad Hatters tea party but for one reason or another, never got round to it.

The price she charged was half of what he was quoted elsewhere and we got 16 slices out of it so it was really good value for money. We have chopped it all up and put it in the freezer.

I wouldn't normally order a cake like this as I don't like icing and I often wonder about these cakes, that come with all bells and whistles, if they are actually any good BUT this cake was delicious. It is chocolate on the inside and honestly, really good.

It was delivered on Wednesday but we didn't get round to cutting it until today and it was still so fresh and dare I say, moist. Sorry, myself included, I know not many people are a fan of that word!

On Saturday night we had been out with friend's continuing on the birthday celebrations but had no plans on Sunday so we had a little tea party, just the two of us and then wandered up the road to watch the cricket in the afternoon sunshine.

I am really enjoying village life. The only thing I need to do now is go on the steam train! 

I was meant to go this week with a girlfriend but I was feeling so unwell I had to postpone it.

We popped into our local for lunch.

And then carried on enjoying the day. 

I don't understand cricket, or necessarily enjoy the game but I do enjoy feeling British and sitting in the sunshine.

We then took a slow walk around the village and bought some eggs from Archie. We can't work out if Archie is the name of the chicken, which in these non binary times is fine or is it the name of the resident?! I need to find out.

But in the meantime, I am very much looking forward to eggies for breakfast.

As a side note, to anyone wanting to try the keto diet, I now really regret eating that cake (as delicious as it is) my stomach has swollen up which is a problem I have a lot and one of the reasons I started the diet. So, if you are thinking about doing it, do the research as I didn't realise ketosis made you feel so ill and I'm presuming when I want to resume eating carbs, I should do it slowly and not shoving slabs of cake in my face!