my heart lies south of the river

SATURDAY

Saturday started off with delivering my fabric to the dressmaker in Forest Hill which is not only a load off my mind but also very exciting. We stuck around in South London for some breakfast on the terrace at Café St Germain in Crystal Palace, and v.nice it was too. In the afternoon I met some friends for a mooch about in Richmond and a stroll along the river before heading up the hill via Richmond terrace gardens. I'm not sure how but, I always seem to forgot how amazing the views are from Richmond Hill. My apologies, these pics really do not do it justice. An early night was desperately needed on Saturday after a v.busy week. We also finally caught up on Game of Thrones.

SUNDAY

The gloriously sunny weather coupled with the lambing season (bear with me) could mean only one thing for Sunday... a trip to Vauxhall farm. We arrived by mid-afternoon and sure enough, munching away on a big bag of straw were 5 five week old lambs. One of the guys that worked there even brought one out so that the children (and me & mitch) could pet it. Tearing ourselves away from the lambs we stopped by to look at the bunnies, horses, pigs and hens. We also fed the goats and sheep before petting the largest guinea pig I've ever seen! The alpacas, who are usually more friendly, seemed quite content to sit and enjoy the sun on this occasion.

2 minutes from the farm is the Tea House Theatre, a very lovely, higgledy-piggledly (in a good way) establishment serving, you guessed it, tea and massive doorstop wedges of cake. It had a v.chilled out atmosphere - cakes were randomly distributed throughout the place and all the teapots, cups and cutlery were laid out on a large table at the back. They have a selection of books and board games that you can use so, whilst we listened to the live music (provided by a man playing what look like a lute?!) Mitch and I played draughts (I'm too stupid for chess). It's a little pricey but we did spend a good hour and a half there and the pot of tea we ordered lasted the whole time and, as I've mentioned, the slices of cake were ginormous. Their breakfast menu looked good so I'm tempted to go again to try that too.

All in all, a v.good weekend with lots of food, good company and a very healthy dosage of vitamin D.

super sunny weekend

Stupidly I got rather burnt last weekend - we hadn't seen the sun in so long I'd clearly forgotten what sunscreen was! As you can imagine I spent nearly the entire bank holiday weekend outside. Not only did I witness Mitch complete his 10k run, I also dropped in on vauxhall farm, enjoyed a stroll along the southbank and scoffed much tea and cake. Naturally.

On the left there we have Jerry the alpaca - he was v.friendly - and on the right, one of the 4 month old orphaned lambs taken in at Vauxhall farm. They've had a bit of a re-vamp at the farm since I was last there and now you can pay 20p for a handful of food to feed the animals. Needless to say, I was in my element.

More lambs, a very pretty duck and the bunnies snoozing in the sun.

These two little fellas were the farm's newest arrivals - only 2 weeks old! There were also 4 baby goats which I failed to get a snap of (probably because I spent most of my time feeding them).  You'll just have to take my word for it: they were v.cute indeed!

After an hour at the farm my friend and I walked from Vauxhall along the southbank in search of an icecream. I took this pic because London always surprises me with how beautiful it can look, especially by the river.

After the walk we headed back to Brixton and I made curry and he made jargaritas. Essentially a margarita in a jar but without the hassle of a blender because you just shake it up in the jar - genius! They were a-mazing.

Sunday was very much a family day what with my auntie and uncle in London for a  visit. My nan treated us to a lovely lunch before we all spent the afternoon and evening in my parents' garden - it looked so summery.

Ice tea and cake were the perfect accompaniments to the weather and this picturesque setting. My sister made pink lemonade cake which was so gooood. Must ask her for the recipe. Hope you all enjoyed the super sunny weather too!