A windy day at the beach on Mersea Island

On Saturday morning, Bradley and I met our friend Di and headed up to Chelmsford to spend the weekend visiting our lovely friends Si and Vicki. 

The last time we were in Essex was over New Years, when it was freezing cold and we didn't leave the house, and the time before last August when it was so hot we couldn't bear to stay inside!

This visit we found the weather a little bit of both, it was lovely and sunny, but the wind was blowing a gale. Keen to explore more of our Essex surroundings we headed to Mersea Island, a tiny island off the Essex coast reached by a bridge that frequently floods at high tide. The island is the most eastern inhabited island in England, and while bigger than I imagined, has only a small population of 6,500 people.

A day at the Fayre in Marylebone - but mostly just a food blog

We spent a good part of the day today at the Marylebone Summer Fayre. The Fayre is essentially a big street market, like one you might find in a small English town, with food stalls, games, a funfair and music in the park. All the surrounding streets are closed off to traffic and all money spent on the day goes to charity.

So it's all fun and for a good cause, but to be honest we were mostly there for the food.

Having realised we'd be out of London for the next three weekends, we decided to spend the mostly grey drizzly day outside at the fayre.

Climbing Walla Crag and a Visit to Buttermere

After the beautiful weather we'd had the previous day, we were pleased to see the sun shining again when we woke up on Sunday.

Having spent the previous day exploring the Southern part of the Lake District, we were keen to see some of the North where we were staying.

We started the day again with a yummy breakfast, mine included porridge with a shot of Whiskey, which is a fantastic way to start the day!

Not having much of a plan for where what we wanted to do, we started the day with a climb up Walla Crag on the recommendation of our B&B owner.

The fell is within an easy walk of Keswick, and is popular with walkers due to the amazing views you get over Derwentwater when you get to the top.

We loved the walk we had done the day before, though it wasn't too difficult, certainly there were no mountains to climb. So we started off with a bit of trepidation since we were in no way prepared for actual mountain climbing. We were both wearing jeans, and I was wearing converse sneakers..

Hawkshead, Grasmere and a walk through the Bluebells

For our first full day in the Lake District, we woke up early to beautiful sunshine and headed downstairs for a huge breakfast of granola and a full English, before heading to the bus station.

We were staying in the North Lakes, but we planned to get the bus down to the South Lakes and visit the pretty villages of Hawkshead and Grasmere.

The public transport in the Lake District is really good, they have regular buses going almost everywhere and it's almost cheaper to get a full day pass than it is to get a one way ticket.

We got the front seat on the double decker bus to Ambleside, and hopped off onto a smaller local bus to Hawkshead, a little village about a 20 minute bus ride to the West.