Llana Fearn – Page 3

Llana December 13, 2021

Easedale Tarn and Tarn Crag | Grasmere

It’s 10pm Monday evening and I’m in bed with a hot water bottle on my toes reflecting on what has been a busy but truly lovely weekend. We took Friday off to get a walk in, as the forecast said it was meant to be the perfect winter day, pure blue skies, no wind but it wasn’t as expected. We decided on a shortish walk from Grasmere up to Easedale Tarn and had planned on walking right around on to Helm Crag and back down but we set off a little later than planned and cut the walk short down Tarn Crag. We only ended up taking one bag with a sandwich each, some water, a flask of hot chocolate and that’s pretty much it. We should have known that Met Office can never be trusted, and packed ourselves a waterproof each but you live and you learn! When we got home I prepared some food some friends we had round that evening and ended up staying up well past my bedtime! I feel like it’s all caught up on me and I’m literally falling asleep as I type this… so I’m going to leave it here. Love, L.

Llana December 8, 2021

Decorating for Christmas

Our first Christmas in our first home together. What an amazing feeling! When we were renovating (still are), it felt like forever until we’d actually be in, settled and making our house a home. We still have so much to do but I love how cosy the living room is at the moment. We usually get a real tree for Christmas but we’d easily spend £60 a year on that for it to be then thrown out, so this year I decided to get us a fake one from Habitat. It was £90, so a low end/mid range price in comparison to a lot of trees you see on the market but I am actually super happy with how it looks. It’s actually reduced at the moment if you’re a little late to the Christmas party, you can find it here.

I used all the decorations I had accumulated over the years. Many bought in sales and the odd one here or there that we picked up whenever we visited a nice shop. I just bought a roll of tartan ribbon from TKMaxx and made some bows to add a touch of red and I’ll also use some to hang the wreath I made on the front door. I also bought some trays with oasis in to decorate the mantle with some foliage I’d collected. I think it needs a bit of colour or some delicate fairy lights but I’m super happy with how it turned out!

This weekend I have some friends coming round for tea, some house work to do and the last bits to find and order for the bathrooms. And I think we are going to make time to get ourselves to Manchester Christmas markets, seeing as I couldn’t get there the other week and last year was a right off. I’m not letting anything stop us enjoying ourselves or spending time with loved ones this year! Have a lovely week! <3

Llana November 29, 2021

First snow of 2021

Storm Arwen

Well, that certainly wasn’t the weekend I was expecting or had in mind. I had train tickets booked to Manchester with my friend Bethany, so we could enjoy the Christmas markets, eat some nice food, buy some Christmas presents and just treat ourselves.. but most the trains were cancelled and we missed the only one that was running, which I’m kind of glad about because it doesn’t look like we’d have made it home! So instead we treated ourselves to breakfast at the Farmhouse Kitchen in Kendal, walked round the shops and had a little ride out to Ambleside. By 3pm I was shattered and ready for a cup of tea and a lie down. No sure how I would have ever managed a whole day in Manchester!

On Sunday I’d planned to get up really early, pre sunrise, for a walk in the Lakes but obviously due to the weather the roads weren’t great so we stuck to the good old Howgills, right on our door step and had a wander up on to Arant Haw. It was so slippy most of the way up but once we got to where the thick snow was it was so magical. I just hope it snows like this on Christmas Day because it’s our first year hosting and I want it to be extra special this year! It was tough going, I haven’t been on a proper walk in so long, I felt out of touch with it. The best part is when you get back down and you go to the pub or a cafe and order something sweet and warm, like hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and a huge bowl of cheesy chips with sweet chilli sauce. Yep, that was my order at Smatt’s Duo cafe in Sedbergh, the perfect after walk combo.

Josh and Dan with Arant Haw in the background

Mum, Dad and Erik at the top of Arant Haw. Great timing with the little love heart snow flake on Erik’s cheek.

Mum and I at the top of Arant Haw

Snow covered Howgill Lane

Mum and a ginormous hot chocolate in Smatt’s Duo

Llana November 22, 2021

Nimsdai Purja – Kendal Mountain Festival

Anything is possible

On Friday afternoon, Josh and I rocked up at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, ready to watch an early screening of Nimsai Purja’s 14 Peaks, Anything is Possible.. until I actually read my ticket and we should have been at a totally different venue, so we ran back to the car and off to the Leisure Centre we went. The film was incredible and I highly recommend watching it when it’s released in a few days time on Netflix. We’ll certainly be watching it again!

The footage was all recorded by Nims and his team which is incredibly. But what inspired me most was Nims and his team approach to life. They weren’t too serious, they knew how to have good time but more importantly they were team players. They knew that to achieve what everyone thought was impossible, they would have to be able to rely on one another because on your own, something like this would be near impossible.

After the film ended there was a standing ovation, as the whole room welcomed Nims on to the stage. I was already emotional after seeing Nims Mother on screen – who reminded me so much of my Thai Granny, so it was real hard to hold the tears back. I felt, in a sort of way, proud that someone from a Nepali background was making history and setting the pace for future climbers and adventurers, even though I’m not Nepalese myself! Kendal Mountain Film Festival is one of the best events held so close to home, I’m already looking forward to next years and making a full weekend out of it. Who knows who we might see there next year!

Llana November 14, 2021

A day in Edinburgh

Christmas Shopping, eating & drinking

We had originally planned to stay in Edinburgh for two nights to celebrate my birthday and as just a little break for the two of us, seeing as we haven’t really been anywhere or spent some time and money on ourselves in so long. Then 2 weeks before our weekend break, the Air BnB cancelled on us and every hotel, bed & breakfast, apartment etc. were charging well over the odds so we decided to keep our reservation at one of our most loved restaurants and get the train up for the day and head back home for the evening.

We got one of the earliest trains from Oxenholme to Waverley, which took around 2 and a bit hours. When we got to Edinburgh the sun was shining and it was just the most perfect crisp November morning. We headed over to St James Quarter which has a whole load of lovely shops and a huge John Lewis which I’ve never really shopped in before, but it was great to get some ideas for Christmas presents.

We forgot how much shopping and travelling really tires you out and because we are so out of sync with doing stuff like this, we were really looking forward to sitting down and having some food at Tattu. Ah, the food, the service, the atmosphere, the decor is just unlike anywhere else and we had a lovely waitress called Alba who looked after us for the afternoon.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Alchemist and enjoyed a few cocktails each before getting the train home. It was such a lovely day but I did feel like we needed a few extra hours or a night in the city centre so we could spend a bit more time browsing, eating and drinking. I’m looking forward visiting the Manchester Christmas markets in a few weeks time!

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Hello & welcome to my very messy ‘dressing’ room.. This was me at 7:30am drinking Lemsip, waiting for Josh to get out the shower.

What I’m wearing:

Topshop Jeans, here

Zara boots, here

Zara body, here

River Island bag, here

All Saint leather jacket, here

Leather belt old from ASOS

I treated myself to the green/yellow jumper from & Other Stories whilst n Edinburgh, you can find it here. But this colour doesn’t appear to be online.

Tattu

Our original booking for when we were staying over was for the evening but the lovely lady I spoke to helped us change our reservation to earlier in the day, so we were able to enjoy the food and a few drinks without having to rush off to catch the last train home. We had a sticky beef short rib and Sznchuan rock shrimp for starters. The rock shrimp was delicious, highly recommend that if you go. Then for mains we shared the fillet steak and caramel soy with duck egg and Chinese sausage fried rice, Thai style crispy monk fish and special fried sweet potato. The fillet steak was beautiful and perfectly cooked, highly recommend. You can find the Edinburgh menu here.

Llana November 3, 2021

Autumn Days

Wonderful colours of Autumn

Isn’t nature just delightful? I love it when the seasons change and now that the rain has (dare I say it) finally stopped.. the colours of the leaves changing from green to gold and the soft sunlight in a morning after the clocks changed over the weekend is just magical. I love this time of year! We have lots planned this month, so I’d like to begin posting regularly again by sharing 2 posts a week, on a Wednesday and a Sunday, over the next few months because I always find November and December to be the busiest and most fun months of the year and I love documenting it by taking lots of photographs!

I recently started selling a lot of my old clothes on Depop in order to treat myself to some new items for my wardrobe. I’ve always loved fashion and trying to dress nice, and that’s what I’d really love to share more of over the coming months but I’m ordering stuff and not liking in and having to send it back which is so frustrating. I just have no idea what I like anymore or how I want to dress. I find there’s just way too much inspo out there and a lot of the stuff I like on other people just doesn’t suit me. I loved the years I used to wear chunky loafers, tights and mini skirts, those were my favourite outfits but I can’t even find any skirts I like or any shoes, other than trainers, but I want something that’s a bit more dressy and not so casual. Gosh, that was a ramble. Hopefully I’ll have my style figured out soon so I can share some outfit posts and rope Josh in to helping me with those.. wish me luck!

Llana October 31, 2021

B&W photo diary

Happy Halloween! If I remember correctly, Halloween is always this wet & miserable! I’m just glad to be sat in front of my fire with a cup of tea after a lovely weekend at home.

This weekend we were puppy sitting Toby, Josh’s brother and girlfriends 6 month old Labrador. He was the cutest, most chilled little guy and Erik loved him! It would be nice to have the space and time for another dog but most definitely not in this house as we don’t have much garden space for them to run around in. Plus, I can imagine life would be pretty hectic with two large dogs in the house!

Today we went for a walk with my parents, prepped a cottage pie for bait boxes and headed over to Hayes in Ambleside for some Christmas decs but only came home with a Yankee candle ‘tree farm festival’ which FYI smells amazing, 2 baubles, some dog treats and some chutney for our cheese boards we find ourselves eating most nights over Winter period. We then decided to stop and have a Sunday roast at a pub on the way home, which was nice but now I’m sleepy after just one glass of red.

I’ve really missed blogging and I’ve really been wanting to get my camera out again to film a bit more, so I’m hoping to do a bit more of that over the next few weeks and over Christmas when we decorate and do lots of winter hiking/camping. I go through stages of not wanting to share anything and now all I want to do it film, photograph and edit. Speak soon! L x

Llana October 26, 2021

Photo Diary from October

It’s been 20 days since I last posted and it feels like so long ago. I’m trying to be a little more present whilst spending time with Josh, friends and family and even when I’m just out walking Erik. It’s felt so nice to spend less time on my phone and more time in ‘real life‘.

I haven’t taken many photos this month but here are some I did manage to capture. Special moments, like my childhood best friends first time swimming in cold water, food & drink, sunsets, Erik and our cosy living room, the view of the trees, celebrating big birthday’s like my Gran’s 80th, spontaneous evenings at our local and more.

What I’ve discovered over the last month is that I’m so happy when I’m cooking and testing out a new recipe. Saturday morning’s are my favourite. I love to watch James Martin’s Saturday Live Kitchen and wake up early on a Sunday and just sit in silence on the sofa with a cup of tea. I love organising my drawers and folding my towels and tea towels like Marie Kondo, hoovering & cleaning. Wow you can really tell I’m approaching my late 20’s now.

I’ve enjoyed finishing a few jobs off in the house, making it cosy for winter, relaxing in front of the fire, watching some hella good series like Squid Game and finally season 3 of You. We celebrated my brothers and my Mum’s birthday in September and my Gran’s earlier this month, so we’ve eaten out a lot! Last weekend Josh and I hosted a Dishoom evening and cooked a Salli Boti curry with gun powder potatoes, onion bhajis, chicken tikka skewers and I made my first tiramisu which was delicious if I do say so myself. 4 of our close friends came round for a lovely evening of food, wine, cocktails and bad dance moves. It was so much fun and just what I needed. It’s felt so good to just do some normal things again with the people I love. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the people I love half way across the world, in Thailand <3

Llana September 29, 2021

Ready for Autumn

The end of a wonderful summer

This time last week, if you’d have asked me ‘are you looking forward to Winter?’ I’d have honestly said ‘absolutely not’ but after a walk and chit chat with my Mum this evening, wrapped up in a knitted jumper, an oversized waterproof jacket, my woolly socks and walking boots, something about the cooler air and sun setting early just felt special and I’ve decided I’m going to fully embrace the colder days and darker nights, instead of continuously moaning about it and wishing my life away – who’s with me?

We had a really lovely Summer and I feel like this was the first year we really made the most of our surroundings. We’ve swam, paddle boarded, hiked, camped and ran more than ever. I’m still itching to discover some new places off the beaten track and hopefully we can over the Winter months when the Dales and the Lakes are a little quieter. That is what I’m looking forward to the most, Winter hikes and hopefully some Winter camps!

Wastwater, Wasdale

Llana September 20, 2021

The best loaded fries at Sticklebarn | Great Langdale

Chasing waterfalls & eating good food

After a day spent in the sunshine, swimming in streams and under waterfalls, the only thing that could put the cherry on top of the cake was some really good, finger licking, plate scraping kind of food and I’m so glad that the Sticklebarn in the Langdales just knows exactly what you need after a day in the hills.

We sat outside because it was scorching and enjoyed a cold cider. It was the perfect cool down whilst we waited for our supper! The views of the Langdales from here are stunning and the amount of people coming and going from here is really lovely to see, so it’s a great place to people watch or bump in to someone you know, especially if you’re a local!

Moving on to the most important thing part, the food.. Josh and I shared the hummus bowl & toasted flat breads and the loaded fries too. They are certainly generous portions but us being us could have totally eaten another portion of each! Instead we went for pudding and ordered the raspberry brownie with coconut cream (sorry no photo of this one, we dug straight in!) and let me just say.. wow. So good! We shared that between us again too but next time I’ll be getting my own.. as well as the loaded fries and the hummus! I’m always extra ravenous after a walk and swim, especially when it’s this good.

There is a National Trust car park about 100 metres from the Sticklbarn, so if you’re a member don’t forget your card!

The Sticklebarn is dog friendly, inside and outside, so it’s the perfect place for your pup to have a snooze whilst you enjoy a drink and some food.

Tables are available on a first come first served basis and there are a lot of tables to chose from usually.

Llana September 14, 2021

Cornwall | Part 2

By the coast

Don’t mind me, just reliving last Monday in sunny Cornwall whilst the weather here in the Dales has turned cold, wet and dark! The last few days of our trip down South were a mix of gloomy, misty weather, to glorious blue skies and seas. We wanted to cram as much as we could in, so here are a few of the things we got up to on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning, before making the 7 and a half hour drive back home.

St Ives | Beer & Bird

On Saturday we were a little tired, so we had a good old mope around St Ives and lingered outside Beer & Bird until it opened at 12pm. We’d been dying to try this spot, but the other nights we’d tried to get in they were full and unfortunately booking a table wasn’t an option, which was understandable, so we made sure we were first in the queue for Saturday lunch! Josh went for the K Pop Coq burger which consisted of… buttermilk fried chicken, gochujang hot sauce, kimchi slaw and honey sesame dressing. He said it was delicious! I.. well, I went for a whopper. The Sweet Mercy. This one consisted of.. buttermilk fried chicken, candied maple syrup, chilli jam and a wheel of deep fried camembert. Mmm, mm, mmmm!

Kynance Cove

On Sunday we made our way to Lizard Point to go paddleboarding but we spotted that Kynance Cove was only a short drive away so we made a little detour, as it was somewhere on my must see list for this trip. The car park is a National Trust one, so if you are a member it’s free.. don’t forget your membership card! It was only around a 5 minute walk from the carpark down to the cove. It wasn’t the best of days weather wise but it did make it super eerie and reminded me a bit of those scenes from King Kong where they approach the island by boat in the mist.. spooky! There is a little cafe down there, so we stopped for a brew and there are lots of nice little hidden spots where you could sit and have a picnic, go for a swim etc.

Lizard Point | Paddleboarding with seals

After watching the seals the other day following some swimmers, we really wanted to get a little closer ourselves.. and of course go back to Polpeor Cafe for scampi and chips, so we blew up the paddle board, jumped on board (Erik included) and paddled a couple metres off shore. We spotted our first seal which was bloody huge, so quickly did a u-turn and got back off, lol. When that humungous thing disappeared, we were greeted by a playful young pup who was inquisitive but kept his/her distance.

Carbis Bay

Monday was our last day in Cornwall and the forecast for the day was the best we’d seen it. We’d spent the morning slowly packing our camping gear away, ate croissants and sipped our tea in the warm morning sun. When we were ready to leave, we decided not to stray too far off route so headed down to Carbis Bay. It was the most beautiful morning, the sea was so blue but super cold!

Carbis Bay Beach Club & Spa

We decided to have a bite to eat and a drink before heading home at the Carbis Bay Beach Club & Spa. It was a little pricey but the food was really good and we were just so happy to be sat in the sunshine looking out to sea. It felt like a proper holiday!

Llana September 8, 2021

A week in Cornwall | Part 1

Cornwall Part 1

What a week! It’s been a total whirlwind but we needed this break from normality to do something fun, to see somewhere new and to eat all the best food. I’m breaking up our week in Cornwall in to two blog posts, because we all know I love to take a lot of photos!

Last Monday we left our home in Cumbria at midnight, and travelled all the way down to the very tail end of England to St Ives. It took us over 8 hours, with 2 stops and an hour stuck on the motorway because of an accident. I do not recommend attempting to drive through the night without any sleep that day, it was torture, my eyes were burning so Josh had to drive most the way.

When we arrived in St Ives the sun was shining, it was just the most beautiful morning. We walked from our campsite in to town along the coastal path where we spotted our first seal. The town itself was heaving, there were people everywhere and all cafe’s/pubs/restaurants were full. We managed to get some breakfast at a little takeaway called MOR, then made our way back to the campsite to set our tent up. We spent the rest of the afternoon on Porthkidney beach but we didn’t rate it, it was very big and spacious but so windy.. perhaps it was just a bad day for this particular beach.

The Devils Frying Pan

Lizard Point

Coastal path from Cadgwith to Lizard Point

On Tuesday we walked from Cadgwith to Lizard Point. It was a long walk but fairly quiet, with some pretty spectacular views. The best part for me was reaching Lizard Point and ordering scampi & chips from Polpeor Cafe, the most southernly cafe in Britain and finishing it off with one of their homemade donuts topped with jam and cream. It was that good we ended up having food here again later in the week and of course I ordered the same two meals. If it’s a good day, it’s great to sit outside and watch the seals in the sea below.

Pedn Vounder

Pedn Vounder Beach

I had read a number of blog posts on this beach, so it was on the top of my list of beaches to see in Cornwall. It was stunning and my photos don’t do it much justice. The Cornish Life and Meet Me by the Sea have some great photographs which of course tempted me to this beach in the first place. We spent all day Wednesday and all day Thursday here, soaking up the sun, swimming, trying to balance on the paddle board and even made some friends on one of those days. Erik got to make lots of doggy friends too, and met another German Pointer from Bath who was a similar age.

Tintagel Castle

On Friday we made the long journey up to Tintagel. I must admit, we were both a little disappointed when we got to Tintagel Castle and paid the £32 entry fee to find that there actually wasn’t much of a ‘castle’ to be seen. Don’t get me wrong, the views were stunning but for £32 we kind of felt a little cheated. You can still visit Tintagel and see the views without having to pay to enter the castle site which I’d recommend instead.

Padstow

On our way back down from Tintagel we decided to stop at Padstow. Padstow has to be my favourite town in Cornwall that we visited. It was lovely and small, plenty of quaint shops, pubs, cafes, restaurants etc. but a much nicer vibe than St Ives. We actually really wanted to go to Rick Steins fish and chip shop but just weren’t fancying it, so instead we got a bite to eat at Cafe Rojano. We didn’t order much, because we were expecting to eat when we got back to the campsite but had we known it was going to be so good we would have gone all in. We went for the crispy baby squid, diavola pizza and the Rojano chips. Each dish was fantastic and all the other dishes we drooled over coming out the kitchen looked insane also. For pudding Josh had the affagato and I had went for another prosecco. We ended the evening in Newquay at Fistral Beach where we met Josh’s brother and his friends and watched the sun disappear behind the sea.