Making the most of the sunshine

Not only is this weekend a Bank Holiday weekend - it's a lovely sunny Saturday

So far, Saturday has been a lovely day - My boyfriend and I decided to make the most of it and rather than going to the coast (like the rest of the UK - the roads seemed absolutely packed!) we headed 'North-ish' and went to Painshill Park - somewhere we've never been, despite actually living relatively close to it. Good old Google - always good for finding things!

Before we got there, we visited another Farm Shop. We love Farm shops - I know it's more costly than food you can buy in the supermarket, however it's always incredibly good quality and there's something quite nice about finding new chutneys or different types of garlic you can cook with. This time, we were looking for braising steak as tonight we're making the Hairy Bikers low fat version of 'Beef and Ale casserole' - I can't wait! It's currently in the slow cooker and the kitchen smells amazing.

So - Painshill park. What an absolutely lovely place. It only cost £7.70 per person and we actually stayed there for about 2.5 hours which is loads of time for us. It's a beautiful 18th century landscaped garden and it was so relaxing which was perfect for me, as my mind is sadly still on work stresses, even at weekends :-(

We decided to do the 2.5 mile 'Historical' walk which took us past all the different folleys and architectural buildings - there was a Turkish tent, a ruined abbey, a cascade, a waterwheel and even a Gothic Tower! (Which sadly we weren't able to walk the 100 steps to the top as it was closed). The weather wasn't too bad, not as sunny as I'd like, however thankfully it wasn't raining and it was just so relaxing to walk round, talk.. get out and about really.

We even had some lunch in the cafe - Once again, I remained on track with my healthy eating, picking the thing which seemed the best choice. Jacket potato and beans! I haven't eaten 'normal' potato for ages as I always tend to prefer sweet potato (yams, if you're American!) It came with loads of beans and some salad. I was just about to tuck in, when I realised they had also put a lot of butter on it, without me asking - I decided to spoon it out and stick it on the side of my plate. Why? As I didn't need it and preferred to try and be as healthy as possible.

After the walk, we checked how many steps we've done today and it's very close to 10,000! Brill! :-) Very happy with that and far better to be out and about than staying in and watching TV.

If you're interested in going to Painshill, check out their website:

http://www.painshill.co.uk/

I think we'll definitely be going back, it was one of the loveliest parks we've been to in a long time - perfect for a long walk on a nice day.