A week in the life of a lady on maternity leave

Have been loving these glorious autumnal days as me and Henry have been going about our business this week.

View from Henry's bedroom Monday morning

Monday headed to White Rose for lunch with a couple of friends also on maternity leave. Then headed to Country Baskets to pick up some bits and bobs to decorate our VW Campervans as we are attending a Wedding Fayre on Sunday 27th Nov at Barmbyfield Barn, Pocklington, free entry so would be great to meet you if you fancy coming down.

Tuesday was Henry's first train ride as we set off for Marsden for the day, met up with another friend for a token walk then back to hers for lunch.  Marsden is a gorgeous village in the Colne valley and if you ever find yourself out that way totally recommend Riverhead Tap Brewery for a local pint and scrummy food (part of the transpennine real ale trail). Also the annual jazz festival they have early October is always well worth a visit.

Wednesday was Henry's swimming lesson, gorgeous weather and love my walk up to the hotel.

He still looks a little confused by the whole thing but this week we went under the water with them so totally loving the nirvana album cover shot.

Thursday Jolly's brother, wife and niece were holidaying in North Yorkshire so we went and met up for lunch at the Tempest Arms , Elslack nr skipton.  This is where we got married 3 and a bit years ago and we head back every year on our anniversary and anytime we can find an excuse as the food is excellent and the pub is always very welcoming.

Friday was another lovely sunny day so figured should try and burn some of the excess off from the week so headed to buggyfit.  

Walk to Buggyfit pass the allotments

Low attendance this week as I think a lot of people away on half term but meant I had a personal trainer for an hour for the bargain price of £2.50, can't complain about that.

Saturday and sunday headed to my folks in Macclesfield as my sister Mandy creator of Belle and Boo was up visiting from London so caught up on gossip, ate nice food, wandered round some shops and played a bit of scrabble.

Who says maternity leave is all hard work!

Jolly Campers

More Happy Campers...


Dear Aly and Jolly,

Thanks for the hire of your campervan Penfold during the summer. We thought you might like to see a few photos of Penfold that we took after we had arrived in Durham and the sun was setting, and just before we headed inside for beers! 

We absolutely loved Penfold. This was our first time in a Vdub and we definitely caught the bug. Once we got used to the different driving experience we revelled in it. We were amazed by how much we were being checked out as we were parked at the services eating our egg sarnies and as we were driving into Durham a fella walking down the road gave us the VW wave, finally we were cool!!! 

Just love how ingeniously everything is hidden away, and was amazed by how comfy we were. We'll definitely be hiring again, for longer than a weekend next time. 

One tip I picked up - sometimes changing down the gears can be a little tricky for those of us used to modern gearboxes, the trick with Penfold is to "double-clutch" - clutch in once and move to neutral, clutch out and back in and move to the gear you want. Definitely helps prevent wrong gear selection. 

Best wishes,Emma and Ross