Hi all!
My name is Chiara and I am a Bookworm.
How are you?
I think most of you all know by now that it was my birthday on Friday. Did you not? Oh, sorry, well, it was.
It was, I am grateful to say, much like any normal birthday, even in the middle of a pandemic.
We got up early and piled on my parents bed and opened presents and cards and hugged and talked. We had breakfast and after my dad had taken my granny to an appointment we headed out.
We headed up north toward the lake district. The queues to get off the motorway to the lake district were tremendous. One lane of the motorway queueing for the exit for about a mile back. I was so glad we weren’t going to the lakes. There must have been so many people.
Instead we came off at Penrith and took loads of country roads heading up into the hills and across into Northumbria. The hills and the views were absolutely breath-taking. I spent several hours with my neck of a swivel trying to take in absolutely everything.
We stopped at this amazing peak around lunch time. It was called Hartside summit and there were mountains and valleys as far as the eye could see. There was a café and a few biker and cyclists and even a few nice cars made it up there.
I took some pictures while I was up there but I’ve not had the chance to look at them properly yet, so I am not putting them on here until I have.
We then headed up a bit further into the mountains.
We headed back in the afternoon and stopped at a really amazing service station along the motorway. It was mostly for the toilets but they have a a really great butchers there. As my mum calls it, it’s a proper traditional butchers. Whenever I go into a butcher’s I always ask if they have short rib. I love having some in the freezer to make a ragu with, or something similar. When I asked at this butcher he said yeah, and proceeded to bring out a whole half a cow and cut the ribs right there in front of us.
The services were called Tebay and it’s the same on both sides of the motorway, whichever direction you are heading in and all the meat, all the cheeses and the jarred goods are all from local suppliers in Cumbria. If you ever get chance stop there and have a look round.
All in all, I had a really great day just sat in the car and spending time with family. Almost the whole journey we listened to The Da Vinci Code audiobook, which I really enjoyed. I’m going to try and finish it this week. My brother listened to it for the most part as well and I actually think he enjoyed it. I don’t think he’ll go away and read the rest of the book, but he enjoyed what he listened to. It’s been a while since I last read Da Vinci Code and I forgot how complicated and in depth the whole story is. If you haven’t read it before, it is a must-read.
And I think that is all I want to talk about for today.
Come back next week for more insight into my life and I have a great list for Top Ten Tuesday tomorrow.
P.S. I just have to mention my amazing cake. My parents ordered me a cake from a couple of friends who set up a little cake shop right out of catering school. They do amazing shortbread and cakes on a normal day but this cake is better than anything I have had in a long time. So soft. So light! I am sat eating yet another slice of it while I am writing this. It’s good job I only get this once a year because I would be eating it all the time if not.
Bookworms Anonymous 