Tuesday 25 June 2013

Champagne & Haunted Mansions

I've been doing my fair share of exploring and getting out of the city recently. On Saturday I made my way over to Holmfirth in Yorkshire for tapas, champagne and a lot of laughing.
Get in my belly... parma ham & melon

Holmfirth Vineyard

Chorizo fried with apricot and brie

I'd never been there before - such a beautiful part of the UK! We paid a visit to Holmfirth Vineyard hoping to have a tour and engage in some seriously sophisticated vino tasting. We were too late and the last tour was just finishing up as we arrived.

As it happens though, it was probably for the best - to say that the wine tastees looked windswept when they came in from the vineyard tour would be a massive understatement. The vineyard is on this huge hill, and with the wind, I was struggling to stay upright as we walked to the bar, so who knows how the party managed to feign concentration sniffing grapes.. or whatever it is you do wine tasting. Anyway. We sat inside in the warm and enjoyed a fine bottle of Merlot, a much better idea!

On Sunday, after all the over indulgence from the night before, it was time for a brisk walk in the woods.

We pretended we couldn't see the rain clouds or hear the wind and ventured out into the countryside, with wellies on and two excitable dogs at our heels.

Through the woods we stumbled across Storthes Hall, an abandoned wreck of a building that was once a "lunatic asylum". It was really fricking scary... look at it!! :-

Storthes Hall

Edging closer through rubble and overgrown bushes, we were suddenly stopped by a man shouting at us to get out - that we weren't supposed to be here, it was private property.

Startled (and just a teeny bit scared, although the boys would never admit that!), we ambled as quickly as possible back the way we had come. Spurred on by our semi-freakish experience, we spent the rest of the wooded walk swapping ghost stories, ending with a much needed cider at the end of the trail...

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... and then scaring ourselves again by watching 'Mama' when we got back (although I didn't really rate it to be honest, very weird towards the end... almost comical?!)

It's nice to get out and about but I wish the weather actually felt like summer!
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