Tag Archives: Cowes Week

This week I’m loving…

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Week Five.

A bit of a quickie this week, but a couple of things that have caught my eye I wanted to share, so:  this week I’m loving…

Giant Cushions from Runaway Coast

I spotted these while mooching around town in Cowes last week when Richmond Daddy, Baby, and I, were enjoying our Cowes Week day out, and I thought they were pretty gorgeous.  Oversized cushions, perfect for lounging on in the garden, they come in lots of delicious fabrics from stylish stripes to a patriotic Union Jack.  There are the original ones made from 100% cotton, which make for comfy indoor floor cushions, but the ones I particularly liked the look of are the splashproof ones, which are designed for outdoor lounging.  I think I might just have to order one to make the most of the last few weeks of summer, it looks like it might provide the perfect resting place for a weary head seeking 5 minutes in the sun with a glass of Pimms.  Mmmm, reeeeeelaaaaaax.  There are lots of other tempting things on the Runaway Coast website and the fact that the majority of their products are designed and made in the UK means that shopping with them is virtually an essential if you want to boost the British economy.  So, get to it!

Saint Valentine’s Liquorice Company

I am a lover of liquorice.  All flavours, all varieties, from Bertie Bassetts’ All Sorts and up.  So, I was intrigued by this company, also spotted during our trip to Cowes, and I had to investigate.  I bought a pack of the mixed bag of 10 sticks, assorted flavours, and mmm mmm mmm were they yummy?!  yes, they were.  Admittedly the mint flavoured fondant one did blow my head off slightly, but then I’ve always struggled a bit with mint, but the other flavours really did float my boat (see what I did there?  we were at Cowes Week… the flavours floated my boat… ahem):  blueberry fondant filled, tutti frutti, lemon, even the Cola Candy stick with Cola Lemon fondant – which does I grant you sound a bit gross – was absolutely deeeelicious!  You can buy online or from one of their mobile shops at festivals and events.  Seriously, if you love liquorice, you’ve got to try this stuff.

So, over to you, tell me – what are you loving this week?

We are sailing…

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Well, in truth, we weren’t, but it seemed like an appropriate title for this post, which is all about our fantastic day out yesterday at Cowes Week: one of the UK’s biggest and best sailing regattas.  To quote another song lyric, “oh what fun we had!” – we were invited to pop over to Cowes by a colleague of Richmond Daddy’s, who has a house there and is a sailing nut, so off we went for the day and had a whale of a time!

We caught the Red Funnel ferry from Southampton, which took a speedy half hour, Richmond Baby was very well-behaved (as always!) and enjoyed making new friends with the other passengers (some of whom were drinking Corona… it was 9.15am! I don’t like to judge, but really?!? I hadn’t even had my breakfast!).  When we arrived in Cowes it was a bit blustery and drizzly, but no matter as we had dressed for dodgy weather.

First stop was to meet with our friends, Richmond Daddy’s colleagues, and then we headed back to their house for a warming cup of coffee before we braved the seafront at Cowes Parade to watch a spot of racing.  I didn’t really understand what was going on, despite best efforts to explain to me where they were starting the race, finishing the race, and everything in between – it was a bit confusing as the boats just seemed to be going this way and that way all over the place.  Apparently the tide was pulling them one way and the wind pushing them another, which was making the water choppy and the sailing tricky.  Anyway, it was fun to watch even if you didn’t really know what was happening!

Although the starter cannons firing did make me jump, Richmond Baby seemed oblivious to them.  She certainly seemed to enjoy everything that was going on, although that’s perhaps not reflected in these pictures so much…  sometimes it is hard to get her looking and smiling at the camera at the same time, so often we just settle for looking in the right direction… or sometimes not even that!

Afterwards we had a wander around Cowes, popped into a few of the lovely shops – many of whom had some great sailing related shop window displays.  We also enjoyed some de-li-cious fish ‘n’ chips, yum yum (post pregnancy diet put to one side momentarily…).  Then we headed back to the Red Funnel to sail back to Southampton, tired and a bit buffeted by the wind, but very happy and having had a great day out.

Accessories include Silver Cross sailboat for chewing/sucking (thank you Nonna!)