country life.

Since I am running away from England in about a month, and have been living on limited funds, I decided that I would use my brother and sister-in-law's house as my holiday home this summer. 

They live in a beautiful house by the canal with the most comfortable sofa's and wonderful film collection. We cooked together looking out at the ducks and smooth flow of the water, baked cookies and drank beautiful bottles of wine from the south of France.

I spent most of my time there lazying around, reading, watching films and commentary episodes of Friends, and chatting with my big brother and sis-in-law. 

On the Sunday after I arrived we spent the morning at church before heading out into the countryside to a pick-your-own farm.

 Picnic food was eaten in an idilic village square, frisbees were thrown and then we headed down to the farm fields to pick ourselves some fruit and veg. 

Ready for an onslaught of photos?

Very informative board telling us what was available to pick and where everything was. 

I tasted - it was good!

They had rows and rows of corn growing, they looked amazing and my brother was pretty keen to go back when they were ready to pick. 

The place we went to is called Red Rose Nursery and seemed pretty popular with everyone. You could check their facebook page or sign up to a mailing list to find out what was in season and ready to pick.  I also got the feel that it was somewhere locals went to get their weekly fruit and veg- so if you live near one I would suggest trying it out and supporting the local business.

I loved it. It was fun to pick your own food and so much cheaper and fresher than the supermarket. 

We ended up making raspberry and white chocolate cookies, and threw the courgettes into pretty much every meal we had in the days after. 

If you ever get the chance to you should go, it was such a lovely day, and very family friendly- we had 3 kids under 10 with us and they all loved it. 

 Rachel