Piketures

Last Sunday the sun decided to come out for the day so we did too. We finally went on a walk up to Stoodley Pike. Not all the way from Hebden as that would have taken all day, but we did our 3 hours of walking in the sunshine (and the wind) and I came home happy.

I would have been even happier (and less sore the next day) if Boyfriend hadn't decided to ignore the footpath that looked like a bit of a detour and just walk in a straight line up the hill. There was a little shouting at one point that sounded like "I'm never listening to your ********* ideas ever again!" as this is the third weekend in a row that we've followed Boyfriend's suggestions and they've ended up being pretty rubbish. I won't go into any detail but just picture a rainy outing to a forgotten (read boring and depressing) village near Doncaster, and a drive to the West coast to a town where everything was closed and we had to walk for miles along the rainy seafront because we got blocked off by some kind of car race. We even drove home via Blackpool just to make the whole experience a bit more scary.

Anyway...this is a rubbish photo but it will give you a better idea of just how steep that hill was and how wearing skinny jeans when having to lift your legs almost up past your ears isn't such a good idea. 

Once we got to the top I changed back into a happy (but very windswept) bunny. You can see for miles and miles in all directions and the sun made everything beautiful and perfect.

There are steps up to the top of the inside of the pike but they've been blocked off. There. This was your trivial piece of information for the day.

Boyfriend on the way down. We used the path this time. You can't tell but he's still looking very smug at having managed to get me to climb up that hill.

 

All in all another gorgeous place right outside our doorstep. I'm glad Spring seems to be on its way because that means we get to do lots more exploring over the next few months. In case you were wondering, we still go to bed every night telling ourselves how lucky we are to live here.

Oops! Nearly forgot: there are lots more pics of Stoodley Pike on my flickr account right here

Rio - part 3

Ugh. The rain! The hail! The snow? Errr...hardly. But I still think we could all do with a few rays of sun this morning. So I'm taking the Rio recap one day further. To the day we went to see the famous Corcovado statue, among other things.

The actual statue seems much smaller in person because it's standing on a very tall pedestal, but still well worth the climb up fifty flights of steps (ish. The heat may have made me exaggerate a little). And the view! Breathtaking.

We didn't know it at the time, but the next day we would be trekking along in the middle of that broccoli-filled jungle up to the top of Mount Tijuca. With our very own thunderstorm and everything.

This was our last full day with the main group (the afternoon was spent at the botanical gardens but my camera had run out of battery, so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was beautiful) so that night we headed down to a very swanky club called the Scenarium for a bit of partying. A huge and beautiful old building filled with all sorts of random memorabilia, furniture, collections of all kinds and, well you can see for yourself here and here because it's pretty hard to describe. These are my best shots.

The next day we said goodbye to the Windsor, our daily chocolate on the pillow and the view of the Copacabana beach huts from our bedroom window.

Because it was time to say hello to a new little slice of paradise: the Um Meia Tres bed and breakfast (run by an English couple, strangely enough) up in the Santa Teresa area of Rio.

So much more personal and charming than the Windsor if you ask me! We even had our very own balcony with views of the city and the erratic electrical cable system that seems to reign over Rio.

I can't really decide what I liked best about this place, the nice cool room, the friendly owners, the amazing flower garden, or the pool that basically backed onto the rainforest...

Oh no, I remember: my favourite part was the wildlife! We found this little guy in our bathroom after coming home from dinner on our first evening: 

And in the morning, we were awoken by a strange noise that I initially thought to be birds, but turned out to be a bunch of these:

This one was trying to tell us to get out of bed and join him for a breakfast of freshly picked banana.

Stay tuned for more pictures of marmosets and other Riocan adventures!

Mirrors and polish

At last! A post related to new happenings in the house of bunnies and stripes! 

I'm just going to keep it short and full of keywords : vintage - mirror - bargain - dreamy - local - bees - yummy smells - pretty wood

What do you think? For ten beans I couldn't not take it home with me. It was hidden away behind a picture frame in the back of the local antique place. I hadn't been for a while and felt I might be missing out on a bargain. I think it was calling for me.

Let's ignore the fact that it's missing a bracket and that I haven't actually got anywhere to put it in this house since I'm not allowed to drill holes in the walls (otherwise let me tell you, the wall above the fireplace would be a wild and wonderful display of vintage mirrors). For now I just want to admire its beauty. 

Let's also ignore the poor quality of these photos. What can I say? It's dark in Yorkshire, even with all the lights on.

 

Such pretty shapes! Such vintage appeal! My heart is about to explode, so let's move on to a totally unrelated topic. Yesterday I found some 100% natural beeswax polish so I polished my coffee table and dining table today and although you can't really see a big difference, it does make the room smell amazing as well as making me feel good about myself for taking care of my furniture. So there.

On an even more unrelated topic, we recently made friends with some lovely cowbears (that's what I'm calling them anyway, I think there actually called Highland cows). There are lots more pics on my flickr page here, some of them more dramatic, some of them a bit L'oréal-ish. This is my personal favourite. Which one is yours?