A Mad Saturday...

Who needs a relaxing weekend at the cottage when you can try to cram an entire week's worth of jobs into one day?

Saturday was a complete whirlwind, but I loved every minute of it. Give me a shopping list, a car boot and a few Yorkshire market towns and I'm perfectly happy. It was also a great excuse to play tourist while picking up supplies for the cottage.

We started in Thirsk getting new keys cut, with just enough time for a wander around the market and a quick stop at the railway station to indulge one of our slightly geeky hobbies – watching trains on the East Coast Main Line.

Lunch came courtesy of Thomas the Baker in Kirkbymoorside before we headed to Helmsley for flowers from the wonderful Twig & Twine. From there, we called in at Farndale Store to pick up some of our lovely Harebell Soapery soaps and body butters before heading across Blakey Ridge and the moors to Newfields Organic Produce Shop for vegetables and a catch-up with Chris at Westfields Honey. I'll share more about the honey situation later this week.

As we were passing, we also took a detour to see how things are progressing at The Plough Community Pub. Fadmoor following its recent TV appearance. The new toilet block is really starting to take shape.

The afternoon took us to Pickering for chocolate supplies from Birdgate Chocolatiers for our next guests (and only a very small amount for ourselves, obviously) before a browse around the antiques and treasures at Ryedale Emporium.

By the end of the day, we'd travelled across half of North Yorkshire, ticked off a mountain of jobs and somehow still had enough energy left for a deep clean at the cottage. It's fair to say we have a very different definition of "taking it easy" to most people.