It's been a Good Friday!

Mostly because it's felt like a Saturday, then you get a quick boost because you realise that tomorrow is actually Saturday!

It's been sunny and warm ( in the car ) and sunny and a bit cold with a chill wind  ( out of the car ) . We couldn't decide whether to head North up t'Lakes or East t'Wensleydale and cheese! 

Well, seeing as I'm on a ( yet another ) FINAL weight loss thing, we thought the cheese shop best stay out of reach! So we headed to the Lake District. It was bustling with throngs of human beings out enjoying the sunshine. 

Of course I couldn't go home without a trip to heaven aka Lakeland. I'm lucky to get to go to their Flagship store so often! And I'm doubly lucky to have a very generous HG! He lets me look at all the things! 

Today's haul... I looked at...

A new baking sheet, int sale 

A new Yorkshire pud tin, int sale

A spare oven shelf - genius- int sale

A new grater, int sale

Some roasting film, to try, int sale

Parchment lined foil FULL PRICE!! 

Two new loaf tins, but one get one 1/2 price. I thought they looked interesting and one of mine needed replacing and I didn't have a small tin. The soda stream stuff had £1 off. The Vit C is for my bread. My old school recipe used to have us taking in half a vitamin C tablet to crush up and to add in. I think it helps with preservation - like my bread lasts long enough!! But I am intrigued to see if it does anything to the flavour. The refil cartridges are for our portable dehumidifier and the sealed bags? For the HG maggots!! 

For tomorrow's tea we procured some Herdwick Lamb, absolutely the nicest lamb to eat ever. Not from a field or anything, we bought it from Booths! Booths is a bit like a Northern Waitrose, but I think they've been around longer.

On the way home we stopped at a place called the Heron Corn Mill. It is a working mill but the original has been preserved and restored so that folks can learn stuff on a jolly nice day out! 

At first I thought it was plastic ...

But nope, t'was real. This was the river downstream that feeds the water wheel.

This is the waterfall upstream. 

Taken from inside the water wheelhouse. 

This is the drying room or the kiln room. The oats - corn was the generic term used for any grain - were laid out on this tiled floor and a fire was lit underneath. 

The kiln fire. 

The tiles had little holes in it to let the heat through. The grain was then poured through various hoppers and ground into flour. 

One of the old millstones. Almost as big as me! We are the same round size though! 

This was turned by the waterwheel. The rhythmic sloshing was loud and persistent and had me rushing to the loo!!

Bad photo and I did shoot some video but it's not loading up for some reason! 

Anyway once we were ready to leave I bought three bags of their flour and I got a free bag! Bargain. 

The weather is supposed to turn overnight so I'm glad we got out today. 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *Going to bake bread tomorrow* Radiostar xxx