Summer Loving: Part 2

After all the excitement in York and Wales with my family, it was time to head south to Chichester for our second wedding of the summer. This time it was our lovely friends, George and Leah, from Brighton tying the knot.
It was incredibly hot that day, Chichester is a beautiful city and it was heaving with people out enjoying the rare British sunshine. We made our way to the hotel and freshened up before leaving for the venue.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was wonderful to see old friends and it was a pleasure to do it at such a lovely place on such a brilliant occasion.
I remembered to charge my batteries this time, so here's a few pictures from the big day.

Leah was so beautiful in her dress, there were buttons running all the way down the back. 

Ice-cream van?! Uh yes please!

Arjan and Sam, the Best Man

Pimms by the jug during cocktail hour!

Somebody's a happy boy

George is a graphic designer and created all the invites etc himself, it looked amazing! 

They had a polaroid guest book! How cool is that?!

The dinner hall.

Sorry guys, we had to steal this polaroid, it's the only one of us two where Arjan isn't pulling a face!

After dinner the evening guests came as well and they had a brilliant band doing awesome covers of hits through the ages. I was too busy dancing to take any pictures.

The next day Arjan and I had a walk around Chichester and got to see what a wonderful little city it is. There are beautiful parks, an amazing cathedral and lots of little alleyways and nooks to explore, we had a really nice day and it was good to be able to relax before our flight back to the Netherlands the next day.

What the city looked like 914 years ago

What the city looks like now, that is the same hill that the fort stood upon 

Bishop's Palace Gardens for a sunset stroll

The Cathedral

So here's to Leah and George, I wish you a life together full of laughter and love.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Back in March I went home to celebrate my mums birthday, we visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Park and had a great day out, but when I got home I saw that all of my pictures had somehow disappeared! I was so annoyed, it is a brilliant place where you can walk among a lot of the animals in large enclosures and I'd gotten some really beautiful pictures. So when my mum suggested we take Arjan for a trip while we were there for my birthday I instantly said yes.

It was roasting hot on the day we went, which made a change from the biting wind that was present for our last visit, and most of the animals were out sunning themselves.
My mum, Arjan and I had a great time, we wandered around, stopped for a bit of lunch and had a fun day together.

Meerkats

Lion yaaaawn

Simba

Wallabies!

The ring-tailed lemurs had two new babies, they were so playful and energetic

This picture had no zoom at all, this guy was right next to me

This little burrowing owl was giving us the stink-eye

Raccoon dogs, oddly not related to raccoons at all

This squirrel monkey was sleeping in the most uncomfortable position

They had a Pringles tube filled with crickets to play with, some of them were getting really frustrated that they couldn't get them out easily!

These are Maru or Patagonian hares, there were loads of babies 

Baby camel peeking over!

Hot tigers take baths

If you are ever in the area, I strongly suggest you have a visit. Tickets aren't too expensive if you buy them in advance online and it's lovely outing for people of all ages.

Summer Wish List

I'm very aware that recently I've been doing a lot of photo heavy posts and there are still more to come from the rest of my holiday, so to break it up a bit I thought I'd do a post about my current wish list.

I am currently coveting crop top/skirt combos, the matching kind. I see them everywhere on pinterest and blogs and I WANT! I've got a 'generous' hour glass figure so I always just assumed that crop tops were not for me, nobody wants to have to see this muffin top. But upon closer inspection of this latest trend, I realised that with the right style and fit, I too could rock the midriff! I was catching up with pinterest earlier today and came across this wonderful set that is just the perfect balance of fitted, flattering and sexy.

found on Pinterest: http://www.kendieveryday.com/2014/06/not-dress.html
Top JOA
Skirt JOA

Throughout this summer I have been shielding my eyes from the sun with a pair of old, cheap sunglasses that are more scratch than lens now. I really like the simplicity of these Le Specs Ziggy Shades and I'm a sucker for a retro look round lens.

found on ASOS

Next up is something I've been interested in for a long time, but only recently became fully sold on. I've read about Lime Crime's Velvetine lip colours several times on various blogs, but it wasn't until my friend, Julia, raved about their lasting power and non-transferability(?) that I was fully convinced. I can't decide which colour I like more though: Suedeberry, Red Velvet or Wicked?

Next is something a little more practical, I recently bought my first big handbag (I've always been a little bag kinda gal) and love how much stuff I can keep in it! But, when I want to bring my camera along too, it is way too cumbersome if it's left in its own bag and I'm worried about damaging it if I put it in there loose. So, I would love to have a compartmented camera/handbag that is both safe and practical and doesn't leave me digging around blindly for something tiny lost at the bottom. I love the style and colour of this bag by Darby Mack Designs and it looks like it would be incredibly useful to have all those pockets!

Found on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/174677111/womens-camera-bags-made-in-the-usa-by?ref=market

One thing my wardrobe is really lacking is a pair of mid-height heels that I can comfortably wear throughout a day. I have plain flats and sandals and winter boots, but no nice summery heel that I can dress down or up in. I love the current trend of chunky, wooden heeled sandals. They look durable and easy to style in any number of ways. I especially like these NANCY sandals by Topshop!

So, this is my list of things I will probably never own but desperately wish I did! Something I thought of adding to it is coconut oil, but I'll probably go pick up a jar for a couple of euros in the next few days, so it seemed unnecessary. I'm really interested in trying it as a skin and hair treatment. I've read several bloggers recently who are complete converts to its magical ways and as it's so cheap and supposedly multi-purpose I'm keen to try it for myself. I'll let you know if there's any news on that front!

St David's Flora

It's no secret to those of you who have read previous posts of mine, but I love wildlife photography, especially of flowers and plants. When you get up close and personal with a flower you can see so much detail and structure, it's truly incredible.
In my last post I talked about my recent family holiday in Wales. One thing that I've always looked forward to about going there is seeing the variety of plants that can be found along the coastal paths in the area.
I took a lot of pictures whilst I was there, so I'll restrain myself and just post a few to illustrate the unique, weathered beauty of cliff-dwelling flowers.

This is some variety of wild pea

White morning glory

Brambles

For some reason the snails were loving this plant, it was covered in them!

These don't technically count, but aren't these beautiful roses?!

Thrift

Wild Thyme

Curled up bracken