Fabulous Folly in Forbidden Corner

My husband and I went on a little day trip to the Forbidden Corner in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a garden folly set against the beautiful backdrop of the countryside near Middleham. There is a lot to explore, with classical statues and fountains, lovely gardens, strange underground lairs, hedge mazes and a lot of areas to get completely lost in.

You can find more out about Forbidden Corner here.

So for a day exploring I chose my comfy standard casuals with my Vivien of Holloway jeans, Wonder Woman Converse and since I was going with the slightly rockabilly look, a classic red and white stripe tee.

Upon entering the labryrinth we were given a non-linear map filled with picture clues to guide us on our journey. We were also given a sheet with blank circles so we could do brass rubbings of secret panels hidden throughout the park. By ticking everything off the map and getting all the brass rubbings, you could be (almost) sure that you had seen everything.

We snuck through the entrance door straight into the mouth of a belching castle - charming! But beyond this there were so many other things to see:

A beautiful herb garden with a dancing frog fountain and secret doors:

Some bears playing poker, many of them cheating, badly:

Woodland walks:

Classical architecture, underground secrets and passages and stepping stones with a super soggy surprise:

There were a lot of statues and carvings, and while you may be tempted to think that this place is probably for kids, there is a distinct undertone of adult humour to the whole place... naughty!

 Oh yeah, there were also a lot of ducks and ducklings in the picnic area - so cute!!!

Outfit: Fossil Hunting at Robin Hood's Bay

Since everything has gone fossil and dinosaur mad at my work I decided to re-live some of my youth with a trip to Robin Hood's Bay to hunt for fossils. It's not the best place to look for fossils as the stone there is very fragile, but you can usually find small shells fossils and other things if you're lucky.

I wasn't exactle dressed super appropriately for fossil hunting, and I did spend a lot of time afraid I was going to get wet shoes, but what I did wear was a lovely 1980s floral navy tea dress I bought in a charity shop for £2.50 the previous day. It is drop waist with a belt that ties around the waist. I also wore a cardigan I got in the Monsoon sale last year. I think the salmon colour is a little odd, but it goes with a surprisingly large amount of things.

I didn't exactly have a lot of luck looking for fossils, but it was fun cracking open rocks on the beach.

To make up for the bad luck, we ventured into the Yorkshire Coast Dinosaur and Fossil Museum. Although like everything in Robin Hood's Bay it is tiny, filled with second hand books and is a little dusty. That doesn't mean that its not super interesting!

A couple of things from the museum/shop, some ammonites, the skull of a tarbosaurus, some claws (of some type of dinosaur I have forgotten) and a lot of types of precious rocks, semi precious stones and pretty jewellery.

We finished the day with some chips... naturally.

What is the best fossil you've found?