Great Budworth Ice Cream Farm

A Postcard from August 2024

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Ostell Bay beach, Friday 30th August 2024

Hello there, and hello September! Blimey that summer went quickly didn’t it?! And check me out posting on the first day of the month!

It’s been a funny kind of summer for us, as it’s been the first full summer of my current job – last year I worked 100% from home and that meant I was always around for the boys. They are now old enough to manage without me in the house all day every day, so for a chunk of the holidays this year, I’ve been out at work.

That led to the inevitable Mum guilt of not being around for as many days out as in the past but we did manage a few, and here they are…

At the start of the month we had a nice warm, sunny spell which was a relief after a particularly damp and grey time of it. We are very lucky to have the Cheshire countryside on our doorstep, so getting out into the green is quite easy. One day, when both myself and Eldest were off work, we all managed to get out for a lovely walk along the canal towpath towards Lymm and back again. I love this walk, whether in winter (with the reward of a bag of chips at Lymm) or as was the case this time, an ice cream in summer. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air!

A visit from special friends

Last month we were so happy to play host to a couple of friends who we’ve known since our time in Gibraltar. They moved back to the UK well before we did but we have stayed in regular contact and it’s so lovely to get together with them when we can.

They arrived in Manchester for a weekend with us and as their previous visit north had been during Covid times which rather restricted what we could do (although obviously not in lockdown though), we were thrilled to take them on a bit of a tour of Manchester.

As one of them is a newly qualified art teacher, I thought she might appreciate a trip to Manchester Art Gallery.

There was a fab exhibition on featuring outfits from a whole host of fashion designers from Balenciaga to Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood to Chanel. It was a real treat!

Also, while they were up visiting, we took them to do one of our favourite summer traditions; a walk around Marbury Park in Cheshire, followed by ice cream at Great Budworth Ice Cream farm. I even blogged about this tradition in one of the first ever blog posts on here back in my Postcard from Gibraltar days 9 years ago!

Teezels at Marbury Country Park

As well as having a dairy herd at the ice cream farm, there are several goats and a rather cheerful looking donkey, who stole the show!

Our final week of August was spent north of the border in Scotland, but I rather think that deserves a blog post of its own, so when I have the chance I will sit down and write that, watch this space!

International Granny Square Day

International Granny Square Day falls in August and this year I was in work on the day itself. I spent lunchtime at work scrolling through Instagram looking at so many gorgeous squares and feeling frustrated that I hadn’t been able to make any myself. So, when I got home, while making dinner for the family, I may have slightly overdone a few bits and bobs while I made these two podcast related granny squares of my own!

What I’ve been listening to

Well my audio book library card has had a fair bashing lately – I’m totally hooked. So much so, I’ve been having to catch up on my favourite podcasts! I have almost finished the four Thursday Murder Club books – I’m in the last few chapters now. I can highly recommend them if you’re after a light, funny and at times emotional read/listen. I can see why Richard Osman sits at the top of the best seller charts with them – he’s such an observant writer.

Podcast News

Dr Gemma McKenzie

There was just one Making Stitches Podcast episode in August – I decided to take a short break as it was proving difficult to keep up the schedule with the boys on holiday. In this episode Dr Gemma McKenzie spoke to me about the crochet exhibition she is planning to raise awareness about human rights around childbirth. It’s an area I admit to not knowing much about but I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and am interested to learn more because of it.

If you haven’t already listened, you can find our chat here along with details of how you can contribute granny squares to the Threads of Protest Yarnbomb.

Crochet News

I almost forgot to add this exciting bit of news which happened in August too – my second design for Inside Crochet magazine was published. I really enjoyed making this soft, textured book for toddlers to celebrate autumn.

That’s all for this time. Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time, take care!

Lindsay x

August 2024

End of summer catch-up

~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello everyone, sorry for the radio silence for the last few weeks. It’s been a hectic time with one thing and another so Postcard from Gibraltar took a bit of a back seat, all being well Sunday Sevens will be back this weekend and normal service will be resumed!

In the meantime, here’s a bit of a catch-up from the last few weeks…

Mid August I took the Little Postcards away with me to visit my parents in Manchester.

We had a great time. It was so lovely to see them as they haven’t been able to make it over to see us this year and they noticed a big difference in the Little Postcards and how much they’ve grown. Aside from seeing friends and family it’s also lovely to do things we can’t do in Gibraltar. Like foraging for berries, and then enjoying them in the tastiest Apple & bramble crumble. (We jettisoned the elderberries- not sure what to use them for).

It’s become a bit of an annual tradition on our summer trips back home to visit Marbury Park for a picnic and then call into the Great Budworth Ice Cream farm for ice creams on the way home. I wouldn’t have felt right if we hadn’t done it this year, so we did!

And of course, the reward for the walk was some super duper raspberry ripple!

We took a trip into Lancashire to visit my lovely little brother and his wife. They drove us to Rivington Terraced Gardens where we had a picnic and a fabulous woodland walk climbing up a huge hill. We could even see Blackpool Tower in the distance!

After our week or so up north, we took the train down south to visit some very dear friends of ours who used to live in Gibraltar.

Grey’s Court National Trust property is just a short drive from where our friends live and we enjoyed a lovely trip there in the summer sunshine!

All too quickly though, our time in England came to an end…

Bye bye England!

As we headed home from Malaga airport, it didn’t take long before the sweaty Levante cloud came into view….

A couple of weeks ago it was the annual Gibraltar Fair with the usual churros, rides and this year Jedward too… we didn’t stay late enough to see the former Eurovision & X Factor pair. I hear they were ‘entertaining’.

As the fair drew to a close, so did the school summer holidays for many young people including my 3. Lots of others though, are still waiting for their new school buildings to open next week.

Last weekend the Gibraltar Calling Music Festival was on. A highlight for me was Liam Gallagher. I’ve seen Oasis play live a couple of times and I was really looking forward to seeing Liam. He didn’t disappoint.

And there he was up on stage in his trademark coat even though it was swelteringly hot!!

I will share another highlight of the music festival in Sunday Sevens….

A postcard from Cheshire

~ Making Stitches ~ 12 Comments

Last Saturday, we made our now traditional annual trip to Marbury Park in Cheshire for a picnic and woodland walk. I’m a huge fan of the Cheshire countryside, having grown up nearby and enjoyed many trips into the lush green countryside as a child.

Now, every summer when I come over to visit my parents, we make the trip to Marbury on a dry and hopefully sunny day for a chance to wander through the woods, look at nature and for the Little Postcards to collect many sticks.

Marbury Park is part of the Northwich Woodlands so there are loads of beautiful trees to enjoy, from baby fruit trees planted near the ranger’s office to mature beech, oak and birches. It really is a fantastic place for a wander and even though we visited on a Saturday it wasn’t too busy.

The park path takes you through the woods to the edge of Budworth Mere, a home for much wildlife.

We stood and watched the ducks and coots paddling about and other birds further out diving down into the water for food.

This swan family with two cygnets were lovely to see.

Budworth Mere looking across to Great Budworth Church
The countryside here is just so different to what we are used to in Gibraltar. It’s so vibrant and green. I love it… 

Another tradition of ours is to try to stick coins into this tree stump on our walk. There have been quite a few Gibraltar coppers sunk into this over the years, yet there never seem to be many there…. 

The woodland walk eventually joins the banks of a canal before opening up into fields and then looping back to the starting point.

This lovely bright butterfly was enjoying the nettles as we past. Despite many warnings, two of the Little Postcards got stung and dock leaves needed to be found to deal with the casualties.


After a picnic lunch in a nice grassy area close to the car park (which we had to ourselves for most of the time) and several games of football, we got back into the car and headed homewards via the picturesque village of Great Budworth, who’s church we saw from afar across the Mere.

You see those stocks in front of the church? Sadly there was only room to put two of the Little Postcards in them and not all three! 😉

Throughout the village was a Scarecrow Trail. We had a go at finding some of them ourselves.

St Mary & All Saints Church, the beneficiary of funds raised by the scarecrow trail

Would you like to see some of the scarecrows? Clearly an awful lot of thought and effort had gone into making them all.

Scarecrow baker with a 90th birthday cake
The theme for many of the scarecrows was the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations.


Beefy, the beefeater
This scarecrow soldier had had a bit too much to drink!
 
Of course, you can’t have a birthday party without the guest of honour…

‘Lizzie’ with her corgi
Aside from the scarecrows, Great Budworth is a really beautiful place to visit. We have driven through many times on our way to Marbury Park, but this is the first time I have ever stopped to take a closer look.

This building is so lovely, it even has hearts built into the brickwork!


What a great use for a disused phone box: a book crossing point.


After the excitement of the scarecrow trail, it was time to head to our last destination, Great Budworth Ice Cream Farm…

There was such a great choice of flavours, but I had to go for my all time favourite; chocolate. 🙂


It tasted as good as it looks.

And here are the lovely ladies we need to thank for that fantastic ice cream… moo!

If you want to read about our trip to Marbury Park and the ice cream farm last summer, click on this link: Daisy chains, buttercups & damsel flies I promise that I took different photos this year even if a a few look very similar 😉