03.03

Cider-with-Rosie-Tania-Freya-Sophie

If you’ve already watched this little video I made and put live on my YouTube channel last week, you’ll know that way we spent the Saturday before last made me so very happy, I basically had a silly grin etched permanently onto my face. The day was spent in London with a few of my favourite people- Tania, Freya, Sophie, and Jason. Soph was over from Sydney so Freya and I FINALLY got to meet her in person, after well over a year of following each other’s blogs and Instas and all those other ways we’ve legitimised stalking in the 21st Century ;) And of course, Tania and Freya have been part of my daily life for what feels like forever now, but Jason had only met Freya once before and had only met Tania once via FaceTime when she was in Australia, so it was a day of unions and reunions and so much happiness I was pretty giddy by the end of it all!

Let’s start at the top…

Besthotchocolatein-London-Cider-with-Rosie Sophie-The-Littlest-Things-Cider-with-Rosie

Before Saturday even rolled around, we made ourselves a little agenda of cafes and bars to hit that day- first SAID, then a wine bar, then finally to Monocle cafe. Sophie was on a little photo-shooting project for ‘What To Cook Tonight‘, and the rest of us were busy wielding cameras and snapping away for our respective blogs and Instagram feeds. In fact, though Jason is a seasoned ‘blog boyfriend’ and pretty handy with a camera these days, even he didn’t really know what had hit him when the waitress brought over our hot chocolates, and out came four sets of DSLRs and iPhones and we all began shuffling about arranging cups ‘just so’ for the perfect shot! He said it was like being with me times four- which is pretty accurate, I’d say!

SAID dal 1923 (Broadwick St, W1F 9QL) is the chocolate cafe of your dreams. It’s famed as being the best place in London to get a hot chocolate, a claim passionately confirmed by all five of us on Saturday! I mean, I’ve not even tried *that* many hot chocolates in London, but I don’t think it even matters. There’s nothing in the world that could live up to those tiny cups of warm, rich, molten chocolate! Everything from the cafe we sampled was so delicious- from the hot chocolate itself to a caprese salad, the coffee, and a slice of carrot cake the size of your average house brick- I’m now desperate to go back and pick up a few of the caramel truffles, plus a jar of their very own homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread!

Cider-with-Rosie-London Chocolate-Said-dal-1923-Cider-with-Rosie

^^ Wouldn’t those dark chocolate spoons be the best thing ever to stir into a mug of hot milk, or maybe even a latte? ^^

SAID-chocolate-Nutella

^^ SAID’s own Nutella was the absolute bomb. And you know how loyal I am to Nutella, so that really is saying something…^^

Caprese-salad-Cider-with-Rosie

Once we’d had our fill of chocolate (I could’ve stayed there all day long quite happily, but we had so many more places to sample and needed to pace ourselves!) we moved on to ‘lunch’. Because what else is there to do when you’ve spent a couple of hours sitting round a table eating great food and talking, than to go somewhere new and sit round a table eating great food and talking?!

Antidote-wine-bar-Cider-with-Rosie

Our next spot was a wine bar called Antidote, on a little side alley just off Carnaby Street. It’s tiny and charming, and the wine is fantastic. I ordered a white that the waitress recommended, after I mentioned that a sauvignon blanc is usually my favourite (all the wines at Antidote were French, so no sauvignon blanc to hand!) and Jason went for a red whose name I’ve forgotten entirely but was completely amazing. Our wine was accompanied by cheese (a gruyere, goats, and a soft cow’s cheese from Normandie), little disks of saucisson, and fresh bread served with lashings of salted butter.

What commenced next was a conversation between us all that wouldn’t have been out of place in an episode of Sex and the City, so I’ll spare you the details…just know that Jason held his own like a total pro, and we all left with stomachs that ached from laughing so hard! ;)

Wine-Antidote-London Antidote-wine-bar-Cider-with-Rosie-London

Last of all, we moseyed over to Monacle cafe on Chiltern Street, after a quick pitstop in at John Lewis to pick me up a replacement lens. Mine took a tumble at the train station that morning and smashed to smithereens, and since I’ve not gone a day without using it for easily 18 months now, I had to replace it stat! (The majority of these photos were taken using Freya’s spare 50mm 1.4 lens, which, considering on paper it’s not that dissimilar to my 50mm 1.8, felt SO very different using it was kind of like trying to eat whilst holding my knife and fork in the wrong hands! Cameras and lenses are so very fascinating, aren’t they?)

The coffee at Monacle was delicious but eye-wateringly dear (not on paper, but the cups were miniature!), and the place had a serene and mellow vibe. We spent an hour or so there talking about the year Tania spent in Australia, about relationships, and love, and so many other things besides. It felt so incredible to spend the day with soul-sisters, and to see Jason chatting away with them all as though they’d known each other for years. It made me feel grateful 1000 times over to have such beautiful people in my life.
  Monacle-wine-bar Monacle-cafe-Cider-with-Rosie-coffee-London Monacle-cafe-Cider-with-Rosie Cider-with-Rosie-Tania-Freya-Sophie

* Thanks to Tan for this last photo!

Once night fell, we begrudgingly parted ways- Freya went off to a hen do, Sophie and Tania to dinner with some of Soph’s UK friends, and Jason and I to Meat Liquor for burgers and deep fried pickles. We weren’t super impressed with Meat Liquor (we’re just not cool enough to eat in such a nightclub-y sort of place!) but the pickles and cheese fries more than lived up to expectation.

All in all, the day was a glorious one! If I could book in maybe one Saturday a month like this one, it’d be pretty ideal. We just need Soph and her husband George to move back to London, and we’ll be on the right track…

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Posted in DAY TRIPS, FRIENDS, JASON, LONDON, RESTAURANT, REVIEW, WEEKEND

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23.02

Cider-with-Rosie-weekend-ritual-Rosie-Reynolds-3

For the perfect weekend ::

Wake up with the sun, then spend an hour or so savouring not having to get up straight away.

Dress casual (in your softest denim, oversized knits, a chambray shirt), then head out into the village to buy a new bunch of spring flowers to replace the old ones that you’ve yet to throw out.

Ranunculus-Cider-with-Rosie-weekends Buying-flowers-weekend-ritual

Spend at least fifteen minutes deliberating over exactly which bunch of flowers to buy, and in the end take home the bunch you picked out first of all. Mixed hyacinths, this time, because you’ll be hard pressed to find a more fragrant and beautiful spring flower.

Weekend-ritual-Cider-with-Rosie Cider-with-Rosie-weekend-ritual-Rosie-Reynolds Cider-with-Rosie-weekend-ritual-Rosie-Reynolds-2

Stop to pick up a flat white from the your favourite local cafe, and then take home a slice of their finest carrot cake and a box of macarons too, because it’s the weekend so why on earth not?

Lifestyle-photography-Rosie-Reynolds-Cider-with-Rosie

Return home, grab a blanket or two, then settle down to read at least three or four chapters of your book. Only move from your blanket nest to make tea, or maybe grab a little lunch. Cheese probably should be on the agenda, because weekend lunches should always involve cheese, right?

The-White-Company-candle-Cider-with-Rosie

Start burning a new candle, and stop for a moment to enjoy the simple joy that comes from lighting a brand new candle. It’s not just me who finds it disproportionately happy-making, right?

Stacked-striped-tees-Cider-with-Rosie

Tidy the nest. Folding laundry is the finest of weekend tasks, since it’s as satisfying and therapeutic as it is low effort. Bonus points if you iron it all afterwards…but I never quite get round to that.

Cider-with-Rosie-weekend-ritual

Take a little rest from all that rest with tea and something sweet. Try and keep the dog from pinching half a pistachio macaron, but sneak him a sliver of cheddar or a lick of peanut butter for his troubles.

What does your perfect weekend ritual involve?

L I N K S ::
Coat || Shirt || Jeans || Trainers || Candle

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Posted in WEEKEND

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11.02

Cider-with-Rosie-Guildford

We have an actual agenda of topics to cover in this little post here, so let’s get started with point number one- shoes!

Jason and I spent this Saturday in Guildford, because we had Stuff To Get Done. Wedding Stuff. Like buying rings and whatnot. But first of all, we stopped by the new Superga store which had opened up that very day on Market Place (about halfway up the High Street, on the left hand side). We were invited along to see what Superga’s all about, which turns out to be making the cutest little trainers (I’m a child of the 90s so would call them ‘plimsolls’, but am 99% certain that’s not the correct/cool name for them anymore!) in a rainbow of colours and patterns! The shop is teeny tiny and pleasingly minimalist, with shoes arranged in ombre rows that are total aesthetic food for the soul! ;)

After some pretty intense deliberation, I picked out a couple of pairs that I’m sure are the closest things to trainers I’ve owned in at least a decade. A decade! I have this awful habit of wearing really inappropriate footwear for the weather/occasion (I don’t really enjoy wearing boots, so would usually rather have chilly feet and wear little ballet flats or shoes than anything sensible), so am hoping that maybe a couple of decent pairs of trainers will bridge the gap!

On a sidenote- seriously, what’re trainers like this called? Plimsolls doesn’t seem the word. I feel like my sister would die of shame if she heard me refer to them as plimsolls ;)

What I wore :: Jacket (from Toast, similar) || Top || Trousers || Loafers

Cider-with-Rosie-blog-Guildford2 Superga-Guildford Cider-with-Rosie-blog-Guildford

After our date with the rainbow shoe store was over, we moseyed back down the high street to pick up coffees, and then headed into the very same jewellers where Jason bought my engagement ring from just this time last year to start the process of choosing wedding rings!

Picking out wedding rings was pretty surreal- and I managed to hold the ol’ emotional temperature down at a low-ish setting the whole time we were in there, which was unexpectedly great! ;) I guess I’ve become pretty used to wearing a ring because trying bands on myself didn’t feel as crazy as I expected it might- but seeing Jason try on a wedding ring for the first time was something else entirely! What is it about seeing your man wearing a ring on his wedding finger?!

I had my engagement ring cleaned up whilst we were in the jewellers too, which is great because it’s no longer all clouded up with mud and pastry remnants and whatever else seems to get caught underneath it. Jason warned the jeweller that they’d probably find a loaf of bread rising out of the cleaning solution next time they went to use it after mine’d been in there. I wouldn’t be surprised, you know!

After we’d deliberated and deliberated and deliberated some more (okay fine, I was the one doing all the back and forth-ing, Jason made his choice pretty quickly), we placed our order for the rings to be made up, and then headed out for a beautiful, elegant lunch at the swankiest restaurant we know of.

NOT REALLY. We totally went and picked up a couple of sublime chicken gyros from Meat the Greek. We know how to party, okay?

Meat-the-Greek-Guildford-Cider-with-Rosie Meat-the-Greek-Guildford

I’ve been meaning to do a proper little review of Meat the Greek here for ages, ever since we first discovered the joy that is a super soft pita stuffed with chicken, french fries, garlic sauce, chopped tomatoes, and Greek herbs.

Classy it’s not, delicious it most certainly is. The chicken isn’t greasy and has tons of flavour, the tomatoes are always fresh and juicy, the pitas are divine (soft and chewy), and the garlic sauce is creamy and flavoursome but not so strong you need to drink Listerine afterwards if you fancy talking to anyone close up. And there are chips in the wrap. IN THE WRAP. It’s an entire meal (carbs, veg, protein, dairy…) all in one! If you ever find yourselves in Guildford, head to Chapel Street (walk up the High Street, and turn right between Baby Gap and Jack Wills), and treat yourselves. You won’t be sorry.

Meat-the-Greek-Cider-with-Rosie-Guildford Meat-the-Greek-Cider-with-Rosie

We took our little picnic back to the car at Jason’s offices just on the river, turned the heated seats  on and T Swift’s album up loud, and tucked into our feast. Between bites of gyro, I treated Jason to renditions of Style, then All You Had To Do Was Stay, then Wildest Dreams from 1989, which he was so totally into you can’t even imagine.

And so endeth tales from a sort of higgledy piggledy day in my beloved Guildford! It was a delightful one, especially since we picked up a couple of packets of mini eggs from the petrol station on the way home, and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking coffee and praising the person who first thought of wrapping chocolate in a sugary coating. Genius.

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Posted in GUILDFORD, RESTAURANT, REVIEW, WEDDING, WEEKEND

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01.12

Buying-weekend-flowers-Rosie-Reynolds-Cider-with-Rosie

Even in winter, there’s nothing that can beat a bunch of fresh flowers. They might not be able to compete with spring daffodils that cost a mere pound a bunch, or fat, thick-stemmed peonies in the summertime, but there’s still something so delightful about a weekend trip to pick up fresh blooms. There’s a little flower shop in Sunningdale, the village where we like to head for Sunday brunch, that I’ve been meaning to visit for ages but never quite get round to. But the pull of the Christmas wreaths and garlands and lights that decorate the shop became just too strong to resist, so Jason and I got up early on Saturday morning and made a pilgrimage to buy some flowers for the house.

The shop is beautiful- so artfully arranged and displayed, with fairy lights twinkling and dark green foliage amongst the reds and purples and yellows. After a brief flirtation with buying a Christmas wreath for the front door and a bunch of tulips that aren’t at all seasonal but were nearly too pretty to resist, I went for a few tangly stems of eucalyptus and some fluffy plum coloured flowers I don’t know the name of. The eucalyptus smells incredible, and the purpley-red flowers are now brightening up both my bedside table and the little shelf in the hallway. Next up in the house-decoration game? A Christmas tree!…

Christmas-fir Cider-with-Rosie-flowers Cider-with-Rosie-weekend Cider-with-Rosie-buying-flowers Christmas-wreaths-Cider-with-Rosi Buying-flowers French-Sole-nude-ballet-pumps- Cider-with-Rosie-winter-weekend

What I wore :: Cardigan coat {past season Jigsaw, similar here} || Shirt || Jeans || Ballet pumps (c/o)

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Posted in FLOWERS, WEEKEND, WINTER

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