What I have loved this week! Week 34. #FridayFavourites

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a good week. I have had a great week with lots of nice moments. We've had plenty of family time, some birthday celebrations, good food and rain which I never thought I'd be excited about! I am of course linking up with Erika and Andrea to share all the things that I have loved this week.

A family day out!

We had a lovely family day out this week to celebrate my fella Stu's birthday. The original plan was very simple. We were going out for a nice lunch and that was pretty much it. We decided to have a wander and see where our feet took us. We didn't really have anywhere we needed to be, so we could just take our time and have a look around and we ended up seeing some very random things! People dressed as octopuses, elderly people doing keep fit, an Irish singer performing in a bar and came across England's smallest window! I took lots of photos and have a whole blog post planned about our day because there were just too many random little things to squeeze into this post.

Stu's Birthday!

Sunday was Stu's birthday and according to him, he had the perfect day. He spent most of it playing games on his PC, which was exactly what he wanted to do. The girls and I left him alone and he thought that was the best birthday present ever. hahaha He was really pleased with all his cards and presents too. The girls cards did make me laugh out loud because they know him far too well. We also surprised him with his favourite cake, which is a Victoria Sponge which I always think looks so basic but it's very underrated. For tea, we had takeaway pizza, which felt like the perfect birthday food and as a bonus, there were leftovers for lunch the next day!

Rain!

In my Wednesday Hodgepodge this week, my random thought was about how we hadn't had any rain for what seemed like months and then, of course it rained Sunday and Monday night. It absolutely chucked it down and I couldn't have been happier. The garden desperately needed it. I've been watering my vegetable plants regularly but there is only so much you can do when the whole garden needs a good drink. I didn't even mind that it meant I couldn't get my washing out on the line on Sunday afternoon. I know I'll probably be complaining about the rain again when we've had weeks of it later in the year.

A cosy afternoon!

It was raining on Wednesday afternoon and it made me feel like I wanted to get cosy, so I popped tea in the oven, a cottage pie, which is one of the best comfort foods, had a very early shower and by 4pm I was in my pj's. In the winter, it feels totally acceptable to do that with it getting dark so early but we're still in the summer and it felt a little bit naughty.

This flower!

I Googled it and it is a Cosmos bipinnatus flower, also known as the garden cosmos and when I read about the growing conditions it did make me chuckle. It thrives best in full sun with poor to moderately fertile, well-drained soil, making it highly resilient and drought-tolerant! It sounds like it was made for my garden. lol! I've been watering my vegetable plants really well but I haven't been quite as good at watering the flowerbeds, they have mostly had to fend for themselves.

Football!

Football is back! The new season for the lower leagues started last weekend and we ended up watching a match at the pub. It was my old hometown team playing against a city near where we live now, so that made it a little more interesting. The Premier League season kicks off today, which means my weekends are about to become a little more exciting. I already have a list of matches I want to watch. Starting tomorrow, we've got Manchester United against our local team, Hull and on Sunday, we've got Newcastle against Liverpool which is going to be a special match! This will be the first time the two clubs meet since the sad death of football legend Kevin Keegan who was such a huge part of both clubs as a manager and a player.

What have you loved this week?