Each year my closest group of friends and I make sure we get
together a couple of weeks at Christmas before our lives get too busy. This
year we decided to head to my friend Rowena’s home town of Great Malvern for a
cosy Christmas getaway, and we weren’t disappointed!
We arrived late on Friday night, with just enough time for a
catch up by the open fire at Rowena’s childhood home and have a little look
outside at the gorgeous Shepherds Huts that have been lovingly restored by
Rollin, Rowena’s Dad. Rollin has dedicated so much time and commitment to renovating
them and it hasn’t gone unnoticed... only last week he was featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and you can catch it on 4oD here.
On Saturday we were woken up early by the sound of Rowena
shouting outside, it was hard to tear myself away from the beautiful morning
view as I opened the curtains, but (after taking an obligatory picture) we
rushed downstairs to find that a herd of sheep had broken through the back
fence and were having a great time running around the garden!
After gently herding the sheep back into their field and a
good full English breakfast with Rowena’s old school friend, we put on our
winter woollies and headed out for a trek up the Malvern Hills. We parked at
the foot of the hills next to a lovely new cafe called Cafe H2O at the Malvern Hills GeoCentre where we indulged
in a cup of tea and a delicious teacake and studied the interactive maps
available of all the potential routes. We decided to take on the
highest point of the hills, and walk the Worcestershire Beacon.
This isn’t the first time we’ve walked the hills, we also
did this back when were at University, which as we walked at pace, brought back
some wonderful memories. Emma told us about her Three Peaks challenge for charity, and we all decided that in 2014 we need to embark on a
challenge as a group. So, there is nothing like making something happen than to
write it down for the world to see – in 2014 we aim to climb Mount Kilimanjaro!
We finally reached the highest point after a few stops to
take pictures of the breath-taking view which looks out over Worcestershire and
Herefordshire before we made our way back down again. All that walking and talking
left us a little frazzled but nothing a little Christmas Market couldn’t sort
out! We made our way into Malvern Town Centre where we browsed the many
independent stalls and paid a visit to the Great Malvern Priory to find carol singers
and Christmas storytellers!
Great Malvern is a gorgeous getaway from city life and I’d
thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for a countryside retreat. If you get chance while you are there, pay a visit to the gorgeous Grange Farm Nursery, an award-winning garden centre located in Guarlford where you can buy a whole host of trees, shrubs and beautiful plants. As I drove down the long & windy roads of Hanley Swan on my
way back home, I left Malvern feeling totally relaxed and ready for a Christmas full of friends, family and fun!
Have a lovely Christmas,
Katie x
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