We had a little night away recently to celebrate my birthday. For one reason or another, we were’t able to venture too far afield so we settled on the nearby Ram Inn in Firle.

The Ram is a gorgeous little village pub,  nestled at the foot of Firle Beacon in Sussex. The food is fantastic, particularly their Sunday roasts, and they have a couple of boutique rooms which they offer on a B&B basis.

Each of the rooms is decorated differently, and all in contemporary style. Ours was the Bloomsbury Suite – a spacious double room with a roll top bath and views of the Downs and Firle village .

As we were staying on Sunday night, we were able to sample the Ram’s famous Sunday roast. We both opted for roast beef – thick slices of meat, crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, an assortment of seasonal veg and a homemade horseradish sauce with enough of a kick to put hairs on your chest.

Breakfast the next day was served in the bar: a full English with fresh juice and coffee (top marks for the coffee – just what I needed after indulging in few glasses of wine the night before!). The majority of the food is locally sourced, and the bread is delivered fresh each morning from the Flint Owl Bakery in nearby Glynde.

After our hearty breakfast, we decided that a long walk was in order so we headed up to Firle Beacon. The Beacon offers panoramic views of the Sussex countryside, with Lewes, Glyde and the North Downs on one side, the sea on the other – truly breathtaking and one of the reasons I love Sussex so much.

For more information about the Ram Inn, visit:

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We’re a bit spoilt for choice for places to have afternoon tea in Sussex, especially in Brighton – you’re never more than about 10 minutes away from a slice of cake.

But for something a little bit more special you can’t go wrong with afternoon tea at South Lodge in Horsham.

South Lodge, a beautiful manor house in the heart of West Sussex, is about a 30min drive from Brighton.

Afternoon tea is served in one of the Lodge’s stunning lounges, with large bay windows and views of the South Downs, elaborate wing-backed chairs and crisp white table linens. The kind of place a girl could get used to!

There’s a choice of two different menus: a Nyetimber Celebration Afternoon Tea (with or without a glass of chilled local Nyetimber Sparking wine), and South Lodge Cream Tea, which is just the scones and pastries.

The food came presented on a traditional cake stand and you are ‘introduced’ to the different cakes by your server. All the ingredients are locally sourced and the cakes are baked fresh on the day.

At £24 per head (without the glass of fizz) it’s by no means cheap, but the service was incredibly friendly and attentive, with refills of sandwichs and tea offered throughout. In fact, the portions were so generous that we couldn’t finish them and our server kindly offered to boxed them up for us to take home.

Once you’ve finished your tea you are offered the choice of a slice of homemade cake to take away with you – a really nice touch.

All in all the experience was deliciosly indulgent and made for a really memorable day, even if we all had to have a cake-induced nap when we got home!

All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2013

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All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2012

Autumn is my favourite season – the changes in light, misty mornings and the promise that we’ll soon be wrapping up cosily in hats and scarves. But of course Autumn brings with it some fantastic seasonal produce – pumpkins, elderberries, chestnuts, game, pears, and the daddy of English autumnal produce: apples.

Apple Festival takes place on 21st October each year and orchards and farms up and down the country organise festivities to celebrate this wonderful fruit. What great month to be an apple!

Brogdale Farm in Kent is home to the National Fruit Collection; the World’s largest collection of fruit trees and plants and home to over 3,500 varieties of apple, pear, plum, cherry, bush fruit, vine and cob nut cultivators.

Brogdale has been on my list of places to visit for a while now, so the Apple Festival (20th & 21st October 2012) was just the excuse I needed to hotfoot it to Kent. The festival itself is quite a family affair, with various food & drink stalls, crafts and live music (it’s safe to say that some of the bands were an ‘acquired’ taste).

Included in the ticket price is a guided tour of the orchards, each one being led by one of Brogdale’s knowledgeable staff, many of whom are volunteers. For me, this was one of the highlights of the visit. You can quite literally loose yourself wandering up and down the lines of trees looking at fruits of all different sizes and colours. And with names like the: Marriage-maker, Blackbird, Prince Edward it really is a fantastic way to spend a few hours.

And of course, no apple festival would be complete without a generous dose of apple sampling. At the heart of the festival arena was a large tent with over 400 varieties of apple on display and over 200 for visitors to taste and buy. To be honest, this part of the festival was a bit of a free-for-all, and you had to employ some elbowing tactics to stand any chance of trying the apples that had been laid out. Still, I managed to try plenty and came away a mixed bag (quite literally) of my favourites.

I decided not to cook with the apples I bought, preferring instead as an alternative to dessert. When produce is in season and so tasty it’s sometimes nice to enjoy it just as it is, don’t you think?

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Borough is one of London’s most highly regarded markets and from spending the afternoon there it’s easy to see why. The hustle & bustle of the crowd, the smells, colour and noise – the perfect combination of old traditions and new cuisines. Pretty much everything you could want from a market and then some!

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The weather last week was a bit unsettled, with a distinct feel of autumn in the air, but the day I chose to pop out and buy fish for the weekend was bright, sunny and warm, perfect for a cycle along the seafront.

Fish supplies most of the best restaurants in the local area, as well as further afield, and they stock an amazing array of products, from scallops, sardines & mackerel to live lobsters and crab – I even spotted a tray of beautiful fresh samphire.  The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, testimony to how highly they’re regarded in the local area.

Get yourself along there – if you time your visit right you might even be lucky enough to see them unloading latest catch from the boats. Watch out for the seagulls though!

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If there’s one thing that Brighton’s not short of it’s coffee shops, but in amongst all the usual chains there are a handful of independents to delight true coffee fans.

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