Dartmoor National Park | Walks with my Dog

Dartmoor will be 90% of these walks. Let's just get that out of the way now. The remaining 10% will probably be the beach.

Don't argue with me about this, but the best days off are family picnics, with the dog, on the moor. And today was no exception. 

From North Cornwall, we headed across to Plymouth and then up to Ashburton and across to Two Bridges (we actually stopped a few miles before Two Bridges pub, but it gives you a general direction). 

This walk was less walking and more eating. We rolled out our picnic and spent most of the time trying to stop Keira from wandering off or walking through the middle of all the food. But, alas, we will try and do it again in a few weeks and forget how desperate Keira gets for lunch. 

Then we just wandered around the nearby area, up to some Dartmoor ponies, took some photographs of Keira. Then we hauled everything back in the car and sang along to George Michael on the way home. 

Do you have a dog? Let me know what breed and their favourite place for a walk in the comments! x

MY SUMMER GOALS

My first summer as a fully fledged "adult"...

01. Create a work-life balance. I'm awful at getting home from work and doing nothing with the rest of my day. This cannot continue for the rest of my working life. Especially because I finish work at 2.30pm at the moment, I have hours of time being wasted on the sofa.

02. Shoot. Charge my camera and just take photographs. Taking it on dog walks (side note: have you seen the first post in my new series Walks with my Dog?). Also, I want to start a new project with flowers.

03. Find a new job. My job was just meant to cover me through uni, I want to change into a more 'adult' and responsible job now. Or just work more hours and get more money to fund my life.

04. A shiny new website/rebrand for Kayleigh Bickle Photography. It's coming. But it takes time and planning. 

05. Using my days off work, to do more than catch up on washing and tidying the house. Days out. The first on my list is The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

06. Create a stockpile of 'stock' images for the blog. For posts, like this one you're reading, where I don't need anything specific, but want to add colour and something more to the images.

07. Save some money. I spent all my savings in the later part of my degree (degree shows and traveling cost a lot of £££), and it makes me nervous living without the safety net of savings in my life. 

08. Create more meaningful content for the blog. Sometimes I find I write posts that are very basic level, and they don't fill me with heaps of joy, so why would they please a reader. I prefer posts about days out, recommendations, conversational, etc. 

09. Instagram. About a year ago, I stopped using my personal Instagram for 'likes'. And I've never looked back. I'm so happy having less than 100 likes a photo because I like how my feed looks. BUT, I haven't done a big purge of who I'm following for a while. I feel settled with my personal account, but now I want to work on my photography account (talking about a more consistent upload, instead of once every few weeks.) and Keira's account (the images aren't the best quality, and there is a lot more potential with the account). 

10. Be more active. I've got laaazzzzzzyyyyyyyyyy. I used to walk Keira every morning AND evening for a couple of hours. But I've really cut back to giving her one OK walk and a few longer walks. Which is fine for the average dog. But Keira thrives off long walks and being active. Also, I can feel in my body that I'm not as active as I used to be. The aim is to walk Keira in the morning (tying into my work-life balance) and again in the evening - minimum. If possible, walk/adventure outside of our local area would be great too. But, baby steps. 

 

What are your goals for this summer? 

Lydford, Dartmoor | Walks with my Dog

*insert drumroll here* 

I've decided to start a new series on my blog!

If you hadn't noticed, I have a dog. I know shocking. I don't talk about her every minute of the day and show photographs of her birthday party to random people on the street...

But she's a huge part of my life, and the second best thing about having a dog (first is constant cuddles and love) is taking them for walks in beautiful places! Admittedly, she would happily walk around my local area. But I'm convinced adventures make both of us happier. 

Anyway, long story not so short, I'm going to put a series of places we walk together! Mainly they'll be in Cornwall & Devon. Because that's where we live. 

The first walk in this series was up on Dartmoor, in one of our favourite walking locations: Lydford, Devon (specifically Jubilee Cross along the Lyd River). You have space to chase a ball, a river to paddle in (various depths, so be careful. Keira has disappeared under the water a few times.), rocks to climb over, and lots of places to sit and rest. In our opinion, it has all the factors you need for a good walk. You can, if you wish, walk up the to cross and see the views over Dartmoor - but we didn't this day. 

It's a walk I've been doing my whole life and has deep connections with my family. My Great-Great Grandfather helped build the cross at the top of the tor, and my Grandfathers family lived in and around Lydford until his brother & sisters move into North Cornwall. 

All of these photographs were taken on my Sony AX1. And edited in VSCO cam. 

xx

12 INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS THAT YOU NEED IN YOUR FEED

Instagram is my go-to social media. I would happily get rid of everything else and solely exist in a bubble of Instagram. I love a mixture of highly curated beautiful images, and then the raw real-life beauties. To initially 'follow' someone I have to love their overall feed, but to keep following them I need to be sucked into a personality or interest. A lot of these people talk on Instagram stories too, which definitely helps me understand and see more than a pretty feed. (side note: I will purge through who I'm following once or twice a year, I hate a repetitive feed and to see people creating identical images. It's boring. Also, not into following people who have hateful or distasteful images/words. I believe it's your Instagram to curate, so follow who you want to follow and create the feed you want to see.)

P.S. My instagram's are @kayleighbickle / @kayleighbicklephotography / @thecornishstaffy.

Megan Rhiannon (@petite_gloom)

Rebecca (aka From Roses) (@fromrosesxo | @josieandediethewhippies)

The Royal Family (@kensingtonroyal)

Charlotte Rollin (@_charlottesweb)

Rhiannon Ashlee (@rhiannonashlee)

Molly Madfis (@almostmakesperfect)

Haarkon (@haarkon_)

Emily Tapp (@emilyoliviatapp)

Emma Johnson (@emmasrectangle)

Lyzi Unwin (@being_little)

Jamie Beck (@annstreetstudio)

Estée Lalonde (@esteelalonde)

Who are your favourite 'instagrammers'/account to follow? I'm always looking for find new people.

xx

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

If you want to pack 80% of London sites into one day, walk from Kings Cross to NHM. It takes well over an hour, you'll go beyond your step goal before 12pm, and you'll walk along Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street, through the West End, into Chinatown, see Harrods, The Ritz, into Hyde Park. It's all along that walk.

We had lunch at NHM - which was a little pricey for what it was - but entry into NHM is free. So they need to make their money somewhere. Without a doubt my favourite part was the Mammals. We paid a £1 for a map and planned the areas we wanted to go to. Outside they currently have a butterfly garden - which is GLORIOUS! (Though you do have to pay to go in, but completely worth it!)

xx

KEW GARDENS

My dream garden situation.

There is going to be a big shiny blog post about my time in London & possibly another one full of my film photos (when I get the film developed). But Kew Gardens was a highlight for me! I knew I was going to love it before I stepped foot in the gate. 

We decided to travel by bus instead of the tube. We decided that with the 30-degree heat and hour journey, we didn't want to be stuck in a confined space. Because we overslept and didn't want to rush around, we got to Kew Gardens around 1pm. It costs £8.50 (i think) for a student to get into Kew Gardens. And, of course, the palm house was my favourite glass house of them all!