The lovely cow shed

05/10/2026

BLACKPOOL LIGHTS, FIREWORKS & A LITTLE COUNTRYSIDE ESCAPE ✨

Fancy making a weekend of it?

Come and stay with us at Hidden Fell Escapes for two nights and combine the peace and quiet of the Ribble Valley with a proper nostalgic night out at the Blackpool Illuminations. 🎡✨

And even better — Saturday 10th October is the FINAL night of the 2026 World Fireworks Championship! 🎆

Head into Blackpool, grab a hot doughnut (it’s practically compulsory 🤣), maybe a stick of Blackpool’s finest rock, wander along the Illuminations and watch a spectacular FREE firework display over the beach in front of Blackpool Tower.

Then leave all the hustle and bustle behind and head back to your cosy shepherd’s hut on our farm. ❤️

We’re only around 40 minutes from Blackpool, so you really can have the best of both worlds.

🌿 Two-night minimum stay
🎆 World Fireworks Championship – Saturday 10th October
✨ Blackpool Illuminations
☕ Peaceful mornings & fabulous countryside views
🥐 Breakfasts, evening meals & sharing boards available to pre-order

Blackpool for the night… countryside for the weekend.

Now that sounds like a cracking autumn escape to me. ❤️

Message us to book or find Hidden Fell Escapes on Airbnb.

illumination

04/10/2026

A little bit of Lovely Cow Shed life… ❤️

Autumn has well and truly arrived at the farm and I think this might just be my favourite time of year.

The fire starts getting lit in The Granary, the fairy lights somehow look that little bit prettier, the food gets warmer and heartier and everyone seems quite happy to settle in with a glass of something nice and stay awhile. ❤️

There’s lots bubbling away behind the scenes at the minute… book clubs, supper clubs, workshops, buffets, plans for Christmas and already lots of ideas being scribbled down for 2027. My head never really switches off — although I’m supposed to be learning how to do a little less. 🤣

Five years on, I still get such a buzz from seeing people walk through the doors who perhaps didn’t know each other, then watching the talking, laughing and friendships happen around the tables.

I think that’s probably my favourite part of all of this.

Yes, I love feeding you. Yes, I love making the place look lovely. And apparently I bloody love giving myself more work by thinking up another event. 🤣

But really The Lovely Cow Shed has always been about bringing people together. ❤️

And as we head into another cosy season at The Granary, I’m very grateful that you keep turning up and allowing me to do just that.

Here’s to fires lit, tables full, good food, new faces, old friends and plenty more Lovely Cow Shed memories to come. 🍂🔥❤️

01/10/2026

🌍🍷 PASSPORT TO W**E IS OFF TO AFRICA! 🍷🌍NOW FULLY BOOKED!!!!

Our passports are coming back out and on Friday 29th January 2027 we’re heading to AFRICA… well, from the comfort of The Granary anyway 🤣❤️

After such a fabulous first Passport to W**e evening, I cannot wait to do it all again — and we now have only a few spaces left for our next trip!

Once again the brilliant Ben Fullalove will be taking us through five fabulous w**es, sharing his knowledge as we taste our way through the evening.

And obviously I’ll be making sure nobody is drinking on an empty stomach! 😜

This time we’re doing things a little differently. Rather than a full tapas-style menu, think African-inspired grazing plates, delicious cheeses, savoury bites, breads, chutneys and little accompaniments, all chosen to enjoy alongside the w**es.

Then as the evening goes on, we’ll bring out cheese, chocolate and something sweet to finish — because surely w**e, cheese, chocolate and cake is about as good as January gets?! 🤣🍷🧀🍫

It’s not a formal w**e tasting and it’s definitely not a supper club — it’s a lovely relaxed evening of five fabulous w**es, tasty food, plenty of chat and probably even more laughs.

Friday 29th January 2027 • The Granary • Passport to Africa 🌍🍷

We only have a handful of places remaining, so if you fancy joining us, give me a shout. ❤️

And if you miss this one… keep watching, because that Passport has plenty more stamps to collect yet! 😉🌍🍷

30/09/2026

One little change for 2027 ❤️

As we head towards the end of 2026, I’ve had to make a few decisions about what I can realistically keep doing at The Lovely Cow Shed… because apparently I cannot actually do everything 🤣

So from the end of this year, I’ll no longer be offering my bridal breakfast platters.

It has honestly been an absolute pleasure feeding so many lovely brides and bridesmaids across the Ribble Valley on the morning of their weddings. There’s something really special about knowing one of my platters is arriving while everyone’s getting ready, the fizz is being poured, hair and make-up is underway and all those wedding-morning nerves and excitement are kicking in. ❤️

But these beauties mean very early starts, and when they’re sandwiched between late nights, busy catering days and everything else I seem to cram into a week, they just don’t work for me anymore.

I’ve promised myself I’m going to start cutting back in a few areas, spend more precious time with my family and concentrate on the buffets, events and all the other Lovely Cow Shed things I love doing.

So to every bride who has trusted me with a little part of her wedding morning over the years — thank you. It’s been a privilege to feed you before you headed off to say I do. 🥰

Sometimes making a little more room in life means saying goodbye to something lovely… and these have definitely been lovely. ❤️

Now somebody please remind me of this “cutting back” business the next time I come up with another good idea. 🤣🤣❤️

27/09/2026

We’re nearly at the end of another wedding season… ❤️

And just like that, we’ve only one more wedding to go before our 2026 wedding season comes to an end.

It always makes me a little nostalgic because 36 years ago this week, on 22nd September 1990, it was me getting married! Although unlike today, it was windy as hell 🤣🤣

Yesterday was just lovely. Matthew & Helen arrived at the hall with my great friend Vinny in the most beautiful campervan, with all their family and friends joining them for a proper celebration. ❤️

There was a fabulous singer, a brilliant DJ and the wonderfully talented creating artwork — and she’s even going to do me a picture of the staff today, which I cannot wait to see! 🥰

Autumn is absolutely my favourite time of year for setting up weddings. 🍂 The colours, the flowers, the foliage and all those gorgeous rich tones — yesterday’s buffet looked flipping fabulous, even if I do say so myself. 🤣

I really hope everyone enjoyed it because we absolutely loved serving you. ❤️

Then on the way home, after all the rushing, cooking, serving and clearing, I just had to stop for a moment at the waterfall. And when I finally got home, there was that incredible moon hanging over the farm. 🌕❤️

A little reminder to stop for once and be thankful — for lovely customers who trust us with such important days and especially for my wonderful team, who work their bloody socks off and make days like today run so smoothly. I genuinely couldn’t do it without them.

Congratulations Matthew & Helen 🥂❤️

One more wedding to go on 10th October… and then I might officially hang up my wedding apron for 2026. 🤣🍂❤️

20/09/2026

From the hedgerow to the jar 🍂🌹❤️

Well this is a first for me… homemade rosehip syrup!

My lovely new friend Charlie went out foraging and arrived with a haul of rosehips and haws for me. So obviously instead of doing any of the approximately 972 other things I should have been doing, I decided I was making rosehip syrup 🤣

Washed, blitzed, boiled, strained… strained AGAIN because apparently those innocent-looking little things are full of tiny irritating hairs 😬🤣… then sugar added and finally bottled.

And look at that colour! ❤️ I am ridiculously pleased with it.

Apparently I can have it with hot water, drizzle it over yoghurt and puddings, add it to sparkling water or — far more likely in this house — put a splash in a gin or Prosecco 🤣🥂

Thank you Charlie for doing the actual foraging ❤️ there is absolutely a bottle with your name on it. Although now I’ve used every last rosehip, I couldn’t even save three bloody ones for the finished photo 🤣🤣

There is something really lovely about taking something growing wild in the hedgerows and turning it into something you can enjoy through autumn and winter. 🍂

Next up… damson gin stirring and fire c***r tonic stirring it’s all going on up here, and no I’m not a witch 🤣🤣🤣🤣

16/09/2026

16/09/2026

Sometimes book club becomes about so much more than the book…

Well, after all my worrying about having our author join us for book club, what a lovely evening we had! ❤️

We were joined by Christina Schofield, who writes as Emily Fairfax, author of Things Bad Begun, and hearing Christina talk about the real life behind the book completely changed the evening.

She spoke incredibly openly about what she had lived through and about finally putting her story onto paper. One thing that really stayed with me was Christina telling us that she couldn’t write the book until her parents were no longer here, because she simply never wanted them to know what she had been through. 🥲

That honesty opened up such a poignant conversation around our table. Some of our own ladies shared experiences from their lives too, and suddenly it wasn’t simply a group discussing whether we liked a book — it was women talking, listening and understanding one another. ❤️

And yes… I DID confess to Christina that I’d had a bit of a mad rush to finish it! 🤣 We talked about the writing too, and she told us she is now working on a sequel and will approach writing this one quite differently. After meeting the woman behind the story, I’m genuinely intrigued to read what comes next.

Of course, this being a Lovely Cow Shed book club, nobody was going home hungry 🤣 — homemade fish pie and crusty bread followed by lemon, blueberry & mascarpone gateaux. 🍋🫐

And then this morning I received the loveliest message from Christina. She said she could have talked all night, described our ladies as “really enthusiastic, super friendly and very insightful” and said how much she loved seeing our book clubs growing and “banging the drum for reading.” 📚❤️

She also sent me these wonderful photographs — including the moment she first saw her own book on the shelf in Waterstones, her copy sitting proudly at home between Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and an incredible letter she received from Buckingham Palace after writing about her book and her story. What special memories to have.

So a huge thank you to Christina for trusting us with your story and answering every question we threw at you, and an equally huge thank you to our wonderful book club gang for making the evening what it was. ❤️

I started these book clubs because I love bringing people together, but evenings like this remind me just how special they have become.

Sometimes it really isn’t just about the book. ❤️📚

And now… onto our next one!
🪶 The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse 🪶

Let’s see where this one takes us… although judging by the cover, I’m slightly concerned. 🤣🤣🤣