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Lizzie Smith Writes & Wanders

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Lizzie Smith Writes & Wanders

📚 Author, querying my debut rom-com (RNA NWS)
🥾Hiking the 214 Wainwrights (25/214)
⛰️ Ambassador for Our Fells app.

Code: LIZZIE
🐾 Spaniels, nature and moon magic
📍 Lancashire, UK

30/10/2026

A slower reading month for me, as I’ve been upping my own writing game. But I still managed to read some great books, especially Circe, which I devoured in pretty much one go. (Witches and Greek mythology get a yes from me! 🧙✨)

I’ll be cracking on with the festive TBR list soon, but after my trip to Brontë country this week, I have a strong yearning for some classics too!

Here are my October picks:

🎃 Circe by Madeline Miller
🎃 And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens
🎃 The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
🎃 Good Material by Dolly Alderton

29/10/2026

History, literature, women who rewrote the rules, and a dash of gothic magic… Haworth ticked every box! 🍂 ✨ 📚

We started our day with a walk up the Main Street for a coffee at Cobbles & Clay , then headed to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The queue was quite long, so we wandered around St Michael’s and All Angels church, where most of the Brontë family are buried.

Lunch was at Haworth Old Post Office - the very place where the Brontë sisters posted their manuscripts to London. Definitely recommend and you can book online as it gets busy.

Then back to the Parsonage, where I didn’t expect to feel quite so emotional. I spent most of our time there with a tight chest and wobbly legs. Standing in the dining room where Charlotte, Emily and Anne wrote their novels, seeing the copy of the portrait Branwell painted himself out of, and learning more about their short lives really got me.

We finished our day with a bimble round the amazing shops, including The Cabinet of Curiosities: a magical apothecary filled with beautiful bath and body potions, gorgeous candles and spellbinding books.

Back home with my passion for the Brontës and classic literature well and truly reignited… and a louder voice in my head telling me to keep writing. ✍️ ♥️

24/10/2026

I thought it was about time I shared why I started solo hiking in my 40s. 🥾

And the answer is absolutely 100% my mental health.

I’ve always struggled with anxiety. Yes, I can mask it pretty well (probably thanks to a good old dollop of undiagnosed ADHD and autism), but it can make everyday life feel exhausting and sometimes terrifying.

Hiking is one of the only things that seem to stop my overactive mind whirring at a zillion miles an hour. 🌪️

There’s something therapeutic about lacing up my walking boots. Something therapeutic about following a map. Something therapeutic about reaching the summit. Basically I’m swapping mental chaos for burning glutes and trembling thighs. But it works! 😜

Solo hiking is also helping me slowly rebuild my confidence and learn to trust myself again… without having to rely on anyone else. Every Wainwright bagged is proof I can do hard things. Just me, myself and I.

It might sound dramatic but hiking is flipping life changing! And if I can inspire even one person to get out there and give it a go, then sharing my midlife unravellings with you is well worth it. ⛰️✨

10/10/2026

Something a bit different for me today… a community hike with Amy • Lake District • Hiking & Outdoors and Passenger. 🥾

I didn’t know a soul when I signed up, but I fancied a change from my usual solo wandering, so thought I’d give it a go.

Plus, this hike was up Wansfell Pike, which I’m pretty sure was my first Wainwright back in 2011. But it was an accidental bagging (my route got a tad over ambitious for a little family walk!), so I was never 100% convinced it counted.

Turns out I had done it, but still glad I went back up today. A lovely hike with lovely company… and some extremely cute dogs! 🐶

📍 Wansfell Pike
⛰️ 486m
🥾 Wainwright 1/214 (13.8.11)

30/09/2026

I love a good old nosey at what other people are reading, so I thought I’d start a little monthly round-up post of my own. 📚

Here are September’s picks - all courtesy of the local library. (Oh, how I adore a library!)

🧡 Hot Girl Summer by 𝐒𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐀
🧡 You Are Here by
🧡 People Pleaser by bryonygordon
🧡 Ghosts by Dolly Alderton
🧡 Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane
🧡 Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow by Victoria Walters
🧡 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

What have you enjoyed reading lately? I’m always looking for additions to my TBR list!

26/09/2026

⛰️ HELVELLYN ⛰️

Well, I obsessively checked all the weather forecasts and everything was looking promising. But the cloud refused to lift and I got wind battered and soaked! 💨 🌧️

Gutted I missed the views, but I’m still super proud I’ve climbed the third highest mountain in England! Plus, how amazing is that rainbow?! 🌈

📍Helvellyn
⛰️ 950m
🥾 Wainwright 28/214

Route planned with .app

24/09/2026

Who else is ridiculously excited for autumn hikes in the Lake District?! 🍂 🥾 🍁

This is Loughrigg Fell back in November 2021. We parked at White Moss car park and paired it with a wander to Rydal Caves, where I informed my husband (on more than one occasion) that this is where they filmed some of The Witcher!

Gorgeous views over both Grasmere and Rydal Water. Loughrigg is definitely one to add to your list of autumn Wainwrights. 🧡

📍 Loughrigg Fell
⛰️ 335m
🥾 Wainwright 13/214

13/09/2026

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been on the fells, so here’s a little throwback to Charlie’s first Wainwright: Barrow in August 2016.

He’d just got his first pair of walking boots in Keswick too - the tiniest size in the shop! 🥰 Those boots are still in a bag somewhere as I’m far too sentimental to part with them.

Anybody else find it hard to part with things?

familyhiking

28/08/2026

Turns out I kind of love sleeping in a shopping bag in the middle of a field! 🏕️

(The awesome campsite and incredible location might have helped.)

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Annes

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Wednesday	10am - 3pm
Thursday	10am - 3pm

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