Attic24

Today I am...

...tidying up the aftermath of yesterday's Birthday celebrations...

...marveling at how time can sometimes seem so slow, and yet so warp-speedy too...FIVE years old! How did that happen then??

 

...enjoying the excitement that a much-longed-for present can bring (pink Nintendo DS Lite)...

 

...thinking how wonderful it is that the old fashioned toys can still delight as much as the high-tech ones (beautiful china tea set, a present from my Mum, and cause of much squealing)...

...wishing that dark chocolate contained zero calories...

...loving that all the party rings didn't get scoffed yesterday, and I can enjoy one with my afternoon cuppa...

 

...catching the morning sun streaming across the table and lighting my crochet...

 

...smelling the scent of these gorgeous pinky-lilac hyacinths every time i walk into the room...

 

...hooking squares for my summer garden blanket and loving it all over again...

 

...feeling very touched at receiving a little surprise gift from a fellow knit-and-natterer...

...laughing at this image seen in "Lets Knit" magazine, and discovering the crazy antics of "Guerilla Knittas"...

...mmmmmm-ing my colourful *fresh* salad lunch...

...looking forward to strolling in the delightful pages of the summer issue magainzes...

Here's hoping that you too are loving, laughing, enjoying, thinking, catching, smelling, marveling, hooking, feeling, looking and mmmmmmm-ing with joy and abandon today......have fun!

xxx

Spring Greens (and Pinks)

Can you remember the post I made in January, about my word for the year? The word *Fresh*? I think about that word a lot, I carry it with me and hold it out in front of me from time to time to remind myself of my Personal Pledge.
Fresh flowers :: check. Fresh fruit :: check. Fresh projects :: check. Fresh Home :: hmmm getting there slowly. Fresh Me :: not exactly. It's taken me till now, April, to begin the tentative baby steps towards making a Fresh Me. Not easy you know. Sounds easy doesn't it :: yeah, eat better, get more fresh air and exercise, feel revitalsied, energetic, healthy!! But reality is, it's hard work making oneself feel Fresh. One has to feel motivated to do so.

Ok, shall I get to the point now, cor i could win a Gold Medal for rambling....the point is this :: last week, when I could no longer fasten my jeans up I decided that was IT. I was fed up with it (it being the condition of my body). I eat well in general, you know, healthy, homecooked meals, good ingredients, plenty of fruit and veg, a  little too much baking perhaps, but on the whole, pretty good I'd say. It's the exercise thing that I couldn't seem to get to grips with.  My daily walks along the canal to and from school were just not enough to generate that feeling I was after. That feeling of exhileration that comes when one raises the heartbeat, works the muscles, sweats a little.
So last week I enrolled myself. Yes I did! And I began to attend some Classes at my local gym. My first class was Aerobic Attack! Hard, fast, loud, a shock. Second class was lunch time Pilates. Soft, slow, gentle, a revelation. Can't say I'm exactly feeling Fresh yet, but I am nevertheless very hopeful for good things to come. I've made a start, and that has made me feel very good.

One of the lovely unexpected things that has come out of my jaunts to the gym is that it entails a walk across the park to get there and back. And as the aerobic classes are held in the evening, it means I'm walking through the park at a time of day when I would normally be at home doing pre-bedtime routines with the Little People. So it feels kind of extra special somehow, almost as if I should not be there, as if I've suddenly been granted permission to enjoy some previously forbidden delight. It's the light that does it for me...the light at this time of day is absolutely precious. The light and the greenery.

I have long had a fascination with the changing seasons, the passage of time through the 365 days that make up a year. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn and back to Winter again. Something about the rhythm of nature which I constantly find fascinating, reassuring and inspiring. And I love that through learning to take photographs most days, it's possible to capture something of this seasonal rhythm and preserve it a little.

These photos were all taken at around 6:45pm one day early last week. I was so aware of the green all around, of the freshness and newness of it all, almost as if I was witnessing the essence of Spring itself.

These horse chestnut leaves were still all limp and soft and droopy, having only just unfurled themselves....

....and I just love how shiny and new the leaves look, how that particular shade of green is so very Spring like. And how it matches my Boden coat too.

Walking up through the park into the little copse of woodland at the top of the hill, pausing to look back through the trees....

....enjoying the late day sun. Magical.

This little path above leads to the top of the park. Last year, as it was our first Spring in our new house and town, I had no idea that the row of trees to the left there were cherry trees. Not until  April when the pink frothy blossom burst forth with a flourish.
This year of course I knew full well, and I have been waiting, waiting, waiting.
Above photo was taken 19th April. Newly unfurled baby bronze leaves, but blossom buds still tightly shut.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, another week goes past and the blossom is slowly beginning to open.

And finally today look, with the sun shining, the blossom is in full frothy pink bloom.

Hooray for Spring!



Hooray for Fresh Greens and Pretty Pinks!

Enjoy your day, enjoy the Springtime colours all around. And if you can get out and about in the late part of today, enjoy the sunlight and shadows too.

I know I will
xxxx

 
 

Round and Square

Hello my lovelies...it seems to have been a long time suddenly since I sat and wrote about normal daily life here at Attic24 :: truthfully it's been quite hard getting myself back to normal routine after the holidays, harder than usual. I've been feeling adrift in a way that hasn't been great. Hmm, yes I've been feeling a little lost, and dare I admit it, a tad lonely of late too, missing my children and husband and finding friends busily occupied and unable to meet. But hey, lets not dwell or ponder too much, lets get Hooky shall we?!!

So circles and squares  today :: a little update on the current hooky goings on round these 'ere parts.

Remember my circular cushion? Started here look, and half way through here...ahh this has been one joyous project to work on, I've love love loved going round in colourful circles with hook and yarn, such fun!
I wanted to try and make the back a little different from the front, in fact I started out thinking I was going to crochet a plain back, in pale blue. But eh-hem it just did not happen. Funny that, I reached in my bag for the pale blue yarn and the red came out and it all went loop the loop from there on in. So I thought, I know, I can crochet three or four stripes in pale blue, inserting the odd colour here and there to make rings rather than stripes..yay, great idea! But that did not happen either. I simply could not bring myself to work two identical colours together, i just could not do it. So in the end, it did turn out kind of ringy I guess, with a pale blue bias...but more to the point, I like it.

I crocheted the two circles together around the cushion pad nice and plain. Then I started out making a small shell edging around the outside edge but it didn't look right and I frogged it. Tried a picot edging and frogged that too. So now I'm thinking I will just leave  it plain and simple, no edging. Nada.
Can you also remember in this post I was pondering stitching a crochet flower in the centre? A couple of you were brave enough (heehee) to speak up and tell me it would be too much, and yes you were quite right. I spent an age stitching the flower in the centre, only to find I didn't like it after all and unpicked it. So I guess the moral of the story here is a) don't be afraid to change your mind and b) less is more.

This cushion has turned out to be very deliciously plump and cushiony, I really do love it.

And even though it's destined to reside on my Lloyd Loom chair, i couldn't resist introducing it to it's three cushiony sofa buddies. Yummy!

In fact I love the way the roundness contrasts so beautifully with the rest of my crochet, with the stripes, squares and hexagons. I'll most definitely be making another few round cushions I think, to scatter hither and thither.

Onto the squares now :: the last few weeks I've been working hard on my small back-of-chair throw too. I decided on a 10x10 format, so there are one hundred little Grannies all partying together in the square.

I'm now busy working an edging to the whole block, which is turning out to be hugely satisfying and addictive. I took a train journey yesterday to The City, so 45mins each way and I spent the whole time hooking. I tell you, I could barely bring myself to stop crocheting to fish my ticket out of my bag for inspection, it killed me to stop mid-stitch! I am really quite  super speedy now at grannying, I think the ticket inspector was secretly impressed although he never actually said so.

Incidentally, If you have never had the pleasure of crocheting whilst journeying by train, you must try it, I can highly recommend it. In fact, I may well journey to The City every week just to have the pleasure of crocheting on the rails. Its so rhythmic, oh yes, I did have a jolly good time doing that yesterday.

I took this last photo this morning, it was oddly the first time I'd actually thought to spread the throw out and look at it fully. I've been in such a frenzy with it recently, it's remained all bunched up either on my lap or in the bag.
I was not going to post this pic until the throw was properly finished, until it was all blocked and straight and beautifully edged and perfect.
But I couldn't resist sharing it whilst it's still in-progress.
Because I happen to be very excited about this square of hooky goodness, and it makes me giddy beyond words to keep excited feelings to myself. Makes me feel terribly jittery actually.
Better to share, without question.
xx

Dorset Holiday :: Blissful Days

 

When I compose my blog posts, they always start with the images. Always. My ideas for each post evolve directly from my photographs and I always upload all the pictures first before turning my mind to the writing. It takes quite a long time to upload photos to typepad, mainly because I am too lazy to resize them and make them smaller, so they are large, unwieldy files that have to make their way from my Attic computer through cyberspace to you.

Anyhow, this morning I wanted to tell you the story of one Blissful Day of my holiday last week, the day in my life that was Thursday 16th April. There are twentyone pictures in total which has taken me almost two hours to upload (I blog visit and email and make coffee and surf the net whilst doing this, so admittedly I get rather distracted along the way). And whilst I've been watching the images appear on screen, I've been able to re-live this particular day all over again, and it's been surprisingly emotional for me.

 

The morning started with a plan, and involved meeting family for coffee and cake at 10.30am at the Hive beach cafe (I chatted a little about this place on Wednesday). Even though the weather was quite grey and windy on this morning, the delicious coffee and cake, and time spent idling on the beach afterwards was delightful. The Little People are now at an age where they can quite happily amuse themselves for a while without adult participation, especially on a beach. There was lots of digging, stone throwing and collecting, drawing (we always take sketch pad and pens with us in the rucksack, and Little Lady spent a surprisingly looong time sat on the beach colouring a whole page in blue, which was her picture of the sea she said).

Whilst the LP were busy with their own pursuits, J and I were able to talk to each other. I don't know about you lot, but often I feel that in the bustle and humdrum of daily life at home, it becomes increasingly difficult as a couple to find time to sit and talk to each other. To talk about the way you are feeling about life, to make plans, to sort of review where you are at and where you see yourself headed if you like. Often J and I will do this on the occasions when we are out walking together, and last week, on this Thursday morning on the beach, I found I really enjoyed talking to my husband and had missed it. I remembered that I really, really like him a lot. That he is funny, thoughtful, honest and very hard working. That he has worked hard to provide us, our little family,  with a great deal of security and stability, and that he will continue to do so. And that I must never, ever take this for granted or forget how lucky I am to have him and this life of ours. And I tell him so.

 

We notice after an hour or two at the beach that the weather is brightening up considerably from it's grey start, and that blue sky is appearing. It's still windy mind you, so we make a spur of the moment plan and decide on a venue and an activity for the afternoon. We choose Eggardon Hill, and Kite flying. Eggardon hill is the site of an ancient iron-age hillfort, but I am not especially interested in the history of it. What I love about it is the height, the views, the space and the light. And the fact that it holds a great many memories for me, of my parents and grandparents (no longer with us) and the many happy childhood picnics and playtimes that have taken place here over the years. Oh, and that it is always very windy and therefore exceptionally good for kite flying up here.

 

The kite flying was a huge success. In my experience, kites can be quite unpredictable (we've had some disappointing "bad flyers" over the years) and this was the first outing for this little kite as it had been sitting under a little pile of dust in the cellar for quite some time. I came across it still unused and in it's packet when I was  busy gathering blankets and boots, balls and spades and packing up the car ready for the journey to Dorset. And now looking at these pictures and remembering the joy of this simple afternoon on the hilltops, I am so glad I did.

 

As a child I used to adore kites, and can so remember the feeling of exhilaration when ones kite actually does work and does lovely simple kitey things like going up and staying up and following you as you walk it along on it's string. Its magical! And the Little People really, really had a lot of fun with this kite. Doesn't it look stunning against the blue of the sky? Mmm mmm!

 

When we begin to tire of looking skywards, we stroll on further across the hilltop. It's hard to capture the true scale of Eggardon on camera :: the expanse of the sky and the surrounding panoramic views is awesome. One of the things I love most of all is to sit and watch the dark shadows move across the vast hillsides, the shadows made by the clouds themselves. Love that.

J and I spread a blanket and sit on top of this ancient ridge to drink hot tea from a flask while the LP do their thing. Their "thing" here involved chaotic frisby throwing, interspersed with running up and down the steep grassy slopes and some rather speedy roly-polying. It was exhausting watching them, how is that small children can find sooooo much energy in their little bodies?

 

This last photo above of the view across the valley was taken at 4pm just as we were preparing to head back. We had a table booked at a small local Thai restaurant at 6pm :: I remember thinking then that this day was shaping up to be truly fabulous, and yet I did not know at 4pm that the best was still to come....
 

The meal out was wonderful, quite a treat. The food was fantastic, the children very well behaved in such a small intimate restaurant. While us adults enjoyed spicy Thai curry, they happily tucked into prawn crackers and chicken satay sticks with a peanut dip (their first experience of Thai food, and was declared YuMmY-can-we-have-it-again).

We come out of the restaurant at 7.30pm or thereabouts, and step into an unexpectedly glorious early evening light. So instead of heading back to the house, we make a spontaneous decision to go for a walk instead, to extend the day so to speak.

 

I know exactly where I want to go :: a little known patch of land a few miles out of Bridport called Eype Down. Park the car in a  layby just off a quiet deserted country lane at the foot of the down and begin climbing. Up, up across the steep grassy slopes  which in a  few weeks time will be a glorious shade of bluebell blue. As we get near the brow of the down, we catch the setting sun streaming over the horizon, the quality of the light at this time of day is breathtaking.

 

Long shadows (that's mine above), and golden light, I am thrilled by the beauty of it all and feel fit to burst.

Eventually after some climbing we reach a point where the coast is visible. We see the flat top of high Golden Cap, the little village of Seatown nestled down underneath it, and the milky sea under the golden sky.

 

Words cannot describe how amazing all this makes me feel. This landscape and light, this freedom and exhileration of being out at this time of day when normally we would be indoors and therefore missing it all. Hope that doesn't sound too soppy? Or over dramatic, haha, yes maybe it does but what the heck!

The Little People are caught up in my excitement, they do NOT want to go back because they know it is really their bedtime, yet here they are in the midst of the countryside, running around and eating chocolate :: what fun!

 

So we make another spontaneous decision :: we decide not to go back and put pyjamas on just yet, but to walk back down the down (!) to the car and drive the mile or two to the sea. Just for the joy of it. Shall we? Yes, lets do it!

It is 8:20pm when we arrive at Eype beach and the fishermen are just setting up for the night. Another family with excited children is collecting driftwood to make a beach fire.

 

The colours in the sky are amazing, incredible and I am trying not to cry with the pleasure of it all, it seems so emotional for me somehow! I'm quite sure I'm not normal, I become  so affected by little things all the time it seems.

 

We settle down on the beach to watch the day draw to a close, and there is a chill in the air now. Luckily I have my faithful knitted blankets (remember them?) to keep me warm and I feel so happy, snug, content. I am so very in-the-moment, you know?

The sky slowly, slowy changes colour and begins to darken.

 

The Little People are beside themselves with excitement. I think as adults, we forget how rarely young children get to stay up beyond 8pm and venture outdoors to witness the close of day :: it's normally a time for being home, locking the door, drawing the curtains shut and preparing for bed. And so when it does happen, it holds a great deal of unexpected excitement.

 

As you can see, they are, quite simply, loving it.

 

Loving every minute. And quite rightly so.

As the temperature falls, J and Little Man (who are too manly to snuggle under knitted blankets it seems) retreat back to the car to warm up. Little Lady and I wrap ourselves up in the wooly, blankety warmth, snuggle down together on our backs and keep watch for the first stars to appear. We spot the first ones twinkling just before 9pm. And it seems to be a signal that it's time to end our day and head back.

As I recount this story to you today, I realise with a start that for me, this particular day in my life was as near to Perfect as I could ever ever hope for. Time spent with family in a beautiful and much-loved little corner of the world, enjoying the moments unfold from early morning through to night. It was a day I didn't want to end. It made me feel so profoundly Complete in a way that is incredibly hard to describe.

I loved the day because it was so simple. Because the pleasure came from love and laughter and relaxation, from good food and company, from the land and sea and the elements, from simple pleasures. Good coffee. Cake. The sounds of waves breaking on the shore. Of being high up and enjoying a view. Of Kite flying. Of sunsets, warm blankets and starry skies.

So simple to find happiness, it is right there to be had, in the small moments of each day. All you have to do is hold yourself in those moments, and cherish them.

xxxxxxxxxx

Dorset Holiday :: Seaside Days

During last week we went down to the sea every day. Sometimes we stayed local, sometimes ventured further afield. Sometimes it would be early morning for breakfast (as in these photos) sometimes for lunch, or an afternoon stroll, sometimes evenings.

We watched the sea and the sky in all weathers, from the brightest of sunny days through to the darkest of rain of storms. Rain or shine, morning, noon or night, crowded or deserted, beach, harbour, pier, promenade and cliff I just love love loved being by the sea.

These first pictures were taken earlyish (9.30am or so) on Easter Monday, and as you can see the weather was absolutely glorious. The intense blue of the sky was magical.

It was actually quite hard to photograph the seascape on this morning because the light was so bright and intense as it reflected off the water. We strolled the promenade, sat on West Beach and drank it in.

 

We were there for breakfast on this morning. Can you see in the above photo look, across the harbour is a row of "Snack Shacks"? That's breakfast calling. Shall we walk round the harbour and go see what's on offer?

There is hot competition at this side of the harbour. Oooooo, shall we go to JB's, Mungo's or the Snack Shack? Which one?

J chooses by scrutinising the various menus and I choose by the colour of the painted wooden tables. Snack Shack it is then because the tables happen to be the exact colour of the sky.

We order bacon and egg rolls and cappuccinos for the Big People. Icecream for the Little People, which they thoroughly approve of. Not every day you get to eat icecream for breakfast, hot on the heels of chocolate easter eggs.

Our breakfast, with the above view was completely scrumptious.

A stroll round the harbour and as always I find myself going off on a giddy little spin all of my own. I get such childish pleasure from harbours and boats, they never fail to make me feel like squealing and hopping with pure excitement, which I quite often do.

My children have come to think this is quite a normal way to behave, they don't bat an eyelid. They even make suggestions as to which boats will be the best for photographs.

Look Mum :: orange buoys against the blue of that boat!

Oooo yes!! Squeeeeeal hoppity hop, camera-click-click, ahhhhhh!!!

My husband tolerates me in this mood, but doesn't get it really. He rolls his eyes a little, becomes slightly impatient with the halting exclaiming progress. Obviously he doesn't experience colour in the same enormous way that I do. I mean just look!! Look at the colour of that boat there above, Isn't that blue just the most perfect boaty bluey-blue?? Doesn't it make you want to go oooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and hop with pleasure?????!!!!! :o)

I find it all so beautiful, exhilarating, heart-expanding. Even though I've walked round this harbour  a gazillion times since I was a small child, it still never fails to thrill me.

 

Beautiful.

It's all so perfectly beautiful.

We are around the harbour now to the other side, and this is East beach, with East cliff towering vertically in the background. East beach is an unpredictable, ever shifting bank of shingle. Some years it's almost flat. This year there is this huge mound to negotiate up and down. The Little People are expert mound-negotiators. Roly-polies are the way to go here. Endless satisfaction and amusement. I squash the urge to try it myself.

Crocs are abandoned and bare toes are out for a wiggle.

This cute row of houses sits at the back of the beach. I have always loved them, even as a child I always wanted to live in The Pink House.

And another fabulous house of childhood fantasies. Can you see the whale on the weather vane?

We have moved on now....these photos were taken last Tuesday, on a rather more cloudy, grey day. This is the East Dorset coast, at Durdle Door. When you arrive at Durdle Door, the car park is located high up on the cliff top and in order to see the Durdle Door itself you need to walk. Down, down, down you go along the descending cliff path, with stunning views of the cove below.

The colour of the sea here is magical, even on a grey cloudy day such as this one.

And eventually you come down low enough to see The Door, in all it's geographical splendour. You then need to decide whether to turn round and huff and puff back up the cliff, or whether to descend even further to one of the two little curved beaches either side of the arch. You really do want to go to the beach, but you know that aaaaaaallllllll those steps that you walk down to get to the beach will eventually have to be walked back up again. You put it to the vote. Three against one in favour of the beach :: hooorrraaahhhh, and down we go!

A very pebbly beach. Chocolate for energy. Building stone towers to make targets for throwing competitions. Enjoy the moment, then eventually prepare for the inevitable climb back up the million and one steps. Was worth it though, wasn't it? Yeah, definitely worth it.

Ajoining Durdle Door is the small village of Lulworth, with its popular curved cove and beach.
Its extremely, impossibly pretty but extremely impossibly crowded here. It's hard to photograph because people are everywhere, and I have an issue about having strangers invade my photographs, I don't like it one little bit. So no pretty pictures of cute thatched cottages, winding lanes, dinky shops or picturesque beach scenes, sorry.

But there is this fabulous bucket tree to show you.

And these delightful windmills.

 

Quite a lot of hoppity squealing over brightly coloured buckets and windmills I might add.
Ahhhh Seaside Days, I just adore them with all my heart.
I've got one more Holiday Story for you tomorrow.
See you then
xxx

Dorset Holiday :: Lazy Days

The first day of our stay in Dorset was Easter Sunday, and aside from a little Easter egg hunt for the Little People in the garden we had nothing planned. In fact the whole week was rather unplanned from the start and thats just how I like my holidays to be. No point working to elaborate schedules is there, partly as so much depends on the weather from day to day and partly because its a joy in itself to greet each day with freedom and a little spontaneity I think.

Having said that, when we're down in Dorset visiting with family, a certain amount of co-ordination does need to take place so that other family members know roughly when and where to expect us, especially around mealtimes.
I think there's also a feeling that occurs on holidays, a feeling that it's important to find the right balance between relaxing and lazing the days away (pretty essential part of a holiday) yet also making the most of one's time there.
Planning, Co-ordinating, Balancing?? Didn't know holidays could be so tricksy did you eh???
Only kidding :: in truth, our days away last week evolved and rolled along with pleasure and ease, and yes it was all quite wonderful. I was looking through the photos again earlier today and wondering how to order them, how to tell you the Holiday Story if you like, how to condense it all into three posts without boring the pants off you. I think I've got it more or less sorted in my mind, but it's taken some doing. I'm out of bloggy practice!
So any road, today I've decided to share some bits and pieces of the week that to me sum up the joys of being away from home, of being at leisure to relax and potter and well, to be a little lazy I guess.

When faced with a small pocket of time in the day to occupy oneself with something, I did love how it all panned out for our little family. For me, lazy moments inevitably entailed a great deal of hooky action :: hoozah!! J would take time to read the daily papers and the Little People chose to watch a film/colour/draw/play games/run/jump/hit things with sticks/climb/slide/mess with water/eat chocolate. Great stuff.

Did I mention that I L:O:V:E to sit in the sun and crochet when on holiday?

There were also lazy afternoons sat by the river at Mums cottage....

....admiring her flowers, drinking tea, chatting, watching trout swim.

There was also the job of supervising mini expeditions to find woodlice, and dealing with the most ferOCIOUs red-legged spiders too....

....and loving Mum/Grandma's beautifully decorative Easter basket, admittedly a little robbed of it's chocolate stash in the above photo. Woodlice-hunting and spider taming is hungry work for Little People you know.

There were lazy evenings spent in B's beautiful garden, watching the magical early evening slant of sunlight move slowly across the grass. Chilled white wine, scrummy food, chat and laughter.

There was a little lazy pottering around Bridport town too. Into various shops to buy sunglasses, toys, wine and nibbles.....

...oh, and Vintage. Of course. The precious Girls Own Store, as delightful and charming as ever.

Just a few weeny purchases into my bag look, crikey, how restrained. A Greengate tin (reduced in price due to a small dent), a dinky green and white striped jug and a little spotty Greengate dish. Pretty darn happy with those.

Ahhhh yes, more me-time, and I stroll in Magazine-Wonderland. I visit this beeeaauuuutiful home inside the pages of Homes and Antiques (May issue), and am so happy to be there. Incidentally this issue also has a fabulous article about artist Cressida Bell. Truly beautiful and inspiring.

 

Hmmm did I mention how I Love to crochet whilst on holiday?

Lazy playing by the river :: well lazy for the Big People but very industrious for the Little People. Climbing and splashing and digging and stone throwing, what fun.

A favourite bridge fondly remembered from my own childhood. Games of Poohsticks, and more layers of childhood memories are built.

 

We enjoy Essential Refreshment Stops every day in various pubs, cafes and tearooms around the environs of Bridport. Sat outside in the sun, cappuccino and home made cake to hand, feeling so utterly holidayish. Above picture is a local 17th century mill with a delightfully old fashioned tearoom within. Imagine chickens clucking around under the tables and the sound of the water wheel turning and splashing as you eat and drink.
 

And then there is a visit to my favourite cafe of all :: the Hive Beach cafe at Burton Bradstock. If you ever, ever visit this part of Dorset, you must promise me you'll go here. It's divine. In variable weather there is a very welcome tent-like addition to the back of the cafe look. So you can shelter from the elements while you sip and munch, yet still see the sea and feel outdoorsy. The carrot cake here is beyond words.

After carrot cake and cappucinno comes a spot of lazy close-up contemplation of the Chesil beach....

 

...some serious Horizon-gazing....

....and full-on appreciation of Seagulls-against-bluest-of-blue-sky.

Cor...you know what? It can be hard work being on holiday. All that lazing and gazing, sipping and munching, hooking and reading, strolling and playing. My my, and that was just on the Lazy Days!

More of the salty blue wet stuff tomorrow......

xxxxxx

Home :: Here :: Hello !!

I'm Home! I'm Here! Hello!! I missed you!!! Goodness I am exclaiming a lot today !!!! because I am excited to be back...need to calm down, deep breaths ahhhhhhhhh thats better.
So how are you all? Had a good break? Glad to be back to normal? Good-oh, same here. Had a FANtAsTic Easter holiday, soooo wonderful, but also very good to be home and finding my rhythm again. Kiddiwinks went back to school  yesterday and J was back to work and for a weeny while I was quite lost on my own. I wandered from room to room, up and down stairs, out into the sunshine and back in again and did not know what on earth to do with myself. I had no voice for blogging, did not even manage to climb the stairs to the Attic, I was all out of kilter. In the end I busied myself with straightening out the house a little, goodness knows it was in dire need. I scrubbed and dusted and polished, tidied and sorted and carried, gathered and loaded and unloaded and pegged and folded, baked and cooked and flopped. Pheww.

Inwardly I am still at sea actually. Always takes me a while to come back to land after I've had a week by the coast. I look out my attic window at the beautiful hills and long for waves. Oh how I LOVed being by the sea last week! It was terrific for my soul, left me feeling energised, refreshed, happy. But I miss it already. I miss the sights and sounds and smells of coastal life.

The seagulls that reside in Bridport are extremely noisy, and as a visitor I always love that fact, although residents complain heartily about them. But to me, one of the pleasures of being on holiday is waking up to the sound of them wheeling overhead, squawking their morning wake up call.
I couldn't resist buying this little seagull ornament to bring home. He only cost a few pounds from a little bucket-and-spade type shop next to the beach.

He is sitting upon my jar of sea glass on my bathroom windowsill, reminding me of sunny, happy, beach-bound days.

As always after a holiday, it's been a joy to finally upload my (141) photos onto the computer and re-live the week through the images. Glorious. Lots of sea stuff. Harbours, beaches, seagulls, pebbles, cliff tops. Mmm-mmm.
I would love to share them with you, if you'd care to indulge me? Need to think on how to organise them to best effect, how to avoid sending you off in a fug of yawning, holiday-snap boredom.

So until then, can I just say many huge thanks for all your good wishes for my break away, I carried your words with me and enjoyed myself enormously.

Thank you, consider yourself hugged in appreciation.

xx

ps almost forgot...the image above of the bare plastered bathroom walls just reminded me...a belated huge thanks too for the response to the Bathroom Cabinet Colour Question...boy, you really excelled yourselves there my friends.
I read every single one of your comments with a piece of paper and pen to hand, and tallied all the replies. Yes, I truly did. There were seventeen different colours/effects suggested in total, with the most popular suggestion being to paint the cupboard the same sky blue as the shelf (18 votes). Red (9 votes) and pink (9 votes) were also popular suggestions, as well as the idea to choose one of the colours from the striped/pompommed bathmat (7 votes). As it happens, the sky blue colour very nearly almost matches one of the colours from the bathmat too, so there you go. A fine result, and I thank you for your participation. I shall get jiggy with sky-blue paint as soon as I am able. 

xx

Farewell

Hoping you're all enjoying a fabulous Easter weekend?
All is hunkydory here.
We are in full-on Holiday Mode and it feels wonderful.

Busy getting things together today, making preparations.....activities and treats are being gathered for the Little People, and supplies to make an Easter Egg hunt happen tomorrow....

....my own weekend essentials are also being gathered together...making a dash over to my fabulous Wool Shop later this morning to purchase yarn colours that I've run short of.

After lunch we will be packing the car up and preparing to drive the 300 miles south to the Dorset Coast. We're spending the next week with my folks in Bridport, and I am sooooooooo excited! Its been eight months since we were last there and recently I've been feeling quite homesick for the place, missing it a great deal.

I am looking forward to sea breezes, jaunty harbours, green clifftops, bustling towns, quiet lanes, picnics, pottering, browsing, meandering, lazing, chatting, hooking, reading, laughing, walking. With my family.
I shall miss my Attic while I'm away and I shall miss chatting to you too.
While I'm gone, if you'd like to re-read a little of my previous Dorset holidays, by all means feel free to potter in the Attic24 archives ::

April 7th 2008 :: Down to the Sea

April 9th 2008 :: Family Connections

April 10th 2008 :: Vintage and Thrift Style

July 28th 2008 :: Dorset Jollies :: Day 1

July 29th 2008 :: Dorset Jollies :: Day 2

July 30th 2008 :: Dorset Jollies :: Day 3

July 31st 2008 :: Dorset Jollies :: Day 4

And you can bet that whilst I'm away I'll be observing and absorbing all the delights of being on holiday by the sea, and shall come back bursting at the seams with tales to tell and things to share.
Have a fabulous week and I'll see you all when I get back
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daffodils

A few weeks ago, Little Man's class at school were asked to sit and make a study of a vase of daffodils. First of all they were asked to paint the daffodils, which the whole class found very difficult. Apparently there was a lot of moaning and complaining.

So the clever teacher used this reaction. She then asked the class to write a poem about how this task  had made them feel, for them to express their feelings through poetry.

This is my Little Man's poem, written March 2009, age 6.5yrs ::

Daffodil Drawing

My piece of paiper was
Like a fluffy cloud.
Not grey, not blue, but wite.
Yes wite very broring.

Soon their was some briet yello trumpets
Briet as custud.
Not blue not wite not pink but yello.

I pikt the pencil up.
I droow the stem.
As green as leevs forling.
Not red not blue but green.

And this poawim rmiendid me of my Mum.

Beacos my Mum loves daffodils

And her faivrut culer is green.

The day after writing the poem, he stood up in his school assembly and read it aloud to the whole school, 150 children.

I could tell he was extremely nervous.
But he did it.

I thought my heart would explode.

How immense is that feeling called "Motherly Pride"?

xxx

Easter Time

Ooooooh I've just recovered from having a bit of a hissy fit here in the Attic. It was not a pretty sight. I had made myself a coffee and tripped up the two flights of stairs all excited to be writing todays post because I'd taken some lovely photographs during yesterday and was really excited to show you. Push the ON button on the computer and nothing. None of the usual whirring of power. Complete silence. Ahhhrrrggghhhh!!! Straight on phone to J :: WHat HAs HApPenEd to the computer, it's DEAD!!! Try to control my voice, try not to sound panicky, try to hide the rising hysteria and alarm. He calmly tells me he Broke the power switch last night by Jabbing it too hard. JABbING?????!!!! What were you doing JABbinG at the computer, my photos are all on there, all my lovely Easter Decorating photos and now I can't get at them!!! He makes some sort of remark about HA thats stopped me from wasting time blogging today......so I ask him if he Jabbed on purpose, if he sabotaged the computer to deliberately keep me from my blog. Laughter. He laughs, and I feel very silly. I recognise the symptoms of Addiction, and I feel a little ashamed. I am truly addicted to my blog :: yikes, I am an Addict.

So what do I do??? I do what most Addicts do and take STEps to get my Fix that's what. I get my camera. I re-take photos of Easter Decs. I locate J's big laptop, the one he doesn't much care for me using. And I commandeer it. Upload my photos onto it, and here I am, getting my fix for the day, feeding my addiction. Phewwww, it was a close call.

Had a super-lovely day here at Attic24 yesterday. Ahhh it was really great! The weather was glorious, see the view from the Attic window yesterday afternoon, isn't the colour of that sky just perfect?

We didn't go anywhere, it was a stay-at-home day. The Little People played outside almost the whole day with various friends coming and going. I baked banana bread, supplied endless snacks, drinks, sandwiches, and many buckets of soapy water for car/scooter/bike washing. Wiped tears, cheered races, picked up, tidied up, supervised, cuddled, scolded. And in between all that I did Eastery Things.

I was mostly by myself this year, which was kind of bitter sweet. You may remember last years post about decorating for Easter? It was a full-on affair with me and the Little People doing it as a three-some. This year, they were too busy playing outside to want to stop and come in to help much. I was secretly quite happy to be puttering around on my own, arranging things, creating little displays, but it didn't hold quite the same level of excitement without the extra four Little Hands.

First up was my table display. On Friday last week I visited all eight of my town's charity shops, searching for a bowl to plant some narcissi into, but with no luck. So in the end, I found an old tin down in the cellar to use. It's a Christmas tin (with a reindeer on the lid), but the bottom of the tin, blue with white spots, seemed OK to use for Easter. Into the tin I popped a pot of spring flowers (narcissi, a primula and a hyacinth) which I'd bought for a few pounds from the supermarket. Stuffed the rest of the tin around the flowerpot with scrunched up newspaper and put a layer of white decorative stones all over the top.

It made the perfect place to put coloured foil wrapped chocolate eggs (already seriously depleted I might add), along with some beautiful painted wooden eggs and a knitted hen which I bought last week from the gift shop (the shop with the half price yarn). Isn't the hen sooo cute?

Next up I made an Easter Tree, using two stems of fake blossom which I bought a few years ago. Down to the cellar (again) to retrieve the Easter Box and unpack my collection of decorations ::little painted wooden eggs, felt birds and flowers, fluffy chicks and a cute nest.

Little Lady came in at this point to begin helping, so you can see the nest got rather overcrowded, as did a few of the branches...but it looks very sweet I think.

The fake blossom is quite delightful actually (it came from Dunelm Mill a few years ago, and was not expensive at all). And after reading Janes post last week about her collection of fake flowers, I am really seeing artificial blooms in a new light...might have to start looking out for more.

I had been hoping to make some new easter decorations for this year, but somehow the time ran out. I still really like these running ducks though (bought from ebay a few years ago), but would have liked to have made my own. I'm thinking on creating a permanent twigs-in-jug type display to keep up all year round, so that I can make some lovely little birds and flowers to brighten up a corner.

These little felt egg cosy's were also hiding in the Easter Box. I had forgotten about them actually, and was really pleased to see them again. Made them last year on a whim one night, after seeing them on the Yvestown blog.

Ahhh candy-coated chocolate mini eggs....so pretty, so yummy and so very very Eastery for me. I cannot contemplate an Easter season without them. I've been buying them for the last few weeks, popping one or two into the Little Peoples packed lunch boxes every day, and one or two into my own mouth every day too.

I made crispy nests yesterday too look...would like to tell you that like last year the Little People begged me to make them, joined in the melting-chocolate appreciation, scrabbled to lick out the bowl afterwards...but nope, sadly I did this all by myself. And that included licking out the bowl. Shame on me.

And lastly, I finally found time to do some eggs. We (Little Man and I) have been blowing them out over the last couple of days (using the egg to make Frittata, pancakes, banana bread, buns) and last night I sat down and painted a few of them ready for decorating. I used some emulsion paint tester pots to paint them with, which worked out great :: the tester pots (from Focus) are the sort that come with their own brushes attached to the lids. I love paint and paint charts, love the names of the colours. These eggs (clockwise, starting top left) are painted in :: Tea Tree, Raspberry Delight, Raspberry Smoothie, Seychelle Blue, Lemon Fizz and Ice Pink. Lovely.

Will show you tomorrow if I can get the Little People to sit down and apply themselves to decorating them. Or maybe I might just sit myself down and have a little quiet Creative Moment when the Little ones take themselves off outside to play.

Hope you're having fun this week whatever you are up to, hope the sun is shining, and hope you are happy. See you tomorrow...

xxxxxx