Attic24

November

 

Slightly late with my Calendar post this month, but hey-ho, better late than never.

The mosaic above is my Attic24 October, and I have to say I did really enjoy last month, enjoyed easing myself gently into Autumn. Time seemed to fly by a little too speedily at times through October though, but it was good nevertheless.

So here we are into the first week of November, a month of wrapping up warm and cosying up. Leaf kicking, fire lighting, chestnut roasting, candle lighting, hot water bottling, blanket snuggling.

The Bossy Calendar is actually spot on with it's bossiness for this month I think, and I am more than happy to obey orders. It's still Persistently Brown mind you, but I can overlook that and focus on the glow of the open fire and the warm twinkle of candlelight.

 

The Ideal Homes November calendar page is oooooooo-so-very-atmospheric isn't it?? Beautifully simple, seasonal and quite lovely, as all their photographs have been during this year.

For those of you in the UK, the current issue of Ideal Homes magazine (December issue) is now in the shops and with it comes the 2010 calendar.....it's another stunning collection of images and I'm already looking forward to turning it's pages next year.

The November weather-watch from the Attic today is wet-wet-wet, I honestly don't think it's stopped raining here since Sunday.

Hoping very much that the rain might decide to ease up soon, it's not been nice doing the school run in such wetness. Been able to wear my wellies though, which has been a Good Thing. 

One thing about enduring a wet, soggy walk to school is that it makes the Home-coming even more pleasurable than usual. I loved walking back in the door this morning, the house seemed so cosy and welcoming.

Baked some cookies earlier and there's a rather wonderful fresh-baking smell still lingering in the air....these are my raisin and orange cookies (find the recipe here), only I used cranberries today instead of raisins and let me tell you they are really scrumptious.

Thought you might like to see a current view of Bump24, providing a rather handy ledge for my coffee cup. Many thanks to those of you who have asked after me and The Bump of late, we are doing very well thank you. I'm now plodding into the third trimester (28 weeks) and trying to remind myself to sloooooow right down, which is proving surprisingly difficult.

Right, off to indulge in a second cup of coffee before commencing the day's Nesting Activities. On the agenda for today :: making a blind for the bathroom window and painting my bathroom cupboard door knobs.

Do you know what? We could be coming close to a Bathroom Makeover Reveal very soon, now thats been a long time coming!

Enjoy your day my lovelies, whatever is on your agenda...

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Friday Thinking

Thinking about the weather :: in my little part of North Yorkshire, the weather and the overall light levels have been very poor in the past fortnight. It's been seriously dim, grey, dank and gloomy and not very pleasant to tell the truth.  But in the past few days, there have been little pockets of light to be found :: mostly it's been the early morning and early evening when the sunlight has managed to penetrate the dense grey clouds, and oh, I have appreciated it! Tiny little patches of lightness at either end of the day's greyness which have lifted my spirits enormously.

Thinking about my view :: these views from the Attic were taken yesterday morning, around 8am. Of course we ended up with another dull, grey cloudy day, but the start of it at least was quite breathtaking, if only for a very short while.

Thinking about my breakfast :: I've taken to eating my breakfast outside this week. It's been cold and fresh, and I've really felt the need for cold, fresh air first thing in the morning. It clears my head and revives me a little after what has often been a very restless night for me and Bump24. We are not sleeping great, me and the Bump, our nights are a whole load of blurrgghh. Yet I am surprisingly OK with it.

Thinking about my back yard :: my view across the breakfast bowl is not especially inspiring right now...my summer flowers are more or less over, and then there's that wall look, the wall which I had fully intended (but failed) to paint during the summer months. Love my watering can though, don't you?

 

Thinking about my feet :: I'm still wearing my crocs, sometimes with bare feet and sometimes with socks. I did try one day last week to go and buy some sensible winter shoes, but rather embarrassingly I found I could no longer bend down enough across the expanse of Bump24 to actually get the shoes onto my feet. The poor shoe shop assistant (a trendy young man with sculpted spiky hair, it was that kind of shoe shop) was not sure whether to laugh, offer to help, or run away. In the end it was me who ran away, and so my crocs are still having to carry me about. I think this winter I'll have to wear crocs in dry weather and wellies in wet weather :: not ideal, but what can one do when ones tummy is the size of a small house?

 

Thinking about my neighbourhood :: we went to our local park, me and the Little People, at the very end of one day this week (think it was Wednesday?) Me on foot (in my crocs) and the LP on two wheels :: you can see Little Lady in the above picture, a little dot-on-wheels zooming down the grassy slope.

 

Thinking about the end-of-day :: the light was beautiful at the end of this day, around 5pm or so. Long, golden shadows and full-on Autumnal-ness, a welcome respite from the grey.

Thinking about my Little People :: I ambled along, watching the Little People cycle, swing, climb, run, enjoying the great outdoors. I enjoyed Them enormously during this late Autumn afternoon, enjoyed their energy, their lust for life, the way they make me feel so proud just to be a Mummy-in-the-park.

Thinking about the Sun :: I really, truly, completely appreciated the Sunlight during this hour at the park. Tried to breathe it in and hold on to it. The sun has been such a rare sight during this past fortnight, hiding out behind all the greyness.

Thinking about Where I'm At :: this month seems to be rollicking by at such a rate that I often find myself almost feeling out of breath with it. Can it really be Pumpkin Day tomorrow?? Already? The last day of October already?? Tomorrow I will be twenty-eight weeks pregnant, moving into the third trimester. Can it really be so??

There is much to be done in the Attic24 household in the next few weeks, and I am simultaneously horrified and excited by the prospect of it. I really need to apply myself wholeheartedly to the business of Nesting. Of tidying, sorting, clearing, organising, painting, sewing, prettifying and homemaking.

So I'm telling you this now cos it may well become a little bit more Erratic-in-the-Attic in the next week or two, and I don't want you to worry about me if I'm suddenly absent.

I'll be Nesting.

And Nesting is Good.

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Walking to School

We've not had particularly nice weather here in North Yorkshire this week, and thats putting it kindly. Some days have been downright horrid, the worst kind of Autumnal weather :: think dark/dull, damp/wet, gusty/blustery, cold/bleak. It's been a challenge to face our walk to school with optimism, even though we are extremely lucky to have a very picturesque daily commute on foot.

I was looking back at an archive post earlier, a post about our School Run which I wrote way back in the summer of last year. Every photograph looked sooooo bright and beautiful in the summer sunshine! Very different to today, which was extremely dull and grey. Yet I felt determined to really try and appreciate these little snippets of my daily routine today, and to remind myself how lucky I am to have this daily jaunt. Its not half bad really.

So :: off we go :: strolling out into the grey autumn afternoon.....

 

The above picture is the view I have about a minutes walk from the Attic, stood at the very end of my street. You can see we live quite high up, looking down the hill to the canal, then across the town to the hills beyond. The very large building you can see is an old textile mill, now converted to appartments which overlook the canal.

Down the hill, across the swing bridge and onto the tow path now...the canal boats on the left hand side are permanently moored and don't move, they are lived on all year round :: little floating houses.

 

The boats on the right hand side come and go from day to day. Some of them are lived on permanently but travel up and down the canal, others are rented out to holiday makers keen to enjoy a little slice of the slow life up and down the waterways.

There is a smell of woodsmoke in the air which I love, and it's uinmistakably Autumnal.

Further along, and we are nearing the centre of the town now. This is a busy part of the canal, with a mixture of permanent moorings, holiday moorings and pleasure boats offering short cruises to holiday makers. The jaunty painted boat-planters on the left there are still flowering with summer annuals,  they were newly built this summer and have looked spectacular all season.

I had to photograph this boat to show you, I just love that colour blue with it's cheerful painted flower bouquets. This boat has only been on the canal for a few days and will probably move on again soon. I smile every time I walk past.

As well as looking at the boats on the water, I take time today to look up to the tress above my head....

.....and down to the ground beneath my feet.

I notice the little details of Autumn, the vibrant leaf colours, the shiny berries....

....and the autumn flowers.

There is beauty to be found all around, and taking time to really see it and appreciate it feels good.

Really good.

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October

Hopping and skipping out of September and into October today, and I have to say it's oh-so-beautiful in my little patch of the world. I strolled up through the town this morning on my way to the cafe, and felt the delicious warmth of the sun on my back as I walked. I was coat-less and wearing summer sandals, and as much as I adore wearing my green Boden coat and a jaunty woolen scarf, it nevertheless pleases me a great deal when I don't have to bother with outer garments.

So, it's the first of the month and therefore calendar page-turning time. Ahh I do enjoy this simple little ritual** at the beginning of each month, I really look forward to it. Would probably not admit this fact to anyone else but you :: seems a little bonkers to get so excited about calendar pages really, but there you go. I know you will understand and not think me too loop-the-loop. You might even possibly-maybe feel the same way yourself about your own calendars. Possibly.

I confess that the very Autumnal images this month leave me feeling a tad disappointed (above image from Country Homes calendar). I do LOVE October (which is my Birthday month), but why oh why does everything have to be depicted in shades of brown?? I mean, just look at my own photo at the top there :: taken this morning on my way home from the cafe, it's a snap of a random garage door in a back street. See?? Glorious, spectacular Autumnal colour! And in my humble opinion perfectly Octoberish and un-brown. I know, I am such a colour-junkie, I cannot really cope with shades of brown I'm afraid, it makes me feel moochy.

How-ever, the above image (from Ideal Homes Calendar) is rather fabulous eh? Can't really deny that, even with the brown-thing going on. Makes me put a little entry on my mental to-do list to keep my eyes open for some chunky Autumnal knitwear when I next do my rounds of the charity/thrift shops. Cute little fingerless mittens must also be made me thinks......ahhhh I can feel the exciting beginnings of a new crochet project emerging from the ric-rac Tangle....yeeessssss, I simply MUST crochet up some fingerless mitts! In jaunty stripes!! oooooo I'm all excitable about that now, all heart-fluttery and skittish! Must think calm thoughts.........

So....(calming down again)....what's doing at Attic24 today, on the first day of October? Well right now, as I sit and write (I'm downstairs at the dining table, tap-tapping on the laptop today) I can smell apples. Well to be more precise, I can smell that exact apple in the above picture, as it's sat right next to me on the table. A true English Apple, picked from a tree by my friends neighbour just a few streets up from where I live. And I can't tell you how lovely it's appley fragrance is....Apples and October go hand-in-hand in England, and I am really glad of that as I love apples and eat several a day.

My September Asters have now turned into October Asters....boy oh boy, these flowers were such amazing value for money! My dahlias sadly didn't last very long, but these little lovelies are still going strong, both downstairs and upstairs in the bedroom/bathroom.

On the fireplace mantel just behind me (the mantel with the crochet hearts garland hanging on it) I've propped up this lovely little metal sign which I bought a while ago from the local antiques centre. I was just looking at it earlier and day dreaming about my most favouritist place to be at this time of year :: Robin Hoods Bay. You may remember we went there last year to celebrate my birthday, and I always have a deep, inexplicable longing to return there at this time every year. Not sure if we'll make it there again this year, but I'm secretly hoping and wishing for it to happen.

And the Attic view today, on the first of October? Well, the above picture was taken this morning at around 9.30 when the air was still pale and hazy and hanging low over the hills.

But a few hours later and the day turned out be truly beautiful :: bright and warm and lovely. I can't tell you how much I've appreciated the warmth of the sun today.

I even hung my laundry out to dry today, which is something I'm making the most of whilst it lasts. Don't suppose we'll have many more outside laundry-drying days left in the year now, and I'll miss that for sure. 

Well I hope you're having a wonderful day today too, wherever you are in the world and whatever your season. Enjoy your October-the-first.
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**Just a quick note for those of you who are are not yet familiar with my quirky little ways, I have established a monthly routine here at Attic24 where I share with you my three calendar pages at the begnning of each month. You can read all of my previous months calendar blurbles by clicking on the "Calendar" category in my sidebar. Just so you know**

Afternoon Pondering

 

This afternoon I was thinking about you all.

I was thinking that I would really like to find a way of sending you all my Heartfelt Thanks. Thanks for everything you have said to me of late, thanks for all the warm words of encouragement and reassurance you've sent my way. But I can't think quite how to send you my thanks, the words just don't seem to be enough. But words is all I have to give you right now. Well, words and pictures that is. So the above picture is for you, by means of a humble Thank You. Please accept it with my love and gratitude.

 

I've had a quiet, reflective kind of a day today, and it's been rather lovely to have time and space to sit and ponder and kind of take stock of things a little, if that makes sense. I find this time of year makes me instinctively do this, I remember the feeling well from last September. I have a lot of things on my mind right now, practical things, creative things, oh ooooodles of things! My thoughts feel rather like a big tangled ball of ric rac :: quite pretty and with potential, but completely useless in it's tangled state.

The weather has been bright and breezy today and I spent a little time sat in the Attic window seat earlier, watching the sunlight moving across the hills. It seemed to me to be an especially beautiful afternoon, and distinctly Autumnal it has to be said.

The sunlight in the back yard this afternoon was also rather lovely, sort of low and slanting and golden. Due to the weather, this little outdoor space of ours has not had a great deal of use throughout the summer months. Well thats to say we've eaten very few meals at the outside table, but oh I have enjoyed my pots of flowers very very much this year. I've loved popping out there most mornings, chatting to my modest little blooms and enjoying the glorious colour.

I'm continuing to deadhead the flowers and hope to be enjoying them for another month or two yet. I'd also like to plant up some pots of bulbs this Autumn time, which is something I always have great excitement for every year, but am rarely organised enough to actually do it.

We shall see if I manage it this year, I'm not making any promises you know. Depends if I can untangle the ric-rac-ness of my thoughts and actually turn those thoughts into a reality. You know, Make Things Happen. I'm not very good at that on the whole.

 

I am rather good at sitting and pondering and drinking tea in the afternoons though. I can certainly Make That Happen.

And rather lovely it was too.

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One week down

Ahhhhhhhhh Monday morning, and we've survived the first week of the Summer hols :: one week down and only six more to go.

Last week, as I think I mentioned, we had J at home with us. It was a week consisting of very little in the way of plans, a week of taking each day as it came and muddling through. It was easy going, relaxed, quite lazy at times and due to the very unpredictable nature of the weather we found ourselves housebound for quite a lot of it, waiting for the rain to stop, hoping for grey skies to turn to blue. Some days it happened and we saw sunshine, but for many days it did not.

Because of the weather, we  predictably ended up with a fair number of extra children in the house at any given time of the day, with the number of pairs of shoes in the hallway giving me an instant headcount of visitors. Lots of surprisingly noisy games of hide and seek went on. Lots of thundering up and down stairs (boys can never just walk up and down stairs can they?).

And while the Little People did their thing, J and I spent the first half of the week attending to some very long overdue domestic chores and took on a bit of a clear out and sort out. Some rearranged furniture, some new storage solutions, a great deal of reorganization  and an incredible amount of junk turfed out and recycled/slung. It was quite a theraputic way to spend a few wet days indoors, if a little dull and unholidayish.

We took to eating quite a few of our meals picnic-style last week, all four of us sat cross legged on the floor around the little battered wooden coffee table. The Little People just love to eat this way, and I can remember feeling the very same when I was little, there's just something intrinsically happy and carefree about picnicking, even if it's done indoors.

Our normal, sensible, bowls of school-day cereal were replaced with holidayish warm chocolate chip brioche rolls. Fresh orange juice replaced water. The Little People thoroughly approved of this holiday breakfast routine. Smiles and chocolatey fingers all round.

In amongst the predominantly grey, wet weather of last week, we did experience some wonderful little spells of sunshine. Small pockets of summertime, small moments to be savoured. And on these mornings it was a delight to sit myself on the warm front step, coffee in hand, my face upturned to the sun, listening to the sound of the Little People and assorted neighbourhood children playing up and down the street.

Ahhhhhhhhh the sounds of the summer! Shrieking, yelling, excited children doing their thing. Wheels and balls, bubbles and chalk, blankets and dolls. Some squabbling too, tears as well, but mostly good natured play.

I tried very hard last week to feel positive about the weather, to feel OK about the endless droplets of rain that fell. My garden is loving it, plants are thriving. The countryside is looking green and lush and beautiful. Plus it made it reasonably OK to stay in pyjamas all morning, which quite honestly is a real bonus for the likes of me as I love love love wearing my pyjamas. Really. I am wearing them right now in fact, just so you know.

And yes, it wasn't all grey and wet all week, like I say, there were the odd pockets of sunshine...I took the above photo late one afternoon after it had been raining most the day. I had made myself a cup of tea and looking out the kitchen window I noticed that as if by magic, all the rain clouds had been blown away by the wind and the grey skies had indeed turned blue. I took my tea out in my little back yard and really, truly enjoyed that little snippet of summer weather before it too got blown away. You have to grab it while you can. Grab it and savour it, enjoy the moment.

 

As we did the day before yesterday too :: a spontaneous little mid afternoon outing to our local reservoir, when the sun was shining and blue skies were above. We parked the car at the boathouse then walked the footpath right around the water, stopping at this spot to spread a blanket and brew a cup of tea. Chocolate biscuits. Peaceful and tranquil, well thats if we can ignore the squeals of the Little People as they hurl stones into the water and see who can make the biggest splash.

Ahhhh summer holidays, I do have to say I love em for the most part, even in variable weather.

Here's hoping I'll feel the same at the end of week seven.

Ever hopeful, thats me.

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July

 

It's a lovely summery day here in my little patch, and right now rather than sitting in my usual little attic room up under the eaves (which is rather hot and stuffy even with both windows open), I've decided to decamp outside. Lucky for me that J doesn't read my blog cos I'm typing away on his precious Macbook and he might get a bit antsy if he only knew. I'm typing very delicately mind you, very respectfully tip-taping on the immaculate white keyboard and resisiting the temptation to eat strawberries at the same time.

Here in North Yorkshire we're not experiencing the scorchingly hot weather like much of the UK, more a warm, hazy, muggy type of midsummer day with a very pale bluey-grey sky, and the slight whiff of possible thundery rain in the air. But oh, it is undeniably summery all the same, and I am really enjoying being outside and feeling warm air on my skin.

This morning, as soon as I came home from the school run, I took some scissors and went around my pots outside, snipping a few stems to pop into one of my little old ink bottles. Ahhhhhhhhh, you know, I just LOVE to do that simple little thing, the ritual of snipping and popping and creating a small posie of flowers to gaze at provides untold pleasure. Would measure exCEPtionally high on my own personal Pleasure-o-meter without doubt.

 

At the moment I don't have a great many blooms to spare as my pots have only just been planted up. The flowers have yet to fill out but I am really loving the sight of them all, and since the weekend when the bulk of the planting and rearranging work was done, I've been coming out to admire them a great deal. My first cup of tea of the day, which is usually ceremoniously brought to me in bed by my early-to-rise other half, is now taken outside. I love to potter around in my pyjamas in the cool of the early morning before the neighbours are up (this morning I was out before 6am, yes, you read that right, before six ay-em). 

There is still some work to be done outside, a wall that I'd like to paint, some troughs to be planted with salad crops....so at some point in the next week or two, when I've done some more inspirational book-browsing and when things are finally coming together,  I'll take some more photographs and do a bit of an outside ta-dah for you all to see.

 

Ahhhh so June has now been and gone and flip-flip-flip the pages of my three calenders were turned this morning to welcome in July. A busy old month this one, with lots of things-to-remember already written in. School trips, sports days, a PTA fundraiser cake sale, Sheep Day (yes, our town celebrates Sheep Day this weekend, I kid you not), the end of term and the beginning of the long summer holidays to look forward to. Busy busy busy. But enjoyably so I hope.

 

The Bossy Calender has a splendid page for July and a marvelous Order to be obeyed too...Entertain in the garden!!! Fresh flowers and a pretty cloth, quick smart! Although admittedly I'm still falling slightly behind as have not yet purchased new pillowcases as per the June instructions. So this month will have to be pillowcases and floral tablecloths, but at least I've already had  a stab at the Fresh Flowers bit.

 

The gorgeous Ideal Homes calendar has another amazing photograph for July :: I know I say it every month but I really love each and every one of the twelve images in this calendar. They are so evocative of the seasons, so beautiful in their simplicity.

In fact, this mornings image inspired me to think about a little bit of simple outdoor lighting for my own back yard....I don't exactly have a tree with available branches to use, but tealights and empty jam jars, yes yes yes, I have those a-plenty.

 

So down to the cellar to the collection of Bonne Maman jam jars I went, then up three flights of stairs to the Attic to the collection of ribbons, then back down two flights of stairs to the collection of candles.

I had a busy-bustly upstairs-downstairs moment there for a while!

I like the simple approach :: snipped ribbon tied around the jar in a knot, and to finish a few sprigs of fragrant lemon-thyme from my own back yard.

Pop a candle in eh voila!!!!

 

I think they look very pretty, and as I have house guests arriving this evening for a week-long stay, I am anticipating sitting outside in the warmth of the evening, a simple supper of bread and cheeses, marinated olives, greek salad and ripe strawberries, and some gentle candlelight as the daylight fades.

Oh, and knowing my guests very well, I fully expect there to be more of this too. They are the same guests after all, and I am really looking forward to their arrival.

Excepting that they will be sleeping in the Attic, which currently looks like a small but very mean spirited tornado has blown through and thrown everything into complete disarray. 

I've got my work cut out for me this afternoon, that's for sure.

But just before I go back up two flights of stairs and begin the task of clearing the decks, let me show you July's view from the Attic, taken today around mid morning...

 

...it looks a bit dull and colourless, but thats just the warm haze of the day still hanging low over the hills.

I have high hopes for July, for fresh cut flowers and outdoor living. Warm summer air and evenings by candlelight.

Enjoy your day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

June

Hello, yoooohoooooo, I'm back!

Pheww what a week it's been! Such a full week I've had, so very, very Brim-Full of happy, exciting, memory filled outings, trips, jaunts and jollies! And now I am home again and desperately trying to regain my balance and catch up with myself :: not easy as it happens. J is reluctantly back to work with a sulky, downturned mouth, and the Little People returned to school today too. So I am all alone in the Messy Zone, missing my three buddies, and trying to tackle the chaos that comes after living out of a suitcase for a week.

But hey, today is the first day of June, and its absolutely glorious in my neck of the woods. I don't know about where you are, but up here in North Yorkshire we're having the most amazing azure blue cloudless skies at the moment, and some heat happening too. It truly feels like the tentative beginnings of the Summer Season, and oh I'm happy about that!

Up in the Attic, I have two windows :: there's a cute little front window with it's own little pointy roof which faces East(ish) and has the above view out across town to the hills. The photo from this window was taken at around 9.30am or so, and because of the sun shining so brightly from this direction in the mornings, the scenery often looks quite washed out. But I also have a back window which faces west(ish) and in order to take in this view I have to balance rather precariously on a chair and stick my head out of the sloping velux roof window to look out. So I don't tend to do it very often, but I do enjoy this view of the cobbled back streets, of the roofttops and chimney pots and most especially the sky look.....

.....ahhhhhhhhhh that sky!! Isn't today just perfectly June-ish? It's Gorgeous, isn't it?

 

The calendar pages were ceremoniously turned from May to June this morning, and there is a distinct Summery feel to the images. Can we really, honestly be heading into Summertime already?? It seems to me hardly a heartbeat ago that we were welcoming Spring in. Yet I am ready for Summer, ready to enjoy all that these long, warm days have to offer.

 

I was really intrigued to find out what the Bossy Calendar would be carping on about for this month, and was really delighted by it actually. So much more relaxed than last month thank goodness (an order to Spring Clean, if you remember?) Our bedlinen (duvet cover and sheet) remains the same all year :: plain, crisp white egyptian cotton which I love. But I do like to add a little colour with some pretty pillowcases. Actually I only currently have two coloured pairs (Cath Kidston roses and Designers Guild stripes), the rest are plain white. So yes, I think that this month I shall shop for a new pair of sweet summer pillowcases. Gosh, you know what? The very idea of buying new pillowcases has made me feel absurdly happy! I can't wait!

Ahhh.....the Ideal Home calendar is, as always, so beautiful this month. I have this calendar hanging in my small kitchen and it really does flutter my heart on a daily basis. June's page is quite simply beautiful, and the absolute essence of summer. Love it.

 

I have a great many photographs to share with you from last week as we really did get out and about a great deal, both in this country and abroad. I still need to ponder how to post about our jolly-holidays, but oh we did have a wonderful, wonderful time! At the beginning of last week we went to Belgium (Bruges to be precise, well done to those of you who guessed) followed by a trip to the English Lake District at the end of the week. Both beautiful, both memorable.

But for now, a few photos taken yesterday, back on familiar home turf.

 

This is the picturesque Yorkshire Dales. About 15mins drive from home and an hour or so walking and this is where we found ourselves :: somewhere quite remote and high up and very, very beautiful. Green green fields and blue blue sky. Noone else but us four, walking and chattering, enjoying the the last day of May.

We walked a seven mile circular route yesterday which took us almost the whole day (9am-3pm) with plenty of stops for a leisurely picnic lunch and icecream/pub beer garden refreshments along the way. The Little People are turning out to be amazingly good walkers and for J and I, it's opening up a whole new Walking Chapter. After many, many years of us enjoying walking together as a couple, we are now enjoying walking as a family. And it's great!

I spent a little time looking back through last month's photo album this morning, and made up my Monthly Mosaic for May look. I do enjoy creating these little collections of images, it's just the sort of frivolous activity that pleases me enormously.

But now I must reluctantly remove myself from my cosy attic and my frivolous activities and go and attend to some household duties. Yes, I think I might be able to manage a bit of pegging out, nothing too strenuous for a Monday.

See you tomorrow folks, I think I'll take you to Bruges, if thats ok with you?

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ps Good to be back, I missed ya last week!

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May

Helloooooo!! Here we are today entering Maytime, hopping and skipping into the fifth month of the year already, my-my, how delightful! May just happens to be my absolute favourite month of the entire year, by a long shot. I just adore May. The length of the days, the teetering on the edge between Spring and very early summer, the final greening up of the trees, blossom, bluebells, and the fresh produce thats around in this month. I love it all.

I went to the market this morning and bought my first English strawberries :: we've been enjoying Spanish and Moroccan strawbs in recent months, but oh it's wonderful to see the first of the homegrown ones arrive. Asparagus too, mmmmm, my love affair with these green spears continues with a passion (do you remember last year's infatuation?), and British grown asparagus is the bees knees.

I also love May because it contains not one but two bank holidays in the UK. We have this coming weekend to celebrate MayDay, and the Little People are rather chuffed that they don't have to go to school on Monday.  Then there is of course our Spring Bank week towards the end of May (do other countries have this holiday I wonder?)...we've got a rather special jaunt already planned and booked for a few days of that week, which I am hugely thrilled about. It involves passports and a big boat. Heehee, sooo excited!!

Calendar pages turned today, which as usual has been a really uplifting little personal moment in my day. The above calendar reminds me that I should be planting seeds, that flowery things will soon be happening! Cripes, into May yet again without a single seed sown, it's the same every year. I am a shocking, lazy, disorganised disgrace when it comes to gardening efforts. I shall note it down on my humungous to-do list :: must buy seeds. Actually, it's not the buying that I need reminding of, it's more the planting. Remember, I am quite good at buying seeds. But I am also quite good at leaving them lying around in their packets, where sadly they fail to germinate, grow, produce flowers.

 

The Bossy Calendar (above), telling me to Clean! Wear a Pretty Pinny! Ok, ok, steady on. I might just possibly perhaps manage a teensy-weensy bit of cleaning during the course of this month. Possibly. No promises. I do actually really like that Laura Ashley pinny in the photo there, the spotty pocket and ties are quite jaunty aren't they, and could very well be the thing that might make me want to clean a little.

Ahhhhhh last but not least is my Ideal Homes calendar, how I just love this collection of photographs. Do I say this each and every month? Yes, I think I probably do. Just gaze at that image, isn't it so pretty? Beautiful. I am really looking forward to a little spring time pottering with fork and trowel in my outdoor space.

 

Talking of outdoors, a few little snapshots of today's garden prettiness :: the second flush of my violas in the hanging baskets, such pretty little faces peeking out at me in the morning sunshine...

 

...and these lovely little purple flowers sprawling merrily over my front garden patch, are they aubretia? I think so. Planted by the previous house owners, I love that they seem to thrive on neglect. Nice one. I can do Garden Neglect pretty expertly.

 

Round to the back and I am thrilled to see that some of my herbs have braved it out under the soil through the winter and have popped back again this year.

Hardy little chives are producing their first flowers...

...and the mint is sending up it's fragrant leaves too. Reminds me that Pimms season is almost here too, oooh now there's a delicious possibility for the weekend!

 

And the view from the Attic24 window this morning? Quite possibly perfect May weather look. Quite cool, breezy, but bright and beautiful. Fluffy white clouds scudding.

I've found that one of the bestest and lovely things about blogging into a  second year is that it is allowing me to look back at this same month last year and remember. How the weather was. What little activities and outings we got up to. And the very seasonal things particular to each month of the year. I love the reassuring repetitiveness of month by month domestic life, the fact that this May I shall no doubt be talking about many of the same things as I did last May. For me, blogging is the best kind of diary, a hugely valuable record of my daily life which I am loving more and more and more as I continue to write and record and preserve.

Enjoy a wonderful May weekend one and all :: it's festival time here in my town so we will be pottering and partying, dancing and drinking, and generally making merry I expect.

Ahh I love May days!

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April

After depositing the Little People at school this morning I strolled up through town to make my regular stops at the market :: into my shopping bag went Granny Singletons Mature Lancashire cheese, and this bunch of magnificently flouncy showy-offy tulips. Mr Plant Man did warn me that they were in fact last weeks flowers, that they might not last very long, and that was why they were priced at only £1. I told him I did not care if they only lasted one day, that I could not possibly pass them by and not take them home with me to flounce and show off in my living room.

Was having a little rootle around yesterday in one of my many many dangerously teetering, toppling, messy piles of papers and books, looking for a scrap of paper with a scribbled down address on it. I didn't end up finding the address (where can it be?), but did find this beautiful greetings card that I'd completely forgotten about. I cannot even remember where/when I bought it, but oh I do love it so! The image is a painting by artist Emma McClure and is called "Basket with Cyclamen and Fruits"....currently stood on my mantel and I am loving seeing it there next to my spotty red jug. Christmas snowflake fairy lights are still there too look.  

So...a fresh new month to spring into today, April is here, month of Spring showers and bright flowers. Turned my calendar pages today (on time for once), and ooooooooo they are lovely!! The images really lifted my spirits and made me very excited for this new month, for blossom and birds and pretty things, and for Easter of course, which happens to be my favourite favourite celebration of the whole year. Truthfully I love Easter very much more than Christmas.

Just look at the Bossy Calendar this month, isn't that a stunning image? Oh yes yes yes I will indeed be making a homemade seasonal wreath for Easter and yes yes yes, posies of fresh flowers too! I am soo excited! Of course I haven't started anything yet, haven't begun the joyous business of decorating for Easter yet, although have noticed some fabulous eggy birdy things  happening in Blogland homes recently that made me swoon...Bertie has been at it, as has Lulu look...will have to think how to fit in some Private Easter Creativity because Little People will be at home next week, which makes Attic-time slightly tricksy. 

The Ideal Homes calendar is as ever beautiful :: simple, elegant, understated and beautiful. This is one fabulous calendar and each month as I've turned the page I've found myself gasping with pleasure at the photographs. I think possibly Mondays evening meal will be a big frittata because I fancy having a go at blowing out some eggs to decorate, and frittata is the perfect egg-using recipe. I am still pondering the whys and wherefores of involving the Little People in egg-blowing and egg-painting activities. I know it sounds mean, but sometimes I just love to do these things all-by-myself (remember the halloween pumpkin?). We shall see. I may have to accept that Easter Creativity will have to be child orientated, unless I try and stay awake past 9pm and spend a few evenings making grown up birdy eggy flowery decorative things.

This mornings April view from the Attic is kind of disappointingly on the grey side, but truthfully it's not a bad sort of day really here in North Yorskhire. It's warmish and although still quite hazy as I type this at lunch time, there are signs that the sun is attempting to shine through.

Just before I go, a little bit of Crochet news....
Above photo was taken yesterday when i was finishing off some hooking and photography for the Granny Squares Joining-as-you-go tutorial.

Yes, that was my afternoon yesterday, sitting in that chair in the light of the bay window, surrounded by colourful yarny goodness, hooking and photographing, scribbling notes and pondering the joys of crochet for the umpteenth time.

For those of you have been waiting, I thank you for your patience, and am happy to let you know that the joining tutorial can be found over in the side bar in the usual place, or click here to find it.
Tomorrow, the Ripple Tutorial will arrive I hope...I've been a busy bee!! Hooking and clicking and typing, gosh, such hardship. Good job you are worth it.
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