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Hello!
Just to let you know that I'm taking a weeny blog break this week as we are officially Jollying.
Can you guess from my souvenirs where I spent the day yesterday???
It was a mighty fine jolly indeed, short and sweet, but mighty fine.
We'll be in our own beds tonight, but heading off again tomorrow, hosteling for a few days in the Lake District.
See you Monday, have a wonderful week whatever you get up to
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:: wake up to the bluest of blue skies ::
:: pack a picnic lunch and head out for a walk ::
:: a family outing to climb The Crag ::
:: Follow the track as it winds it's way upwards ::
:: pause for breath and look back to see how far we've climbed ::
:: steeper now, rocks to scramble over as we near the top ::
:: ahhhhh we made it to the top! Sit by the warm rocks to eat our lunch ::
:: remember the last time we came here, in snow and ice ::
:: a cup of tea and a well earned rest ::
:: begin the descent, down the other side across moorland and pasture ::
:: loving the cow parsley flowers, frothing in the hedgerows ::
On the way back we pass one of our favourite pubs, whose beer garden conveniently sits right next to the footpath. We sit and drink beer/lemonade and look across the field to The Crag, and marvel at the fact that we ate lunch up on the very top there today.
Sunday Lunch with A View.
And how lovely it was too.
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Heeeheeee!!!!! I am smiling and laughing to myself here, pootling about in my own little world today, thinking my own little thoughts, dreaming my own little dreams, planning little projects, gathering ideas, images, inspirations and generally being sort of quietly, mentally, hugely creative, do you know? Lots going on with me inwardly right now, so very, very much I wish to do, create, achieve, make happen, I am bursting at the seams with it all. Its exciting beyond words sometimes, living life in such a creative, colourful way as I do, and with a mind and imagination as ditzy as mine.
Last night, do you know what my dreams were filled with?
Can you guess?
Patchwork!! Lots and lots and lots of colourful, crazy, wacky patchwork!! hahaha yes, sadly it's true...my mind has turned into a big, messy piece of Patchwork.
Ahhh I was SO hyped writing yesterday's post, so hugely pleased to show you my Chair, and I thank you enormously for sharing in my enthusiasm over it. Your comments mean so much to me, most especially as my family, as lovely as they are, just do not get it. J has not really commented on the Chair :: I think he said something along the lines of "hmmmm very good", in an absent minded sort of way like you talk to a keepy-on, pestery child when you are trying to concentrate on something else and they are interrupting you with nonsense.
But somehow, the Chair has turned out to be hugely important for me personally. For one thing it has started me out on the Patchwork Highway (even in my dreams!) and I can't tell you how excited I am about that, don't know why it's taken me so long to be honest. And for another thing, it has kind of opened my mind to the whole delicious concept of breathing life into old abandoned objects, of Re-purposing, Recycling, Revamping, Restoring, whatever you like to call it. Of course this is not a new concept by any means, but in the present climate, this style sure is having a huge revival, and I for one think its Fantastic.
You know I am a Magazine-o-holic, right? Yeah, week after week, page after page, magazines continue to inspire me enormously. This mag I'm sharing with you today is BBC Good Homes (June issue) :: not one of my Must-haves but one that I always flick through and will buy if anything grabs my attention. And being as the words Thrifty chic were on the front cover in bright magenta letters, it caught my eye right away.
I just LOVE that phrase *Thrifty Chic* it really tickles me!
This magazine spread is actually a decorating article and is all about livening up rooms by making and transforming things on the cheap. I find the overall style is a bit full-on, but there are some lovely ideas in amongst it all. By the way, you can click on any image on my blog and it should pop up larger and in a separate window so you can see it better.
I really, really like the above image, that slightly battered but oh-so-gorgeous turquoise shelf is right up my street. The idea here is to cover old boxes with gift wrap or fabric remnants to make pretty storage :: oooooooo I SO want to do that! In my cellar, accompanying my stash of empty Bonne Mamman jam jars, I have a collection of empty cardboard shoe boxes. Yes, tis true. I am a Grade A hoarder, no doubt about it.
The ideas on the above page are to do with revamping old furniture with bright paint and wallpaper samples (YEs, i can do that!), making slip covers for dining chairs (yes yes!) and sticking bobble trim along the bottom of a plain blind (why of course, a bobble trim makeover, how fabulous!)
And the above page is my favourite of the lot. ahhhhhhh yes, I am really all of a flutter now, because all on the same page there is a stripy tea towel, patchwork seat covers and those melamine tumblers which I love!! All of my favourite things! In fact I love the idea of using giftwrap to stick up behind shelves or on cupboard doors. In fact, I think I might have found a new avenue of Retail Therapy to join my paper napkin and tea towel buying addiction :: Giftwrap! Yes yes yes!!!!
The magazine also came with a little booklet called "Make it Yourself!" with an assortment of projects to make and do.
I love the painted chest of drawers...
...and the repurposed old enamel containers used as plant pots.
Yes, I think I could really get into Thrifty Chic style.
It really appeals to me.
I think I might need to buy this book too, you know, just to be really sure.
Then me and Chair can cosy up together, browse the pages and dream and plan and get inspired.
Have a great weekend one and all, hope it's an inspiring and dreamy one!
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Once Upon a Time there was a pale blue Lloyd Loom chair. She was a little drab and old-lady-like when she first came to live with me in March. A tad sad, a tad neglected. This chair has a great deal of sentimental value because of the very special Lady that once owned her. So I really wanted to feel good about the chair, to love her and adore her and make her pretty again. And I think there's something really special about breathing new life into a sad old chair, a chair that has had so many bottoms sat upon it over so many years.
So I started out thinking about how to prettify this chair, and a couple of inspiring images had really firmly lodged in my mind. The first one was a post on Vanessa's blog. And the second one was a post on Jane's blog. Both inspiring ladies, showing us inspiring chairs. Chairs to make yourself comfy in. Chairs to relax and create and dream in. And as I badly wanted my own comfy-relaxy-dreamy chair, I set about creating just such a thing. With yarn and fabric and love and joy.
First up, my chair needed it's own blanket. Without a doubt, it had to be cloaked in colourful hooky goodness or else it just wouldn't be my chair now would it? And so the circles-squares throw was started....
....and it grew....
....and grew some more...
...and then to dizzy appreciation, it gloried in it's ta-dah moment.
My chair also need a cushion. And so the whirly, stripy, circular cushion was started...
....and it grew....
....and grew some more....
...and it too enjoyed it's Ta-dah moment.
But even with her crochet cloak and her plumpety-plump cushion, the chair was still sporting her dowdy mucky velvet seat. And I just knew that One Piece of Fabric would never ever do. I had a vision, and to me it was as clear as day. I could see this chair so perfectly in my mind that it was as if it already existed. The seat would be made of patchwork.
Yes, patchwork!! It has to be this way, I can see it so clearly!
So I gathered the fabrics....
....discovered the delicious joy of cutting and piecing....
....and a Patchwork seat cover was made, Ta-dah!!
I am rather pleased with it. Well no, that is an out and out lie actually. I am not pleased with it, I am absolutely THRILLED with it!! It gives me palpitations, makes me hop and skip and clap!
I introduced The Patchwork to The Crochet.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh so harmonious!
Such Perfect Partners!
They will be so Happy together.
Now considering that I've done no patchwork before, and no upholstery before, I think I did pretty OK with this, wouldn't you say? I made a calico template and cut the seat top to shape, then made a loooooong length of patches to fit all round the sides of the seat in one continuous strip. Then simply stitched the two together, keeping the calico as backing for extra strength.
Ahhhh I really love love love love love love love LOVE this seat!!!!
And I really love love love love love love love LOVE how yarn and fabric, crochet and patchwork all come together in a rather whacky, lovable concoction of Attic24-Lucy-stylie creativity.
Slightly bonkers it has to be said.
But oh so very me!
I had a vision for this chair, and the vision was as clear as day in my mind.
And this chair became exactly as I imagined it.
Exactly, yet more so.
I hope we shall live Happily Ever After together, Me and Chair.
The End.
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Hello! Is it really Wednesday already? Cor, fast, zippy week this one! So sorry to have disappeared for a weeny while there, and big thanks to those of you who kindly asked if I'm ok. Yes, I am absolutely fine and dandy thank you. Real Life this week has been busy is all, and I just couldn't squeeeeeze in any time to waltz around Blogland.
The season for English Sweet Williams has arrived, and I adore these flowers so much. Like daffodils earlier in the year, these SW's are very cheap to buy compared to other cut flowers. This bunch cost me £1.49 from the supermarket, and that is money SO well spent in my opinion. The stems on these blooms were really loooong and leafy, so I chopped them right down and popped them into a jacketed jam jar...oh they really cheer me when I walk into the room, make me grin like a loon! I also have my customary small jug of them beside my bed as there were quite a few small side shoots on these stems. Beautiful.
I wish I could tell you that I've been busy doing creative and fun and exciting things the past few days, but truthfully it's been far more mundane. Real Life does tend to have it's boring bits.
Yesterday morning when I walked back in the house after the school run, it suddenly struck me how unruly the house was looking. And really thats being kind. It was an absolute mess after weeks of neglect topped off by a weekend of stay-home stuff. My Little People are messy creatures (take after their Mother obviously), but aside from the mess to tidy, jeez I really HAD to do a bit of cleaning. It was kind of shocking for a while there, even I was shocked and I have extremely, impossibly low standards when it comes to household cleanliness.
I put on some very loud pop music (sorry peeps at number 22 and 26) and set to. I wouldn't say it was the most fun I've ever had of a Tuesday morning, but hey-ho, it wasn't half bad.
And after all that frantic housewifery stuff, there was a little time to sit and sip before racing off to my pilates class.
I have really been enjoying my weekly Pilates sessions, wow, what a revelation that has been. It's been surprisingly demanding, especially for someone like me, being a rather ditzy kind of gal, to focus my mind and be still and do everything with extreme control has been a challenge. But oh, I have come to love that hour in my week.
As we're doing a little Catch-up today, I need to share some crochet news with you.
I'm at a kind of bitter-sweet point with my Summer Garden blanket.
You may remember me showing you a photo of it at the end of this post?
Gosh, lots of comments came flooding in about this blanket, many of you finding me slightly loop-the-loop for not being head over heels in love with it....but a few of you sharing my concerns about how it was (or rather was not) quite working out.
It was/is the white borders that had me in a quandry.
I really, really agonised over the white.
For days and days.
And then I finally made a decision.
The white.
Is not right.
It.
Has.
To.
Go.
So I have started the bitter-sweet business of Frogging the white borders.
Rip-it-rip-it.
Thats the Bitter bit.
The white is going to be replaced by two rows of random-blues, to balance the two rows of random-purply pinks.
So each block will end up slightly larger than before.
And the good news?
I can Join-As-I-Go on the final round this time, instead of facing the mind-blowing prospect of joining each square afterwards with laborious row upon row of slip-stitching.
That's the Sweet bit.
Its kind of both heartbreaking and insanely satisfying to frog crochet.
I am trying hard to be confident about my decision, and to think Sweet and Satisfying thoughts as I yank out hours of careful crochet work.
Ahhhhh do you know what??
I think I really am going to end up LOVING this blanket!!!!
Pheewwww. Thank Goodness. I was worried for a while.
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Hello...ahhhhh glad it's Friday, are you? The weather here today is absolutely dire and the forecast for the weekend in my little patch is for continuing Heavy Rain, which to be perfectly honest, would suit me just fine. I'm envisaging some luxurious hours spent pyjama-clad and fluffy-socked, in front of the fire with Country Living magazine to the left, my crochet bag to the right, cushions and blankets to the back and tea and cake somewhere reachable in front. Yeah, that sounds mighty fine to me. I shall surround myself on all four sides with cosy, homey things. Bring it on.
Today though, I thought we might take a little diversion from the weather, and from yarn and crochet and talk fabric instead? More specifically, the business of cutting pieces of beautiful fabric into neat little squares and then attempting to stitch them together with precise, straight, unwobbly lines?
Ahhhh yes I've been busy in the Attic these past few days! Busy doing fabricky, cutty stuff! As you know, I had this idea for my Lloyd Loom chair that I would make a patchwork seat cover for it. Now despite being absolutely Passionate about Patchwork, and despite owning this wonderful book for the best part of ten years, I have never actually attempted to make Patchwork. Never. Well thats to say that when I was a weeny scrap of a girl I did have a go at making hexagonal patchwork, the old fashioned English sort where you hand stitch all the fabric pieces onto little paper templates, you know? But never tried my hand at grown-up sewing machine type patchwork before. Even though it greatly appeals to me and I adore the whole idea of it.
I think that has partly been down to the absence of a Stash. And anyone knows that you need a half decent stash in order to make a half decent stab at Patchwork.
But over recent months, a little itty-bitty stash has been accumulating in the Attic...see those yummy scrumptious fabrics up there, don't they make your heart flutter just a little?? Well that'll be the extent of my stash, and I am very, very fond of it. Its very strokable, very inspiring. Its a mixture of Kaffee Fassett fabrics, European fabrics, and some generously gifted fabrics. I think there are only twenty five fabrics in total there, so extremely limited really in the giddy world of stash-building. But they are mine-mine-mine and I love each and every one of them.
And oh! What fun!!!! To spend an afternoon ironing and gliding my rotary cutter up and down my magical transparent Omnigrid ruler (bought a while ago and never been used before) was just delightful! Delightful. I chatted away to the fabric, enjoyed playing with it enormously.
Want to see what happened?
Want to see what I built?
Ok, look..........
.......I built a fantabulous pile of neatly cut, perfect little 4-inch squares!
A whole stack of them look!!!!
Oh my, well let me explain...what I did was to make a calico template for the chair seat I'm covering, and from the size of that I reackoned on needing 25 patchwork squares to fit it. So any noodle can work out that if you have twenty five fabrics and need twenty five squares, then that's only one square needed from each fabric, right? But where's the fun in cutting just one lonely square??? Nah, much better to cut big strips of fabric, then slice the strips into squares, two at a time! yeah, that rotary cutter was made for cutting strips, it didn't like doing single squares at all!
So anyhow, the upshot is that I think I am about to embark on my first ever patchwork quilt!!!!!! Ooooooooooooo how very totally, utterly exciting! Cos even after I put aside my 25 squares for the seat cover, I think I must still have around a hundred squares left over (yes I really did cut that many, I lost the ability to let go of the rotary cutter).
Anyhow, I will most definitely keep you posted on progression with that.
I think the whole Patchwork thing must be really In Fashion at the moment as I've noticed it in several magazines recently. The above image is from the May issue of Homes & Antiques, its the London home of Kate McShane. See that chair, isn't it amazing?? I love love love it.
And these pages are from the May issue of Elle Decoration.....see the round crocheted cusions on the sofa??
Turn the page and there's a beautiful paper patchworked book shelf, and more of that amazing patchwork furniture too....take a closer look........
How fabulous are those?? Ooo makes me want to smooch that furniture and cover it in kisses, I adore it!!!! You may recognise it as the work of London based Squint Limited.
Want to see some more of their stuff??
(photo above borrowed from the Squint website)
That's the Chesterfield Sofa...
(photos above borrowed from the Squint website)
...and above are stools and chairs that've been given the Squint makeover.
I find this whole idea totally inspiring, fun, creative, imaginative, energetic and heart-skippy. It really inspires me to use fabrics and pattern more around the house, although not sure what husband would say.
Well my friends...just before I log off and return to stitching myself into a squared-up Patchwork Frenzy, can i just say a huge thank you to all your responses to yesterdays post. I've been working my way though all your links and have thoroughly enjoyed my Global Hooky tour, it's been quite wonderful. If you haven't already added your crochet link to the post, then please do, I'd love to come and pay you a visit and see what you've been up to. I will also consider making a Flickr group, if you think that'd be cool??
Enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather, make sure you have yourself some fun....
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:: a Thank You ::
Ahhhhh you, you, you!!! Yes, you, I am pointing my crochet hook in your direction! You get me so overwhelmed sometimes, do you know that??
Lordy, do you realise that every time you take a weeny bit of a moment out of your busy day to sit and type a few words into that comments box, you are sending me on a roller coaster of feel-good emotion? Its quite a dizzy experience for someone like me who normally keeps head down and feet on the ground. Oh, but I wouldn't have it any other way my friends. You are delightful, you lift my days up to dizzy happy places with your compliments and enthusiasm and feel-good.
Thank you so very much for all the crochet-love that you showered me with yesterday, both here in Blogland, and over at Flickrville too. Last I looked there were more than 150 comments, now thats an awful lot of dizzy appreciation for one smallish, square bit of crochet!
And let me tell you, in case you just might doubt it, I do always read every single comment that comes my way. Every. Single. One. Typepad very kindly generates a separate email for each comment you leave, and so there is no danger of me missing a single one. I sit with a cuppa and read every word, every exclamation, every sentence. And if you inhabit Blogland and leave a bloggy address with your comment, then I visit with you too. Don't always have time to leave comments these days, (although I do try), but I nosey in your windows, peek at your projects and enjoy your comings and goings.
:: a Request ::
I know from your comments, emails, and blogs that there are many of you who've made (or are currently making) Attic24-inspired crochet projects.
There are waaaaaay too many for me to keep a track of these days.
So I was a-wondering.....if you've been inspired by the projects you've seen here and have given it a go yourself, how about a little sharing??
I have to confess I did have a little go at trying to include a fancy widget thing in this post where we could create a list of links. But I am not geeky enough to be able to work it out and gave up trying. So I thought perhaps I could simply request that you leave a little comment at the end of this post, including a link to any blog posts or Flickr pics of crochet projects, either completed or WiPs. I know that many Attic24-stylie bags have been created, jam jar jackets, hexagon blankies, Summer Garden squares and many many flowers...and I would very, very much like to see them.
Please??
Pretty please???
Thank you so much, I can't wait to hear from you.
You are, quite simply, Awesome. The whole lovely lot of you.
Thank you for being my friend.
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Hello and welcome to a colourful Ta-dah crochet-project finale-reveal type thingy!
Yes, today is the day to reveal my finished Circles-to-Squares Throw...woohooo!! I have to admit I am Very VEry happy to be sharing this with you today, honestly, it's a Pleasure Cruise all the way for me today. I've been sat up here in the Attic, sipping coffee from my rainbow striped mug, merrily uploading the photos for this post and my heart has been singing at the very sight of these images.
There is something about a photograph of something one has created that kind of sharpens the appreciation of it, do you know what I mean? The same is true about seeing things in the mirror :: quite often when I need to make a decision about a design or a piece of work, I will lay it out on my bed and look at it in the mirror, kind of sneak up on it from a different angle so to speak. It might sound daft, but it works, trust me. And looking at photographs does something similar, allows a step back, a more objective viewpoint. And it feels delightful to really like what one sees.
I finished this little throw on Sunday evening. Sat in my chair, hooking myself into a quiet frenzy whilst the Little People laughed their way through a film. The final three rows of this little throw forms a pretty shell edging that I designed myself. I had to practice it a little first around the edge of a spare granny square, had to spend a little time hooking and tweaking and frogging and messing with it until I was happy with the design. And I am :: Happy with it!
Yes, it turned out just great. I did manage to take some step-by-step photos whilst I was working this edging and will write a little tutorial for it :: I know that many of you are currently working away on granny square blankets, and all good Granny square blankets need a good edging in my opinion. It absolutely makes the blanket, gives it that final ta-dah flourish.
As you may well know if you've been following the progress of this WiP in recent months, I've used Rowan Pure Wool DK. Just recently I've had several emails requesting specific yarn info for this project, so here, for your information are the details ::
Yarn :: Rowan Pure Wool DK, crocheted on a 4mm hook.
Thirteen colours used in total, as follows ::
Top row, left to right....
041 Scarlet
027 Hydrangea
042 Dahlia
026 Hyacinth
028 Raspberry
039 Lavender
025 Tea Rose
Bottom row, left to right....
032 Gilt
040 Tangerine
019 Avocado
006 Pier
007 Cypress
008 Marine
You can see the start of this project here look, back in mid March, when I first discovered the method of joining-as-you-go. WoW, what a discovery that was!
This throw has been a real pleasure to make.
One Hundred "Summer Garden Squares" (pattern here).
Eight rows of Grannying.
Three rows of shell edging.
Measures 95cm square.
See how beautifully it can be slung around the furniture?
See how drapey and happy it looks?
Looks like it doesn't have a care in the world doesn't it?
So....
....want to see it all laid out?
Laid out flat and pretty?
In all its beautiful squarey, hooky, shell-edged glory?
OK...
here...
it...
is...
Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you like it?
Ahhh good, cos I do too. Yes, I really, really do.
Can you remember I made this throw quite specifically to fling o'er the back of my pale blue Lloyd loom chair?
So here it is, in situ, looking quite lovely with the plumpety-plump round cushion.
Shame about the seat though eh? Its in desperate need of an Attic24-stylie makeover. In fact I've already begun to think about this....
....have assembled together an assortment of fabrics from my modest stash, in order to try and fashion a patchwork seat cover. I've never done anything like this before, never attempted any sort of recovering or upholstery jiggery pokery, so I'm not too sure how it's going to work out. But I am flippin' excited at the prospect of giving it a go. Oh yeah, you betcha.
And here I am look, doing my customary with-crochet pose this morning, feeling quite proud of my hooky creation.
Hmmmm, well would you mind very much if I showed you it again?
Can I, you sure you don't mind???
Oh goody, heeeheee, here it comes.....
Ahhhhhhhh--oooooooooohhhhhhhh-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now you just need to picture me dancing a little jig all around it.
Oh yeah, both feet still firmly in the Bonkers Camp.
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We woke up early on Saturday morning to the most gorgeous bright spring sunshine and the whole day stretching deliciously ahead with no plans. We ponder what should we do with this gift of a day and suddenly a little spark of spontaneity ignites. A Picnic Breakfast perhaps? Yes?
Yes!
The idea is met with enthusiasm and we spring into action. As this is a Spontaneous Decision and has not been pre planned, I do not really have much in the way of picnic-breakfast fodder to hand. So I make the best of what I can find. I hard boil four eggs. Make up a stack of strawberry jam sandwiches. Some yoghurt drinks and apples. That'll do, it'll taste divine of course because we will be eating it al fresco and will have a View.
We get dressed and exit the house quite rapidly :: in fact I wear the most ridiculous clothes because I pull them on with speed and without a thought. I wear pale linen trousers with a blue flowery summer vest-dress over the top and a bright magenta long sleeved top on top of the dress. Crocs-and-socks. I brush my teeth but forget my hair, so I go out with serious bed-head (I only realise all this when I go to the toilet mid morning and accidentally catch a frightful sight of myself in a full length mirror).
We are miraculously out the house with a picnic and seating facilities packed by eight thirty AM, journeying the quarter of an hour up the road to Bolton Abbey. There is this little sandy river beach that makes the perfect picnic spot, and although it is often busy with kids and dogs, at this early hour we have it to ourselves. We set up Breakfast Camp with our brand new chairs, bought especially last week with just such an occasion in mind. An occasion where one can park the car in close proximity to the designated picnic spot, meaning that chairs can conveniently replace blankets.
Breakfast is delicious. I would like to tell you that we do this sort of Spontaneous Breakfast Thing all the time, but the truth is we don't. Can you remember this post way back in April of last year? That was the first and last time we did such a thing. But OH!! We MUST do it More Often! Yes, mental note made, lets do it again very very soon, because it was quite the most wonderful start to the weekend.
After breakfast, we go walking through the magnificent woods at Bolton Abbey. It's still only 9.30am and still very few people about. The woodland is absolutely breathtaking, the colours awesome. I recall walking here at a very similar time last year. And I recall being bowled over by the very particular Greeness of this time of year :: it has not diminished one year on, I am bowled over all over again.
The wild garlic carpets the woodland floor, and the smell is incredibly nostalgic for me (as a child, my brother and I used to play in a wood carpeted with wild garlic)
But aside from the abundant greeny-greeness, it's really the bluey-blueness that grabs my attention and makes me hop and squeal and flutter.....
Oh yes, it's bluebell time! Woohoooo!!!!!!
Oooo we point, we exclaim, we oooohhh and aaaahhh, it's all so beautiful!
So instead of walking the flat path along the riverside, we take the high path that climbs up and away from the river, because thats where all the bluebells grow. We wind up and up through the tall trees and the banks of blue and green....
....higher and higher until we can look out across the treetops to the distant moorland of Barden Fell.
After a rest on a rustic wooden bench, we continue onwards....
....onwards through the greeny-green and the bluey-blue....
....through sun dappled shade....
....following the path....
....sometimes strolling, sometimes running.
Eventually the path meanders downhill and we arrive back at the riverside. The Little People, who have been running for much of the way, request a rest stop. So we come off the path and down onto these mossy rocks to sit a while beside the water in the sunshine. It's glorious.
But I am suddenly finding that boiled eggs and jam sandwiches seem so long ago, and that I am overwhelmingly craving cappuccino and cake. I cannot stop thinking of coffee and cake. I want it. Right now. No more bluebells, trees, rocks, rivers. Take me to the cafe for refreshment!
Ahhhhh yes, that's where I want to be at 11am, sat in the sun, sipping frothy coffee and nibbling something sweet and delicious. This is the Cavendish Pavillion cafe at Bolton Abbey, and a mighty fine cafe it is too. Coffee :: delicious. Cake :: equally so. Actually, I don't end up with cake, but instead opt for a Pecan and Maple slice, with dark chocolate topping.Mmmmmm-mmmmm.
11.30am and there are now many, many, many people at Bolton Abbey. The cafe terrace is now packed. And our car, which was the very first and only car in the car park at 8.45am is now sandwiched between a hundred others.
So we decide to head home away from the crowds. Shall we drive the scenic route back?
Yes lets drive along this wonderful little road which looks like it goes to nowhere.
You can see that at this point I have to leap out of the car and open the gate so that we can drive on through. What a road!! It never fails to please me, this little road. Makes me feel all happy and carefree and glad to be out and about in such a gorgeous little corner of the world, on such a gorgeous Saturday morning.
Now I really must try and remember my Mental Note to Do This More Often.
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Hello! Happy Friday to you!!
Yesterday I was browsing through some of my photographs and realised that I'd gotten a little behind with creating my monthly mosaics this year. So this morning I've spent a delicious hour or so catching up with myself, and taking a weeny review of life at Attic24 through the first third of 2009. And I have to say it's veeeeery bright! And veeeeeery cheerful! And veeeeeery colourful! Well you wouldn't expect anything less now would you?
I'm sorry I can't really stop and chat much today, but I have Little Lady off school and needing some cuddles. So I shall leave you with this eyecandy and am off to the sofa to snuggle. Enjoy............
Monthly Mosaic :: January 2009
Monthly Mosaic :: February 2009
Monthly Mosaic :: March 2009
Monthly Mosaic :: April 2009
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ps if you'd like to look at any of the 2008 Monthly Mosaics, they're all sitting in a little photograph album in my sidebar to the left there....or click here to go see.
