Attic24

Dorset in August :: Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis is a smallish seaside town on the South West coast of Dorset, about 9 miles from where I grew up. It's a place so totally full of beauty and charm that one can't help but fall in love with it. In my humble opinion, it's "English Seaside" at it's absolute best. So when we are down visiting my folks, I always try to plan a day out there, even though J is not a fan (far too crowded for his liking, the hoards of holidaymakers cause a bit of a grump). Luckily for me, I have a  good friend who lives in Lyme (we met at Art College ooooo some twenty three years ago now), so I have a most excellent in-built reason to visit this lovely place.

Last Tuesday was to be our Lyme Regis Day and my fingers and toes were firmly crossed on Monday night with regards to the weather, I so very much wanted sunshine for my day in Lyme. I really did not want to do this day in the rain. Not at all. I think all the digit-crossing and secret wishing must have paid off cos the sun did indeed shine for us on Tuesday :: yippeeee!!!! I was so happy!!!! So on a lovely sunshiny day we arrived just in time for morning coffee.

We chose The Terrace cafe, with it's sensational location :: it was blissful sitting amongst bright blue pots of geraniums with a view right across my frothy cappuccino to the blue sea beyond. The Little People, who do not possess the ability to Sit Blissfully, gulped down their juice then zipped out of The Terrace to run up and down the promenade beyond. They were really excited actually, and I loved that, it was great to watch them run and climb with such energy and joy.

After all that blissed out sitty stuff was finished with, I upped myself and we all went for a wander along the sea front. As expected, it was very crowded, but still lovely nevertheless.

There are some quite amazing houses along this stretch of seafront, and they never cease to wow me.

So quaint! So impossibly pretty!

I am also wowed by these rather lovely ammonite lamp posts. Which of course I've seen many times before. Funny really, cos I know Lyme Regis quite well (I even worked a few of my late teenage summers in an ice cream shop there), yet every time I visit I always feel excited as if I'm seeing it for the first time. It never seems totally familiar to me, although I've no idea why.

Getting on for midday now and we are due at M's house for lunch. So we pull away from the seafront and wind down a pretty little side street to visit the Town Mill Bakery. The bread here has to be seen to be believed, some of the loaves are the size of a small child. We ooooh and ahhhh, gasp and wow at the vast range of baked products, then select some ginormous scones to take away with us.

It's lovely to reconnect with old friends isn't it? Friends you don't see often, maybe once a year if you're lucky and it does feel quite special when it happens. Incidentally I LOVE M's house. It's old and quirky and full of her personality. We have a very, very similar style actually (both of us studied art and textiles) and I feel right at home in her colourful rooms. Have to stop myself being too nosey cos like me she has a lot of Stuff around and about. Pretty things, interesting things, arty things. Things I dearly love to nosey at!

After a delicious lunch we head back out for a wander around Lyme. Through the little back streets we go, following the beck past this magnificent dahlia bed...

.....ahhhhh yes, another wowowowwwwsy moment for me as I take a little giddy trip over these flowers, me oh my I do so adore dahlias. AdORe them I tell you.

WOWsers!!! Just get a load of that COLOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More beautiful houses tucked away down these tiny streets, and some amazing sunflowers growing ten feet tall.

We emerge at the top of the high street, isn't it lovely? I think it's lovely. Love the hilliness, love the summer bunting, love the little glimpse of the sea at the bottom. All round Loveliness really, and as Town Centres go, this has to be up there with the best I reckon.

We head away from the street now and start to wind our way down through the beautifully planted town gardens. There's been a lot of work done here in recent years, and it's looking really wonderful. The view down to the beach and the famous Cobb (the curving sea wall) are breathtaking. Busy though isn't it? The beach I mean? Look..........

Ooodles of people doing beachy things. J isn't sure about venturing forth to sit in amongst that lot, but the Little People are having none of it, they are sooooooooooo sure about what they want to do....

...........they race ahead and go straight into the sea. With their clothes on. No kidding, they really do. They just wade in, just like that. One minute they are dry, the next minute they are completely Not Dry. So we suddenly have two Very Wet children with no change of clothes or a towel, but hey, it's fine, they are happy and so why worry? They'll dry off soon enough. We sit and watch them as they come in and out of the sea, big grins on their little faces. I take photos of them stood waist deep in the water with their clothes on, arms outstretched, grinning Big.

Oh so Precious. Childhood memories are so very very precious aren't they?

We had such a lovely day in Lyme Regis, it was ace. And guess what, I even managed to wangle a little itsy bit of Retail Therapy too :: right at the end of the day on the way back to the car I pleaded with J to take the Little Peeps up the hill and allow me a quick squizzy in this most delicious little shop. Oh how I browsed! Think Greengate and Rice and Avoca, and imagine how bonkers with excitement I was. So yes, I did treat  myself to a few little bits, how could I not?? Want to know what I got?? I'll show you very soon I promise.

Been lovely as ever to share my tales with you....((thank you)) for being out there.

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Dorset in August

Hello my lovelies, how good it is to be back in the Attic again, thanks for stopping by to see me. I'm back home again after a lovely holiday and I am very, very happy to be here I have to say. The longer I live here in this house (it'll be coming up three years in November) the more I delight in coming home to it, it's the most welcoming, heart-warming home I've ever inhabited I think. And that's not to say we didn't have a lovely, wonderful time away cos we most certainly did, it's just that for some reason it has felt extra 'specially good to be home again this time round.

Ahhh yes, how wonderful it was to be down in Dorset though. Beautiful, green, lush, wild, windy, wet Dorset! Oh my lord, it was sooooooo wet! How it rained! It poured. Torrential. Really, really, unbelievably wet it was. One of the days (the above photo) it didn't stop raining All Day :: it went from early morning light drizzle/fog, through midday gusty-blustery medium rain to late afternoon full blown bucketing. We spent much of that day indoors watching it go on out there, venturing out in the very late afternoon to go and get drenched visiting family.

But do you know what? It was actually quite nice to be cosied up indoors, doing quite nice indoorsy things. Drinking lots of tea/juice/milk. Eating biscuits. Reading/crocheting/bouncing various things down the stairs/ colouring/shaking the beejeezus out of a new rattle (think that covers all five of us).

Aside from that one all-day-rain day, we found that during the other days, we could still get out and about so long as we were prepared to get a little wet cos it was very showery and unpredictable. We would set off for the beach in the dry and arrive at the beach in the wet. So a sitting-on-the-beach outing would turn into a sheltering-in-the-cafe outing. It was quite alright by me actually. I got to drink frothy coffee and demolish slabs of carrot cake.

We found we couldn't really plan our days, we were so dependent on what was happening in the sky from one hour to the next. Trips to the seaside happened on the spur of the moment if and when the rain cleared off. The above photo was taken in the late afternoon (4pm ish) on a day when it had rained on and off for the most part. But suddenly it all cleared away and grey skies turned blue, it felt like a precious gift.

So down to the sea we went, to walk out along the pier and get salty spray thrown in our faces. It was bright and blustery and beautiful.

The light on the sea was amazing, it was all so fresh and invigorating, I LOVED it.

It was also really windy and because of the wind, the sea was awfully BiG.

Great BiG rollicking waves came crashing in to shore. The Little People were sooooooo excited, I wish I could show you what they got up to. They rolled up their little trousers and walked straight into this BiG sea to paddle. But BiG sea is very hard to paddle in. It moves very fast. It doesn't pootle gently over your bare toes, it crashes up over your knees and makes you scream and leap. Fun, fun, fun.

After all the excitement of getting Very Wet in the BiG sea, we left the beach and walked around the harbour.

Such a familiar place for me, I've been coming here since I was knee high.

I love it very much. Makes me squiggle inside.

 

And what better way to end the day than a stop off at one of the little "snack shacks" beside the harbour for a fish supper. It was yummy.

Ahhhhhhh deep contented sigh.......it was only last week but part of the past already. Such a pleasure to sit and recall it all, to look at my photos and write the words and remember the feelings, the sights, the sounds, the fun, the happy times. This is one of (the many) reasons I love blogging so much, cos I love to capture these memories and hold onto them, they are so precious.

Tomorrow, I'm taking you with me to Lyme Regis, so don't be late!! See you then.....

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To The Sea

"I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying"

I just LOVE the above verse from John Masefield's famous poem "Sea-Fever".

Today I am frantically trying to get us all ready for the three hundred mile journey South to see my folks, we're off in a couple hours.

Tomorrow I'll be sitting in the exact spot above, drinking a frothy cappuccino and eating brunch, looking out over the harbour. Can't wait.

To the Sea we go................see you next week ♥

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Chilling and Crafting

What's this you say? Another blog post hot on the heels of the last one?? I do seem to be on a bit of a roll, don't I?!  I'm not entirely sure how all this is happening, but I seem to be managing to cram an awful lot into my days at the moment. And such good days they are too, yes, we have had such a good day today, me and my Littlies. Chilling out at home, spending some lovely time with our neighbours, in and out of each other's houses and front gardens, chatter and play, tea and biscuits. I live in a very sociable little street you know and am blessed to have some wonderful families living up and down and across. In summer we open our front doors and our children simply come and go between the houses, as do us Mums.

But before 9am (which is the semi-official start of the days Play), me and my little family are home behind closed doors chilling out together. Blankies and cushions in full swing. The Little People take a sofa each, select their blankets of choice and snuggle down for some top notch loafing in front of the TV.

Little B prefers to sit now that he has mastered it, his horizontal days are pretty much a thing of the past now. So sweet, he sits in amongst the other two, joining in with whatever they are up to. He plays continuously, working his little hands and fingers, discovering how to use them. He's been in a very cheery mood today (we finally had a good nights sleep last night, yaaayyy!) and honestly on several occasions I had to stop myself from trying to eat him up, he just seems so scrummy sometimes.

In fact, today Little B has been very content to sit and play with his toys for much longer than is usual, allowing me to miraculously sit in the Big Chair and do a little frenzied hooking. Oh how BLISSfUl it was! How I have missed being able to do this, to seize an inspirational thought and go with it at the drop of a hat. I ran upstairs, grabbed my little box of embroidery threads, a weeny crochet hook and immediately set to making a string of itsy-bitsy granny squares. It was Joyous!!! At one point I was so damn excited, I ran outside to interrupt two of my chatting neighbours to show them what I had made. Look! Just LOOK at my cutesy crochet, aren't these little squares just adORable??!! Of course they were forced to look and admire and I then had to explain that I was actually crocheting a little cardie for my toilet-roll-self to wear, and tell them about the whole TRP (toilet-roll-project), and, oh gawd, they must think I am completely and utterly bonkers. That mad, crazy Attic woman at number 24, what's she like??

Later on in the afternoon when Little B was taking his nap, I rollocked up two flights of stairs, crawled into the dark cupboard under the eaves and heaved out some supplies for the TRP. Baskets of scrap fabric, tins of buttons and ribbons, felt and thread. Heaped it all into a teetering pile then came carefully back down two flights of stairs to set up a Crafting Station on the dining room table. Little Man could not be persuaded to join us today, but Little Lady and I set to work, such fun we had! I would LOVE to show you how far we got, but I'm saving all the pics for a special TRP-Ta-dah. I am so thrilled by this little project, I don't know why, but it has totally captivated me. I couldn't wait to show J when he came home from work, but as with many of the things I do, he kind of indulged me but didn't really get it I don't think. I even showed him his own T-R Self (a work in progress, he has clothes but no face yet, I'm leaving the faces till last) but nope, I couldn't really guage what he thought.

Ahhhh I do so love being a Crafty Creative Type. Makes me sooooooooooooooo happy.

So to end today's ramblings, I thought I'd give you a quick peek out of the Attic window at the hills in the soft evening light :: it suddenly seemed like an age since I showed you my beloved view. Truthfully, I don't get to spend much time in the Attic at the moment as I use our downstairs laptop so that I can juggle my Internetty time with Essential Childcare.

Hope you've all had a wonderful day, I'll see you again soon. You never know, it may even be tomorrow. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Comfort and Creativity

I'm enjoying this middle part of our summer holiday. This is our homey bit in the middle which is kind of sandwiched between holidaying away (we go away again on Saturday), and I've deliberately tried to leave it free from any arrangements. No outings, no dates, no plans. Deciding what to do day by day according to the weather and the mood, and it's suiting me down to the ground. Well to be honest I think we're all benefiting from the freedom, it feels very relaxed and chilled out around here at the moment. Rather a lot of time spent loafing around in pj's, which as you know makes me very happy indeedy. Love-love-LoVE my extended pyjama-wearing time!

The Little Peeps are following my example and seem to be enjoying time spent idling at home. But should they choose to actually get dressed and venture outside, they are certainly not short of other Little People to play with where we live. There are often eight or more kids out on our street doing kid things together either on wheels or with balls. And when my Little People spend time hanging out on the street, it leaves me to enjoy Me-things indoors. Of course I have to work hard to squeeeeeeeze  these things in between the demands of my seven month old Little B, but I am becoming quite good at snatching up any available little itsy-bits of time and making them Mine. This morning, around 11am, I managed to sit and enjoy coffee and a bun, quietly, all by myself. Little People outside riding their bikes, Little B asleep in his pushchair outside in the back yard. Oh how very special this little moment of quiet comfort was!

Today we also began on a little Creative Project, inspired by a lovely, lovely blog that I only recently discovered. The above picture shows Stage One {the Prepping Of The Tubes}. And hopefully tomorrow we'll begin on Stage Two {The Decorating Of The Tubes}. To see what I am on about, do pop over and visit the wonderful Teawagon Tales, more specifically this post. You'll love it I'm sure. My very own tubular self will be adorned with a little granny square something (naturally), and ohmygoodness, I can't tell you how idiotically excited I am at the prospect of constructing little teensyweensy granny squares to decorate a toilet roll tube with. Maybe I've lost the plot somewhat?

And talking of granny squares, I have to confess that progress is veeeeery slow with the Sweet Flower granny blanket at the moment. I do little bits as and when I can, but as Little B is in the process of cutting more teeth, our nights have become very disturbed again and I'm not getting an awful lot of sleep at the moment. So when the evenings roll around I'm finding that rather than reaching for my yarn basket, I'm tramping my weary self upstairs and lolling into bed instead.

 

Mind you, Bed is rather a lovely, deliciously Comforting place to be and my self imposed early bedtime is actually rather blissful. I treated myself to some new Cath Kidston pillowcases when I was in York, and I really love them. I'm also really loving this book too, and I browse through a few pages each night before drifting off to sleep. It's called "The Comforts of Home" by Caroline Clifton-Mogg (isn't that a heck of a name?!) and is all about how we can use "clever decorating ideas to rejuvenate rooms that rely on style and creativity rather than a deep purse". It's beautifully written, and quite dreamily inspiring, although does make me slightly despair at the current state of my own home, which is, well lets just not talk about that eh.

Right-oh, it's been lovely chatting with you all....it's 8.20pm now in Attic land and almost time for me to go and flollop into my rosy pillows. I'm going to make myself a mug of hot chocolate and sit in bed for a weeny while with my book. A Lovely Comforting end to a not-half-bad day.

Sweet dreams to you all...

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Tales from Connievan :: York

Well here we are, half way through our six week summer holidays and for the most part I really am enjoying it. Sometimes it feels a bit too hectic, a bit too stressy, but mostly I feel like we're managing to successfully find the right balance between being lazy and being active, between staying home and going out and about. My favourite days this week have without doubt been the lazy ones, and we've become quite slobbish around here (like still in our pj's at lunch time, eh-hem). But it's been necessary to have these lazy days in order to recover from the days of rather frantic activity.

Last week as you know we were away in Connievan and if I'm honest with you here, the lazy/active balance was a bit skewed really. There just wasn't enough slow time or slobbishness for my liking. Not enough lounging around in our pj's. It was a busy, sociable, scheduled, active type of a holiday involving lots of friends, lots of get-togethers, lots of outings. The Little People had an absolute ball. I did too, but oh boy was I exhausted by the end of it!

Staying in Connievan for a whole week was absolutely, undeniably BRILLiAnT though. We were pitched in a busy campsite a few miles outside of York city, right beside the river Ouse. The above picture shows you the view through Connie's door, which was rather scenic it has to be said. It looks like the perfect backdrop for lazy, lounging, slobbish outdoor days doesn't it? Such a pity they didn't occur!!

No, there wasn't a lot of time spent lazing around the campsite but there were certainly Moments. Moments of peace and tranquility, of sitting beside the river in the early mornings before the rest of the campsite was awake, drinking that first delicious cup of tea. Kingfishers skimming, swans gliding.

Moments in the early evening after a long day's play when I would sit quietly by the water and watch the clouds scud overhead. These moments were short, but very very sweet.

Of course, Moments To Myself were extremely limited, no matter what the time of day. The Little People were my constant companions, but it was wonderful to watch them enjoying the outdoor life so much. I was totally in awe of their energy levels. They honestly did not stop. All day. Fourteen hours (minimum) of frenetic activity each and every day. Running, cycling, swinging, sliding. Den-building. Rocket-launching. Frisbee-throwing. Duck-feeding. And plenty of other children to do all those things with. Like I say, the Little People had an absolute ball.

York is the place that we used to live before we upped and moved across the hills to Attic-land, so of course we know it well and have lots of friends still living there. It's a beautiful city, bustling and vibrant.

Lovely shopping streets. 

Lined with lovely shops....

....ahhhhhh yes, I did make it into the divinely wonderful Cath Kidston shop. Squuuuueeeeezed it in between School Uniform buying and a bit of stressy parenting in this shop and this one. It's not all about The Kids you know :: us Mums need to be catered for too.

The Little People couldn't remember the centre of York very well (they were aged 3 and 5 when we moved away), but certain things did jog their little memories. A fountain. A toy shop. A clock. And this unusual cafe. Situated in an old church right in the heart of York, it's a gem of a place for harassed mothers with children/babies in tow. Exceptionally child friendly, and a bloomin good range of homemade cakes to sit beside a bloomin good cappuccino. I remembered it well, it hadn't changed one bit.

But it's not all about The Mums you know :: the Kiddos have to be catered for too. Cartons of juice and some rather huge iced cupcakes and everyone was happy.

We did a great deal of the above last week in York. The city has some wonderful parks with wonderful play areas for children. My Children did indeed think it was wonderful. They played and played and played. And I enjoyed sitting watching them do it.

One of the outings we made was to Beningbrough Hall, which is a National Trust property just to the north of york. The working gardens here are breathtakingly beautiful.

A mixture of flowers, fruit and vegetables, it was just wonderful. Beauty around every corner.

Scrumptious.

Delightful.

Vibrant.

Incredible.

And then we stopped for tea in the tea room. And that was pretty darned good too. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes there was a very long time spent at the Wilderness Play Area. More swinging and sliding and climbing. And sitting/watching.

It was wonderful to spend time last week with good friends. Friends I met almost eight years ago when my Little Man was a babe and we were all first time Mums together. Our children grew up through babyhood and toddlerhood together. Special times and special friends.

But you know, as lovely as it was being so sociable, going to this park and that park, here for playtime, there for lunch, to the pub for dinner, barbecues and drinks and playdates at this house and that house, it was blissful to come Home to Connievan each evening. It really was. She was so cosy! So welcoming! And already so familiar and so very much Ours if you get what I mean.

About half way through the week I suddenly really missed having fresh flowers about me. I very rarely live without fresh flowers at home, as you know. So early one evening I took the Little Lady on a short walk around the campsite and began gathering a few wild blooms from the verges and hedgerows. Buttercups, clover, balsam, ragwort, yarrow and honeysuckle.

So beautiful! Oh I just adored this little posy soooooo much!! Popped it into a jam jar and it made my little heart go skip-skippety-skip with delight.

Being all domesticated with Connievan is such fun. At home I love and adore my Dishwasher. Hate washing dirty dishes at home. But not so in Connievan. I can happily stand at the little pink enamel sink, hands in hot soap sudsy water washing up the pretty plastic stuff. Gazing out the window to the view of field/hedgerow/river feeling totally blissed out. Amazing. Washing up and feeling Blissed Out. Who would have thought it?

In fact, Connievan life in general feels quite Blissed Out. Last week the Little People didn't spend a whole lot of time inside cos they were generally busy being hugely busy outside. Frenetic remember. But sometimes they did choose to settle themselves down at the table and occupy themselves with books and pens. Truthfully, quite a lot of bickering banter accompanied the above scene, and there was some nasty falling out over The Black Pen but hey-ho, it was mostly good.

My time inside, when I wasn't being all Blissed Out at the sink or tidying up or looking after Little B was mostly spent gazing at my stripes. I didn't have one single moment to actually crochet last week (my crochet never even made it out of the car, that's how hectic the week was) but oh I did manage some serious gazing. I can't tell you how fabulous it was to install the Granny Stripe. I unfolded it and draped it and arranged it, then stood back and kind of felt like I could jump up through the roof with happiness. It was heart-bangingly exciting, yes it was!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it was maaarrrrvelous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Need to address that cushion and those curtains, but ohmygoodness, the blanket is so great.

Perfectly Connievan-ish.

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Ps...There is now a Flickr group dedicated to the Granny Stripe, so please please do add in your own pictures if you're working on a stripe. And if you're not hooking, please please do feel free to pop over and gaze upon all the stripy gorgeousness anyways, cos it'll make you feel good I promise.