Sunday 28 October 2012

Autumn leaves, pumpkins and early ghouls

I usually resent people referring to my Thursdays and Fridays as non-work days, preferring to call them my non-paid days...after all I generally do loads of work. However, this week they genuinely were non-work days. On Thursday I spent the day with Karen. I know far too many Karens so each one needs an additional identifier; this one has become known as 'mental Karen'. Actually it started as 'mentor Karen' as she was my mentor in the Opportunities Mentoring Programme, but Mark misheard me and the name has stuck. Karen brought her little boy with her - I cannot begin to tell you the delight that is James! He has the cutest dimples when he smiles and he has that perfect balance of well-behaved mischief. When he looks at you with his angelic face and twinkly eyes and asks, "why do ladies talk so much?" you just want snuggle him up. If you could bottle essence of James, nobody would ever need antidepressants again!

It was a good day - haircut, dreary start to the weather improving as the day went on and, after dithering between heading down Walcott Street or George Street (I walked in to get a bit of exercise), I plumped for Walcott Street and happened upon a one day only fabric sale pop-up shop!! Oh my! It was less than 25% the normal cost of such lovely fabric - so I think I was quite restrained to only spend £10!

fabric pop-up shop
Heading towards where Karen and James were parking, I was struck - as I frequently am - by how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. When I lived in Bristol I always said I would never live in Bath because the people there are too posh, then I met Mark and realised how wrong I was (although to be fair there are quite a few posh people; Mark is just not one of them), and I have fallen in love with the city. I have learnt that if I shop on a Saturday to go in early and miss the crowds of tourists, and the beauty of the city never fails to fill me with awe.


City of Bath
Karen is with me on the concept that shopping is the excuse to mooch between tea shops - so we fitted in two. I had to spread the joy that is Bea's Vintage Tea Rooms for lunch (spiced vegetable and lentil soup with a toasted cheese and tomato sarnie) and we also tried one I hadn't been to before (I know, you thought I had been to them all!). We had a cup of tea and cake in the Bath Bun...very nice; the blueberry flapjack was yummy and I can never resist Chai tea. I do wonder if I should write a tea shop guide...

On Saturday it was the management company AGM for the 'estate' where we have a holiday flat. Mark had a day's leave on Friday so we had a long weekend in Dorset. It was a short visit, but really nice and relaxing. One of the many joys of West Bay for me is the multitude of friendly dogs to fuss. I would dearly love to have a dog, but it never seems fair to leave a dog at home alone. We had talked about, if my first year of self-employment goes to plan, looking for a rescued dog to give a home to. It would of course have to get on well with cats, but we found out this week that Max the cat's recurring cystitis is probably feline lower urinary tract disease. Basically his urine is not sufficiently acidic and he has developed crystals in his urine. The treatment is a change in diet - he now has to have very expensive specialist food (as will Rio so Max doesn't eat his food) - but it can be made worse with stress, so I suspect any plans to have a dog will have to be ditched. I don't really mind; I adore the cats and would do anything for them. Anyway, I get a good dog fix in West Bay. The Ellipse cafe even provides water bowls for dogs and sells dog biscuits at the counter along with the human goodies!        

very gorgeous gordon setter (that's the breed, not his name!)
We had a bit of a walk on the Friday and more walking on Saturday. My favourite type of weather; bright and sunny but cold enough to make your cheeks rosy and your nose run.

Mark and me
 The sea could not have been more different to our last visit - no crashing waves, just deep blue stillness. Very calming.

gulls perching on a rock at West Bay

sea as still as a mill pond
 The air was so clear that Lyme Regis looked like it was almost close enough to touch.

view of Lyme from West Bay

looking towards Devon from West Bay
From the esplanade, the chimneys of one of the houses beside the cliff path looked like they could be poking out of a hobbit hole...sadly they weren't.
chimneys
I was wondering whether other countries have a tradition of memorial benches? Here people buy benches to be put in nice public spaces, often somewhere that was important to a loved one who has passed away, and they include a plaque to remember the person, and on anniversaries leave flowers and ribbons on the bench. Is this just a British thing?


 We went to visit the sub-tropical gardens at Abbotsbury. At this time of year the gardens are flood-lit in the evening and the trees are decked with Halloween ghouls, ghosts and goblins. We didn't get a chance to visit in the evening, but enjoyed the display, even though it was daylight.

tree ghost
funghi

fun-guy
Dogs are allowed in the gardens, but must be kept on a lead. One couple of careless dog-owners let their dog run off the lead and the staff had to rescue guinea-fowl he was chasing. Some people are so thoughtless - the gardens are teaming with wildlife, particularly pheasants.

handsome pheasant
 I love the shape the wind trains the trees in - and here behind the tree you can see Lyme Regis the other side of Lyme Bay.

view of Lyme Regis from Abbotsbury
The Abbotsbury road follows the coast and provides wonderful views of the Chesil beach. The sub-tropical gardens includes a steep path up to a viewing spot, from where you can admire the coastline beyond. There are also canons up there - for keeping pirates at bay??

the Chesil beach

Mark (aka Johnny-no-mates)

path to coast view

This little area of woodland near the viewing spot reminds me of Swedish woodland...it's the light and shade I think.


view towards Golden Cap and Lyme Regis
 The gardens are looking really Autumnal.

Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens

hydrangea

pumpkin lantern

lantern catches the light





 It will be no surprise to hear that Mark and I felt obliged to have a cup of tea in the gardens tea room.

sub-tropical gardens tea rooms

bunting
 We made a friend...

robin waits for titbits (or should that be robin-bits?)
...but I don't think he appreciated our only having tea with no cake to share...



He soon left in disgust!


Sunday 21 October 2012

Stitchery

Cats


Max and Rio

So I am back at work and very definitely feeling better than I did. However, updating my blog is having to be done one-handed, as there is a very cute black an white cat curled up on my lap, holding my hand in his paws the way a child holds a teddy bear.

Have you ever watched a cat dreaming? Rio's whiskers and nose are twitching, his tail is flicking and he keeps making little growling sounds. Far too cute to move him for something as mundane as typing with two hands!

Birthday moussaka


Anyway, last time I blogged (two weeks ago - I must have been ill to miss a Sunday blog update!), I posted photos of birthday cakes. It was also Mark's birthday, but he doesn't have sweet tooth - so he had a birthday moussaka with footballer candles instead!

birthday moussaka

Choir and quilts


Probably the worst thing about having been ill is not having been able to do any singing - no lessons and no choir. To make matters worse, I missed a couple of choir rehearsals because of holiday too and suspect I have now missed too many rehearsals to take part in the Christmas concert. It is such a lovely programme, I really hope I can persuade them to let me sing. I have, however, been working on a quilt for the choir's fund-raising dinner and auction. I am actually working on two, as the first one is a bit homely (although I love it), so I have also started a more understated one.

At this point I have to send a huge thank you to lovely Leanne at work. I have always thought of quilts in terms of colour and texture and image, with stitches way down my list of priorities, but Leanne has opened my eyes to the joy of stitches. I am too messy to be an embroiderer, but there are the most gorgeous quilting/patchwork/appliqué stitches, with which I am now totally infatuated. I treated myself to the "Handbook of quilting and patchwork stitches" by Nikki Tinkler, and I am gradually working my way through the book as I appliqué flame-coloured hearts on the blue/green/gold homely quilt.

homely quilt

The first few hearts use quite basic stitches, but I aim to increase the complexity as I go along.


whipped blanket stitch

crossed blanket stitch

closed blanket stitch

basic chain stitch

The quilt I am donating to the choir's auction is made of strips of creams and greens, with a single row of hearts.

choir quilt


And finally...I have to share a recent purchase. I saw these cat face buttons online (www.beadandbuttoncompany.co.uk) and just had to have them!

cat buttons




Sunday 7 October 2012

Piece of cake

This week has not really gone to plan. A dash to Accident & Emergency in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning and still feeling pretty rough, so I have very little report. However, I did make a couple of birthday cakes earlier in the week:

phantom of the opera for Rob's 30th
 This phantom of the opera cake was made for a friend at work's 30th birthday - first time I had worked with edible gems; I like the effect.


Sue's 70th birthday cake
This one was for Mark's mum - very pink and glittery, but well received.

Hopefully I will be back on form soon and will have more to post next weekend.