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!

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

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.

Two go wild in Dorset

A week off work; a chance to smooth our feathers and feel the sea breeze in our hair (well my hair anyway - I'm not sure Mark can say the same). I feel calm and recharged...and I came home to my redundancy notice, which was quite a buzz. I don't know if I can make running my own business sustainable in the long term, but I am really looking forward to giving it a go. In six months' time I will be often packing my car with fabric and my sewing machine to make the most of the seaside inspiration, and to give Mark the chance to watch as much sport as he can manage.

West Bay

I will try not to post the same things I posted in "Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...!" but, if I do, my excuse is that the sea never looks the same on any two days.

I am something of a early morning fan. I am at my best early (and totally useless by 9pm) and really enjoy seeing the world before all the people wake up and make it messy. I love to take photographs at dawn, and this time of year I can do that without even having to get up horribly early. I have been known to get up at 04.30 to catch the first light, but 06.30 is so much more reasonable. Mark likes to lie-in while on holiday, so I leave him to it and when I get back to the flat, he is ready for breakfast (and I am ready for lunch).

This trip, my first early morning stroll started by the river. I was drawn to the dramatic sky reflected in the water and wet mud.

As the sun came over the hills beyond the little town, it looked as though the sky was on fire!

sunrise over West Bay

clouds on fire

sunrise

sunrise reflected in the Riverside Restaurant windows

The harbour is lovely before the day-trippers get there.

West Bay harbour at dawn

riverside daisies

The George pub by the harbour

A flock of young starlings had taken over the stacks of lobster pots and creels.

starlings taking flight

fishing boat

cottages by the beach

The wonderful thing about clouds is that they give the sunlight the chance to show off - unspoilt sunshine is rather flat and dull, when it isn't set off against the shadow of the clouds. Actually the weather this week has been perfect. Just the right mixture of sunshine and strong chilly breezes, with enough heavy rain showers to make sheltering in tea shops justifiable.

From West Bay you can see Lyme Regis the other side of Lyme Bay. It is funny how often we stand in West Bay looking enviously at the sunshine in Lyme, or we stand in Lyme looking at the sunshine in West Bay.

sunlight on Lyme Regis from West Bay harbour

I apologise for the number of photos of the early morning sun on the beach towards Burton Bradstock; I deleted a load...honestly! I found the way the light shone through to the beach totally mesmerising. I couldn't help thinking about the poor woman who died in a rock-fall there this Summer. I kept to the open part of the beach, as the tide was too high to walk any further safely. The cliffs are beautiful but rock-falls are common, particularly after heavy rain.

sunlight on the waves

sunlight over Burton Bradstock

waves at sunrise

sunlight

sunrise at Burton Bradstock

waves in the sunlight

We often see cormorants perching and watching the sea, but I was chuffed to catch a photo of this one in flight:

cormorant in flight

Yet more photos of West Bay harbour:

The flower beds in front of the Shipyard Centre flats, looked lovely in the early morning light - really delicate.

Towards the end  of our stay we spotted a crowd on the beach. I think it was just a coach load of day trippers, determined to walk on the beach despite the weather, but I couldn't help wondering if there was something going on that nobody had told us about!

umbrellas on the beach

Lyme Regis

About ten miles along the coast from West Bay the coast road dips down through Lyme Regis. I love the place - bracing walks along the sea front, tiny houses nestling together, some lovely shops and cafes and history too...if you get lucky you may even find a fossil or two.

We like to park in a car park a little way up the hill from the town centre, and walk along a narrow path with water both sides. There had been so much rain, both sides were raging.

From the path you get glimpses of tiny houses and higgeldy-piggeldy rooftops:

houses in Lyme

Lyme rooftops

This gull got a little fed up with being my photographic model and went off in a huff.

gull with attitude

I see no ships!

There is a wonderful mix of styles in the houses along the promenade.

Lyme Regis houses

We spotted this little puppy who was just too tired to walk any further.

cute puppy

The yellow boat here was called 'dreamcatcher' - seems to have caught more water than dreams this week.

boats in Lyme Regis harbour

Lyme Regis harbour

Mark by the Cobb at Lyme

It was quite sunny when we were in Lyme, but very windy - there was no way I was walking along the top of the Cobb while waves were crashing across it!

waves across the Cobb at Lyme

time for a shower?

big waves at Lyme Regis

brave or foolish?

my very own sea dog

fishing nets

Victoria Pier, Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis from the Cobb

old rates of merchandise board

gull on Lyme harbour

The town of Lyme Regis is full of bunting - it makes it look as though there is a permanent street party!

Before Mark and I started losing weight, Jane Austen park looked a little too steep to bother with, but now it's an easy walk - and there are great views over the harbour.

view from Jane Austen park in Lyme

More houses in Lyme Regis:

Monkey World

On Tuesday, Mark and I headed for Wool (near Wareham) to Monkey World - a remarkable rescue centre for apes and monkeys. These animals have often had traumatic pasts, but are socialised with others of their species and live in really big enclosures with great care - while still allowing them to live as apes and monkeys. There is a huge amount to see and I highly recommend the keepers' talks.

chimps

I struggled to get a photo of this baby chimp, as he didn't stay still for a minute.

sheltering from the rain

 The ring-tailed lemurs' enclosure is open to the public, so you can walk through and get very close to them. It's a lovely place.

ring-tailed lemurs

ring-tailed lemurs grooming

 My personal favourites are the woolly monkeys; they are really beautiful.

woolly monkey and baby

woolly monkey waiting for his hard-boiled egg

baby woolly monkey

woolly monkey

Butterflies

 I think the wet Summer has been a problem for butterflies generally, but the September second wave seems to be doing pretty well. Mainly red admirals, but I also spotted quite a few small whites (I think; I find white ones difficult to differentiate between) and one or two commas.

red admiral

red admiral

red admiral

red admiral

small white?

red admiral

red admiral and bee

comma

small white?

red admiral

red admirals

Other feathered and furry friends

I feel a bit mean visiting the animals at the farm shop, knowing they are destined to end up inside the shop - but at least you can see they are happy and well-cared for.

Abbotsbury swannery

The walk down to the swannery goes through fields of sheep. I really must get my eyes tested again - I couldn't quite work out why this sheep had such big ears...it was only when I uploaded the photos, I realised they were horns rather than ears!

On this visit, although there were still lots of swans, it could almost have been called a duckery...

mallard

camouflaged duck

coot chick

It seemed to be a day for washing and preening...lots of splashing going on.

Sleeping also seemed to be in fashion:

dozing teenage swans

synchronised preening

Gardens

Being young, trendy types, there's little Mark and I enjoy more than a...walk around a garden!

Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens

feed me...feed me now!

Forde Abbey, near Chard

I really do covet a walled vegetable garden - and I love the way they mix vegetables and flowers.

Twiglet the pony

Mapperton Gardens, near Beaminster

Barrington Court, near Ilminster

I love the way they grow squashes over these archways:

squash people (that's a description, not an instruction!)

Eateries

Of course one of the best things about a holiday is the eating! I love breakfast, and we tend to have a big breakfast and not need lunch. My favourite place is the Watch House Cafe in West Bay. It is right on the beach but protected from the elements (although you can sit completely outside on sunny days).

Watch House Cafe, West Bay

Watch House Cafe

pancakes with fruit and yoghurt (I had already eaten one before Mark reminded me to take a photo!)

cute cutlery holder

vegetable breakfast enchiladas

eggs florentine

For lunch you cannot beat the Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis - simple, delicious food. You help yourself from a long table, take a seat at another long table, watch them baking in front of you and tell them what you ate at the end when you pay. It's a great place.

tomato soup and fennel bread, Town Mill Bakery

Town Mill Bakery, Lyme Regis

I read a poor review of the cafe at Forde Abbey, but I have enjoyed the food there every time I have been - soup again; this time beef goulash.

goulash soup at Forde Abbey

Forde Abbey tea rooms

At Monkey World we had a delicious beef chilli and baked potato and watched the sparrows bathing in puddles.

Monkey World cafe

I felt rather disloyal for having breakfast at the Watch House Cafe rather than our old haunt of the Ellipse cafe, but we did have lunch there one day...and very yummy it was too!

mocha at the Ellipse

fab burger at the Ellipse, West Bay

We stopped at Barrington Court on our way home and had one last cup for tea and flapjack:

Barrington Court tea and flapjack

Barrington Court tea room