Caravan Tales

One of the best things about our little break away has been falling in love at last with our caravan. We've had it for two years now but this is the first time we've had a proper holiday away in it. For the most part it's been a pretty expensive play house and place to store bags of old stuff for the charity shop.

It's taken us a while to fix it up, get everything working and to be honest build up the confidence to get out on the open road. But now we have and it was just the best. My favourite part of the day was waking up early  and having my first brew of the day either snuggled in my cosy bed or out on the grass on one of our stripey chairs (all thrifted finds) watching the boys play pyjama cricket while I took in the morning.

And I actually got around to prettying it up a little. I've had this fabric for ages and at last it's in the caravan and looks just like I hoped. There's only so much beige velour a girl can take! The swirly wallpaper will have to stay but a few old books and postcards have made it feel a little more like a home away from home.

The boys loved being away so very much. I'll admit that the levels of noise and over-excitedness got rather a bit too much on several occasions and sometimes the elastic snapped and words were spoken but on the whole it was pretty perfect. Amazing how a spot of drawing can calm things down.

We stayed out most days until the light started to go, had beachy picnics or fish and chips for tea and then perhaps a bottle of pop and a playground romp at a cosy pub before we wended our way back to our little bav for toast, stories and bed .

We got rather used to being careful with the amount of water we used, saving the gas and the battery power. Very make do and mend which is just my cup of tea. I loved being on such a sweet, friendly site and noseying at other people's camping/caravanning set-up - washing lines, picnic tables, multi-multi-multi roomed tents, fairy lights etc.

So we're definitely converted and the next trip has already been booked (Windermere in July for the Air Festival). It was such a lovely break full of special memories. Wagons roll.

Thanks for all your smashing comments, can't tell you how much I appreciate every one. Lovely to hear about your Dorset memories and favourite places. More Dorset adventures next time

Time Away Down Memory Lane

When I was a child we holidayed for lots of summer's down in the rolling countryside of the South West's gentlest county - Dorset. I haven't been back since but this half term we took our little men away in our caravan for five nights of nostalgia in Hardy Country.

It was bliss. Weymouth, Dorchester and the pretty Wessex villages around have hardly changed in 25 years. Last time I was here I'd never even thought of having children and to be back on the very same stretch of beach with my little family, doing the very same things, was quite moving.

Weymouth's architecture is as fabulous as I remember. I'd heard the port town had faded a bit but I thought it was looking really rather lovely with fancy new restaurants and boutique shops but is hasn't lost any of its charm. These ice cream houses by the harbour fascinated me as a child, I wished I could have a room on the top floor and sit on a window seat to watch the boats come and go.

Oh the harbour! I love harbours, the busyness, the comings and goings, the colours and the journeys the people onboard are on - and it all began here, sitting enjoying fish and chip teas with my parents and sisters on summer afternoons. So we went straight there on our first evening this week and the chips still taste as good.

The tiniest things brought memories flooding back. Sand ripples on the shoreline, colourful streets and sails on the horizon took me back all those years in an instant.

Even the deckchairs are the colours I remember.

We packed so much into five days, (more of that another time), but just to see this view again was the stuff of my dreams. Happy days.

Busy Indoors

The rain keeps pouring down this morning but that's good news for the garden, the allotment and the water butts I suppose. Thanks for your lovely, lovely comments on my garden post which seems to have temporarily disappeared. Blogger is doing weird things this weekend.

But a rainy day means time for getting around to those things I keep meaning to do. Its just we three this weekend, Woody is down Wembley way reporting on the Potters attempt to win the FA cup final. I have to confess to being on the black & white side of the city's football allegiancies but I'd love them to win for my dad and dear Grandad who followed them through the barren decades with no reward. Good luck Stoke.

So we're pottering today. Making bed boats, eating lots of toast and generally mooching about. My main achievement this morning has been to put together this beautiful seed packet bunting which I won on the lovely Emma's Silverpebble blog giveaway a while ago. Now that I have finally posted my thank you to her I feel I can get around to showing this off.

Aren't they beautiful, they're French seed packet labels which would look great backed onto small brown envelopes but I just couldn't get any in town so decided to put them up on their own. I've double backed them so that when the sun comes out again they'll look the perfect thing in the garden. Thanks so much Emma, hope you like your little gift and apologies for taking so long to post about it!

And I've done a little framing too. My sister bought me some postcards from the London Transport Museum featuring old travel posters advertising Kew Gardens. This one she enlarged for me as foxgloves are one of my favourite flowers and matched with a bargain frame from Oxfam it looks perfect above my china cabinet in the kitchen. I love it! You can buy the postcards and prints online if you're interested

While I was pootling about I realised just how many things I have featuring anenomes. Such pretty colours and simple shape, just like how a child would draw a flower. Emma sent me the cards in a beautiful anenomes tin that's so pretty it makes me smile. The tin also contained some wonderful flower seeds that I've already sown in my cut flower patch up at the allotment. Thanks Emma, you're so kind. She's a very talented silversmith and has the most amazing blog. Pop along and say hello!

This little anenome jug was 50p and is not just pretty but is from Cornwall, so a double win for me! And I adore this embroidery which I found at the flea market a while ago. It lives on the mantlepiece and looks so at home with my old clock and Spode green candlesticks.

Well, small boys needing snacks are calling so I shall leave you to the weekend and hope that you're dodging the showers and having a relaxing day. Xxx

Tonic

Summer clouds

Along the lanes, across the fields and up and down the valley clouds of cow parsley and hawthorn blossom are cloaking the countryside in May.

England is at its most glorious, softest, gentlest best in Maytime. 

Cow parsley seems to frame even the most ordinary things around the village and sets off every view to its finest.

Foaming creamy clouds blanket the verges and the very welcome rain showers this weekend have refreshed the greenery too and now it zings.

On our stroll this evening, just before bedtime, the lowering sun tinged everything with gold and I felt very rich and showered with nature's gifts. Oh to be in England now that summer's here...

P.S. Thanks for all the lovely comments and compliments on my sister's street party. It was a really special occassion and I've loved hearing about how everyone joined in the celebrations across the globe; especially you hardy types who got up at the crack of (or even before!) dawn and dressed in your finery. I'm sorry but the teatowel a few people asked about wasn't ours so I can't tell you where it came from. There are quite a few versions avaibale on ebay though if you're still looking for one. Xxx