Glorious July.

 July, what a bumper month that was.

I started the month meeting my friends Simon, Carole and Liz at Liz’s house. The plan had been for a leisurely lunch in her gorgeous garden, but for once the weather didn’t play ball so instead, we were ensconced inside. 

I brought pudding and tried out a new recipe for malted chocolate mousse, thankfully it worked, and result was delicious. I would definitely make it again.

 

The following week the weather was back to roastingly hot when I went to meet Soo in Oxford. We had tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Oxford Playhouse. Though I know some of the songs, it’s a musical I have never seen, so I was very much looking forward to it. 

We met at the station then walked the canal towpath (hoping for some shade!) to Jericho where we planned to have lunch. 

We ended up settling on the deli café at Branca where we both had a homemade quiche and some of their amazing salads. Absolutely delicious and perfect hot weather food.

From there we decamped to the Jericho Tavern for a chilled glass of wine before strolling to the Playhouse.

Our seats were front row of the circle and as we had suspected it sweltering! So we got out our water bottles, settled into our seats and resigned ourselves to sweating. People were fanning themselves with their programmes and the lady next to me never came back after the interval. There were some empty rows further back where it was a tad cooler, so I suspect she stayed back there.

It was the local operatic society production and some of the talents shone a little more brightly than others shall we say, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I’d most certainly go and see it again and I can understand why one of my friends says she hates musicals but has the soundtrack for this one.

From the theatre we decided a cold drink was in order so stopped at the Organic Deli café for one and a bonus delightful blast of air con, sadly the less said about my slice of chocolate cake there the better….all in all a fab day out.

 

The next week was my birthday and as has been my rule since I turned 40, I booked the day off. 

Mum came over and we took ourselves off to Notcutts Garden Centre as I needed some soil and it’s always good to have a browse of the plants. It was another super-hot day, so we sat gently perspiring as we ate lunch.

In theory I had a Pilates class that night, and as we were due to go away the next weekend, we decided against going out for a meal. 

I went to my class and Himself cooked pasta and cracked open a bottle of prosecco on my return.

The next day I went to Oxford to meet Charlotte. I had a couple of bits of shopping to get, as did she, so we ambled about doing that. 

We included a visit to Knead, the new bakery on the High Street that everyone at my work has been waxing lyrical about. We both bought cinnamon buns to take home before a leisurely lunch at Comptoire Libanais. 

I can confirm the cinnamon buns were very, very good.

 

Saturday the 19th Himself was off out with Nephew Number One, so I pottered about in the garden then sat down to watch Clueless as the 19th July happened to be the 30th anniversary of it’s release (where the hell did that time go??)

I love the film, always have and always will, it has held up well. One that really hasn’t is Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion which I watched next, in my mind the two films sort of go together. That one will definitely be going in the next donate pile.

On the subject of film nostalgia, Himself and I were having a conversation and the film Singles came up. He has never seen it and I remember enjoying it back in the day. The next week I walked past a charity shop with a big basket of DVDs for 50p each in their window and what was right on the top? I checked and it was in good condition, so I parted with 50p and brought it home. 

It was a good nostalgic watch, not as good as I remembered but I still enjoyed it. I did have to chuckle that at the time it came out I was still more into L.A hair metal than grunge so had somehow managed to miss the fact that Matt Dillon’s band in the film were played by Pearl Jam!

 

As I mentioned in my last post, Soo and I had been hatching a plan to go away for a few days with our other halves. It turns out her partner was due to go on his work’s annual cricket tour from the 25th - 28th July, but that got cancelled, Himself and I were both able to book those days off work, so suddenly we had dates that worked!

Soo did some research and couldn’t find anywhere that we could afford in Lyme Regis, it being the school holidays. So, we ended up booking a flat in Seaton about 20 minutes down the road, but in Devon rather than Dorset.

Sadly in between us booking, and the time arriving for us to go away, her partner had managed to injure his back to such a degree he wasn’t able to come with us. We had hoped he might be well enough but, given the amount of walking we had planned and the four flights of stairs up to the apartment, he really couldn’t have managed. We had missed the time to cancel without losing all our money so in the end with his blessing, the three of us went.

The drive down was pretty pain free, we got stuck in traffic near Stonehenge but arrived in the early afternoon. Thankfully the apartment was ready, so we settled in, opening every window possible, as wide as possible because it was stifling, before Soo and I pooped out to buy breakfast provisions.

This is the view from the sitting room. We enjoyed watching the various activities at the bowls club, they are obviously a very active team.

Once we had had a drink we decided what we were going to do with the rest of our day. We settled on taking the beach walk to the village of Beer and have a pint of beer in Beer. 

However when we got to the seafront the tide was in so that scuppered that plan. Plan B was to go the road route, which was longer and much, much steeper, but very beautiful. 

Beer was also very beautiful, we had stroll about at the same time as checking out all the pubs before deciding on which one to stop for a drink in.

We decided it was food time so joined the big queues at the one and only chip shop for fish and chips which we ate sitting above the beach

Full of delicious fish and chips we strolled down to the beach but the tide was still in meaning we had to walk back the way we came. We decided to head back before it got too dark rather than stay for another drink. Instead, we called in at the Co-op and bought beer to drink back at the apartment. 

 

It turns out Seaton is not just 20 minutes away from Lyme Regis it’s also 20 minutes away from Sidmouth. Now Sidmouth has long been on my ‘places I want to visit’ bucket list!

Not only is the fictional town of Dilmouth from my favourite Miss Marple book Sleeping Murder based upon Sidmouth, it is also where they filmed the Joan Hickson version of the book. Probably my favourite screen version too.

Unfortunately, it has no train station and is also not the easiest of places to get too, which was why as yet, I had never visited.

Well that all changed on the 26th July! After a quick look around a craft fair in Seaton we drove over to Sidmouth. 

Soo and I loved it, it was a lovely mix of beautiful architecture and sandy beach and bustling high street. I was also delighted that it hadn’t changed very much from how it looked in Sleeping Murder or Monkey Paws as Himself and I refer to it (if you know you know.)

 

We bought a local paper so I could recreate the scene where Joan Hickson sits in the beach front shelter reading the local paper. We had to walk past a couple of times before the seat was finally free then I dived in!

We spent the rest of our time wandering around and going into any shops that took our fancy. 

I saw a set of bedding on sale in a shop window but when I dived in to check they only had king sized left, boo. I took a picture to look it up when I got home and see if I could find it anywhere else, then as we left the shop, I spied another set in the corner of the window and yes it was a double! I rushed back in and had the poor shop assistant clamber in the window to retrieve it. She was very gracious about it and even said it was meant to be.

We found another route back to the carpark that had the added bonus of taking us through some beautiful gardens so had a stroll through those before heading to the car.

 

 

By late afternoon we headed back to Seaton. Seaton has a wetland, and Soo was keen to go and see what birdlife was there but wasn’t sure when we could fit it in. As the weather was so gorgeous our plan for the evening was to walk to Axmouth to find a pub for a drink and maybe some food. I insisted we would have time to detour to the wetlands to spend an hour or so there before Axmouth, so that’s what we did.

 

When we got to one of the hides there, I think we were being a bit too loud for the gentleman who was already ensconced inside because he grabbed his bag and left as soon as we came in! oops.

Soo got to see a curlew which made her very happy, we were also delighted to find the Seaton Tramway went right past the front of the hide. 

Soo and I got very excitable and waved madly as the trams went by. The theme song became Kelly Marie’s Feels like I’m in Love (you had to be there.)

Once we had had our feel of birds and trams we walked back into the town and crossed the river to then follow it from the other side to Axmouth. 

Another very pretty village with a couple of lovely pubs. 

We settled on The Ship Inn for a drink and found a table in the garden, where we also stayed to eat because the food everyone else was eating out there looked so good, I can confirm it was delicious.

Once back in Seaton we thought about going to another pub but sadly it’s one thing Seaton is sorely lacking in. Instead Himself plugged his laptop into the soundbar by the TV and we listened to some music and chatted with a beer.

 

The next day our plan was to jump on a bus and visit Lyme Regis, but it turned out they had cancelled the Sunday bus service. I felt bad because it meant Soo had to drive again and our original plans had been to use local transport. With hindsight we should have done the two days the other way around.

It was a grey morning and by the time we parked the car and walked down to the cobb it had started to rain. Lyme Regis is somewhere I have also wanted to visit for a while now, partly for its association with Persuasion my favourite Jane Austen book. 

We decided to walk the cobb first but I quickly decided it was not for me. I really did not like the fact it is angled to slope towards the sea and that they had taken the railings away at some point so if you were to lose your footing there is nothing to stop you falling straight in! Combine that with the fact there were quite a few other people on it and the wet surface and I started to feel a bit panicky. Frankly, I got off as quickly as I could.

By the time Soo and Himself joined me the rain got heavier, so we found a pub for a drink in the hope it would ease up by the time we were done, and thankfully it did. 

The rest of the morning we just ambled about calling in at a few shops before buying an ice cream to eat as we walked the length of the seafront. Himself decided he preferred Lyme to Sidmouth, but whilst I enjoyed both, I think Sidmouth had the edge for me.

We had no set schedule for the day but had decided if we were back in Seaton with enough time we would go on the tramway to Colyton and walk back via a route along the river that Soo had found on the OS map.

As it turns out we were back in time so did exactly that. The tram was great fun with some lovely views including unexpected dinosaurs alongside the track! 

Colyton was lovely and similarly to Beer, somewhere I'd like to revisit on a weekday when everything is open. The sun finally came out during our walk back, though there were some torrential showers too. 

One hit just as we reaching Colyford so we took it as a sign and dived into The Wheelright Inn. By this time, it was sort of getting to dinner time and again the food that came out to the table next to us looked delicious, so we decided to stay and eat. 

We could have the table until 7pm which worked out well. The landlord made us feel very welcome and told us that someone had complained about the ploughman’s because there was too much cheese and 'huge slabs of ham'!?! Youhave to wonder about some people. Soo had the ploughman's, did not complain and ate the lot. I had the gnocchi which was yummy.  

Replete, we basically waddled out and definitely walked more slowly for the last part of the route! 

 

This took us back past the wetland and nature reserve, it was lovely to see lots of activities for all ages and plenty of people walking and cycling and generally making the most of the beautiful evening.

 

Back at the apartment we took it in turns to shower and started packing up our bits and pieces. Soo and I watched the first part of a documentary exposing the Jesus Army. There used to be a house on the Woodstock Road in Oxford and one of my colleagues when I was at the Bodleian was a member at the time. It was pretty eye opening and shocking, I now understand why my colleague’s mother staged an intervention to get her out. I remember hearing she then went to Wales so wondered if it was to the same place that help's people become free from cults that was on the programme.

 

The next morning, we set off right on time and were doing great in terms of the journey home when we hit a huge tailback. Google maps took us and half the people in the queue on another route through some tiny villages and thankfully we managed to get through where big lorries had to turn back but it was a tad hair-raising watching the bigger vehicle in front of us negotiating between the traffic coming towards him and some parked cars on a very steep hill.

 

All in all, a wonderful break and somewhere we all said we would go back to, there is so much to see and do and lots of gorgeous walking on that part of the coast. We did so much it felt like we had been away for a week rather than a weekend and I loved every minute of it.  

Flaming June A Belated Post.

Hello! I'm still playing catch up so here without any further ado is June.

 June started with a day off and a day out with Soo. She came over to mine and we headed out for a walk and to check out the newly opened café part of The George pub in Upton. 

On arrival it turned out, they had a lunchtime deal on for a ciabatta sandwich, slice of cake and hot drink for £10. I chose the tuna salad and Soo the local ham, cheese, and chutney. As we hadn’t really  been able to decide we went half and half on both the sandwiches and the cake (blueberry for me and apple and cinnamon for Soo) 

The sandwiches were huge I almost couldn’t fit the cake, almost. Sorry no pictures as we were too busy eating!

It was a lovely walk, and on the waddle back home we plotted going away for a weekend with our other halves. Something we had wanted to do last year but somehow the dates wouldn’t work. Discussing places we would like to go, we both settled on Lyme Regis, somewhere I have never been but wanted to, and somewhere Soo had only passed through.

 

I can confirm we did actually manage to make it happen! but more on that in a later post.

 

On Saturday 7th I was up bright and early (not an easy thing for me on a weekend!) and off into Oxford suitably bedecked to take part in the Oxford Pride parade. The morning started with a quick change into one of our staff group t-shirts before heading to breakfast at Worcester College. Before I left the office I had the foresight to take a handful of the plastic rain coats we have there for when we run events with me, the weather forecast that morning was not meant to be ideal. 

Sure enough, it started raining and basically ping ponged between drizzly and torrential for the rest of the day, so they were most welcome. 

The parade itself was much smaller than previous years, I don’t think the weather helped, but it was great fun with such a wonderful atmosphere. I’ve only ever attended as a spectator before and I must admit it’s a very different feeling to be in the thick of it. I didn’t stay for the whole evening’s events instead I went home, got into some dry clothes and chilled with a large glass of wine.

 

The following Monday we were out for a family dinner. My cousin’s daughter Chiara had got married and come over to the UK for her honeymoon. She and her husband were staying with my Mum for a few days before heading up to Scotland, where they hired a car and did a mini tour before flying home from Edinburgh. It was actually surprisingly difficult to find somewhere open on a Monday, but we ended up at a pub near my Mum’s where the food was delicious.  

 

Saturday the 14th was another one of those weird coincidence days where I had planned to be in London meeting Charlotte and Alex and it turned out Himself was also going for the day to meet his friend Paul, the third time this has happened this year now! So we were both up early, breakfasted and on the train to London. As usual I met Charlotte at Paddington and we then headed off to St James Park to rendezvous at the main gate with Alex before taking in the rose gardens, somewhere that Alex goes every year in June when they are at their peak. 

It was a gorgeous day, and the rose gardens were glorious, very busy,  but so beautiful.

We spent a long time ambling about catching up on news and taking pictures. 

We got chatting to a fascinating old lady by one of the ponds who used to be in the diplomatic service and had been all over the world, I could have listened to her stories for ages, but we had a lunch reservation to meet. 

I also did my good deed for the day when I spotted an envelope marked important on the floor that someone had obviously lost so I popped it into a post-box so it would get back to them. Mind you, as Charlotte pointed out, it might have been a deliberate loss and I might be doubling their distress by sending it to them a second time. You just never know! 

 

We headed to Marylebone where Alex had booked a table in a tiny Greek restaurant. Sadly it was so hot I couldn’t face more than a haloumi and salad wrap so didn’t really do the food justice. I was intrigued by a tiny old lady sat alone at a table across from me. The whole table was covered in mezze dishes which she tucked into with such obvious pleasure, all washed down with a huge glass of wine. We speculated as to whether that was maybe her monthly treat to herself, she was clearly getting such joy from it. Once replete we ambled out and had a blissful browse in Daunts Book Shop.

Somewhere I am ashamed to say I have heard of, but never been to before. OF COURSE I bought a book!

 

Another to add to the ever expanding, teetering pile by the bed.

 

The plan was to head to the Wallace Collection Museum next, again somewhere I had heard of but never been. By now the day was brutally hot and by the time we got there we were all flagging and Alex admitted to really not feeling very well at all. We looked for the café there, but it turned out to be an enclosed room with a glass roof! 

We beat a hasty retreat and instead decamped to a nearby restaurant. Here we found a shady table for restorative cold drinks and in Alex’s case a couple of paracetamol.

Once rested and refreshed we headed back to the Wallace Collection and had a steady amble around. 

Housed in the former home of the Seymour family it is a beautiful building with some glorious chandeliers.

The collection  is primarily a collection of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms and armour and porcelain. It certainly is a very eclectic mix and if I'm honest not really to my taste, particularly the porcelain (or china as I accidentally called it at one point which Charlotte thought was hilarious.) but I’m glad I went. 

After we had looked our fill, we ambled back to Marylebone for tea and a piece of cake, then walked Alex in the general direction of her train finding the most amazing little haberdashery/millinery shop V V Rouleaux which none of us could resist a browse round. It was tiny, absolutely packed with people and every kind of ribbon and notion you can imagine, what a treasure trove.

Finally we were back at Paddington where I was due to meet Himself, only he wasn’t there. 

Charlotte jumped on her train and Himself finally rang me to say he was currently sitting in the Wetherspoons at St Pancras because Paul had missed his train and that I should come and meet him there.

Sigh.

I walked to the end of Paddington station and up the stairs to reach the underground to take me to St Pancras where I joined them in a well-deserved beer.

Once Paul was safely on the next train we decided to try and find the pub I had seen when I was in London in March with Charlotte. 

It was called The Monkey Puzzle and I knew it was near Paddington, so we got off the tube at Oxford Circus and walked. It was considerably longer to get there than expected, I actually ended up clocking over 16 miles in all that day!

It was certainly a pub of two faces. On one side, the quirky sign and pretty enclosed garden complete with monkey puzzle tree that was what had caught my attention when out with Charlotte. 

From the other it was one of those bleak 1960’s flat roofed estate pubs surounded by tower blocks, that you see in BBC crime dramas from the 1970's!

We had thought we might eat there, but on examination the menu was sparce. 

We bought drinks and found a table which happened to be opposite the door to the kitchen. I couldn’t decide what looked worse, the food coming out of the kitchen or expression on the face of the girl who was bringing it out. She was clearly deeply unimpressed by what was on offer, and making absolutely no effort to hide her disdain. It was very entertaining watching her face as she collected each order. We ended up sharing a bowl of chips, drank up and left. The garden did look lovely and if we could have got a table out there (it was packed) I might have a slightly better impression I think.

Luckily on my travels around Marylebone I had bought us a posh pastry for breakfast the next day, so we just scarfed them on the train home instead!

 

The next two weeks were very busy workwise. Not only was I covering for my boss whilst she was on holiday, I was also helping another team to interview for a staff vacancy which meant lots of reviewing of applications and then 2 rounds of face-to-face interviews. 

The first weekend was the summer solstice, so I did take myself out for a walk once the mad heat was out of the day. As usual I headed to the old railway line which is now a joint footpath and cycleway.

With all the wild flowers in bloom it was beautiful and made all the more magical by the fact that as I walked there was a flock of long tailed tits flitting through the hedgerows next to me, not in their full autumnal glory at this time of year but they are one of my favourite birds.

The next Saturday I had suggested in the week walking to the next town so I could go to the fabric and craft shop there. 

It’s a pretty walk of about 9 miles and even when the temperature was due to be in the mid-thirties Himself was determined to still go so we did! 

With plenty of water and slathered in sunscreen we headed out and just took it at a slightly more leisurely pace. 

I did love this duck crossing on the road.

Is there anything more quintessentially British than people playing cricket on a roasting hot afternoon?

 Mad dogs and Englishmen.... 

I cannot lie I was a hot and sweaty mess by the time we got to the craft shop. Once I had bought everything I wanted, plus a piece of fabric that just fell into my hands, we decamped to the pub for a well-earned pint. In my case of ice cold cider. 

Because he is completely mad Himself walked me to a bus stop, saw me onto a bus home, then walked back as well!

I got home had a lovely cool shower, watered the garden and had dinner on by the time he got in. 

Talking of water and the garden I do have a birdbath that I have been keeping topped up in this hot weather and whilst it has mainly been pigeons and jackdaws, I was properly taken by surprise to see one of the local red kites land on the fence and then hop down onto the birdbath for a drink! 

I have seen it a couple of times now but never in time to get a picture because as soon as it sees me edging near the window it takes off! So I will share one I took out on a walk instead.

That was June, there may well have been purchases but I genuinely can't remember, I blame the heat.

I'll be back, hopefully soon, with July.