Old Harry Rocks and Molly's Den.

This weekend was Himself's birthday and as he categorically refused to celebrate or let me buy him anything we decided to have a long weekend on the Dorset coast, as it is one of our favourite places in the whole wide world.
Of course the minute we were due to go away the weather took a turn for the worst and we left on Thursday in pouring rain. Were we downhearted? were we heck, we shoved our waterproofs in our bags and headed out into it, so desperate were we both for some time away.


By the time we reached our hotel, unpacked and had a hot drink the rain stopped and we managed to avoid it completely for the rest of our stay. The holiday fairies were clearly on our side.

We went straight out for a mooch by the beach, it might have been cold and somewhat wild and wooly but I can honestly say my cares just melted away.

   The wind made amazing patterns in the sand

We wandered about with no set plans, ate chips as you must when you go to the seaside, before heading back to our hotel for the night content.

Our plans for Friday were to walk the costal path to Swanage past Old Harry Rocks and we were determined to do it no matter how wet the weather. As it turns out it wasn't wet at all only very, very, VERY windy.

It looks glorious and walking up towards the cliff was fine.

The views at the top were stunning

As were the flowers

but the gale force gusts of wind were not fun. I had packed for wet weather but not for the wind. Ever since I was a small child I have always suffered from terrible earache in cold or windy weather.
I was in some pain at this point and we still had a way to walk out on the open cliff top.
I was having to walk with my fingers in my ears, (which must have looked very strange to all the other hikers!) and was cursing myself for only having a cap with me and not a wooly hat. When I finally had the brainwave of putting on my cagoule and pulling the hood tightly round my head to protect my ears.

                                                                   Pain.

It worked but it did restrict my vision somewhat, which is not really what you need on a windswept cliff top!
 It was a relief when the path finally stopped going uphill in the open and we were at last in the shelter of trees and hedges again.

When we reached Swanage it was bathed in blissfully balmy sunshine so we enjoyed an ice cream, ambled around the streets and had an alcoholic beverage or two before catching the bus back to Bournemouth, footsore but very happy.

On Saturday I had planned to meet with my friend Alison and as the weather was not meant to be too great she had suggested a visit to Molly's Den and I was only too happy to agree.

Not only was it lovely to catch up with Alison again, it was heaven to go round this amazing warehouse with someone who is as interested in browsing vintage/antique bric-a-brac as me. It meant that we were both equally as happy to take as long as we wanted.

Molly's Den is a warehouse full of individual shop units covering two floors. The downstairs was mostly furniture and household goods whilst the upstairs was predominantly clothes. If money were no object and I weren't travelling by train I could have happily filled my boots.

I particularly loved these saucepans

a shot of the upstairs, not designed for tall people that's for sure, we were both pretty much bent double the whole time we browsed. Some booths were more chaotic than others. There was a real mix of eras, quality and prices but there were definitely great bargains to be found.
This was not one of them
                                         1990's plastic shiny yukiness.

obligatory blogger deers, what was the one at the back used for? Anybody know?

Did I buy some goodies dear readers? damn straight did I.

Two fix-up project dresses

A lovely autumnal pussy bow dress that needs to be taken in a bit. £9

A pretty floral cotton dress that I plan to alter, it might or might not work but it was only £8 so I decided to take a punt because I loved the print.

It was sold as 1950's but I'm not so sure.

A lovely bag that I just couldn't leave, the inside is immaculate but the outside needs a good clean. £8

Finally this pretty little trio for £6

The place actually closed around us so we had no choice but to pay up and leave.

That evening I took Himself out for a birthday meal. We went to a little Italian place we had been recommended. It was packed, very noisy and the food was wonderful, though possibly the most garlicky I have ever eaten.
The garlic bread was not only seeped in garlic butter it had chunks of chopped garlic on the top, it actually caught your throat and brought tears to the eye.Yum!!
Having said that 24 hours later I'm still tasting it so maybe not so good! Also bizarrely for such a compact venue there were 3 other people celebrating their birthday as well.So it was cakes and candles all round.

All in all a wonderful short break but now it's back to reality, piles of laundry and work. Sigh.