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.