New diary

Last week I went to one of my favourite shops to buy one of my favourite things.
I went to Paperchase and bought my new diary.
Up until a couple of years ago I had the regular January to December type and it was always a pain having to transfer all the school term dates and other school related info from the old to the new. Then I realised how much simpler things would be if I bought an academic diary which would run from July to July.


As I paid for my diary I confided to the shop assistant just how excited I was.
So many empty pages waiting to be filled.
So many possibilites.
I feel the same way when I buy a new notebook too.
I bet I'm not alone.

How long is

a piece of

My latest love.
Who knew a 50p round orange plastic box could make you smile so much.

Thursday Trip

G and I were planning a day out for the two of us on Thursday but with the school closure our plans changed and instead we had a family trip to


We wanted a trip to the seaside but also wanted not to have to travel too far so after some leaflet consulation and googling we decided on getting the train to New Milton and then walk down to Barton on Sea.

And this was the scene which greeted us on our arrival.
Just lovely.

A great clear view over to the Isle of Wight too.

The beach huts here aren't painted in the prettiest colours but I wouldn't say no to owning one.

We liked this jolly little sailing boat.

It was fairly breezey and this chap certainly made the most of that. He was up in the air for quite a while.

It was lunch time when we arrived so we sat on the grassy bank to eat our sandwiches and as our food disappeared so did the sun, until we had a canopy of black cloud over our heads.

G decided he woild try and make them disappear by dropping S into the pit of despair (just a small gap between 2 huge rocks, the other one is right in front of him, honest!) as an act of sacrifice to the weather gods. She wasn't too keen!

The children were desperate to get into the water but as it just got a bit too cold we kept busy playing different games of catch, until the clouds did disappear and they were warm enough to venture in.

They weren't the only ones to enjoy the water, this dog was having great fun running in to retrieve it's toy until it got lost. T very kindly gave his ball to the dog's owner so they could carry on playing. An extremely thoughtful gesture we thought.

There are plenty of other places (and beaches) to visit along this coast line and we hope to visit more of them during the school holiday.

This was a great start though, especially as it was finished off with an ice cream and then a quick trip round the charity shops before heading home again.

June Scavenger Hunt

My offerings for June, a day late because we took advantage of the school closure yesterday and we went out for the day. More of that later.

Childhood memory- when I saw this purse in the 10p toy box in our charity shop recently I had to buy it. These little beaded purses take me right back to holidays when I was a child. It's just the kind of thing I would buy with my spending money.



An elephant- one of my many shopping bags.

Tree branches- the rowan tree in our garden laden with berries.

Night- another recent find in the charity shop. Beautiful illustrations.

View outside your door- thank you for the ladder love. This is the view outside our back door.

Cutlery- coffee spoons with coloured handles. I love these to bits.

Cheese- all together now, ba ba ba, ba babybel!

The name of your town- one of the many paving stones in the city's QE2 mile which leads through town down to the waterside.

Architectural feature- I used to see this most days when I collected T from his infant school and never tired of looking at it.

Wheel trim- I was going to use one of ours until I spotted this yesterday just leaning against a hedge!

Something beginning with Z- half a zebra's face in an advertisement at the railway station.

Farmyard animal- 3 for the price of 1 on this banner advertising a local market.

Thank you Kathy for the new list. It's looking very festive and full of summer colours.

Lemon Confection

There was no way I could leave this night time twinset on the £1.00 rail in the charity shop.

It's in absolutely pristine condition.
I don't think it could ever have been worn.
The label shows it came from Freemans.
It reminds me of something some pretty blonde actress would have worn in a 70's sitcom when opening the door to the milkman, G says it reminds him of something one of the leggy ladies from a Benny Hill 'chase' sketch would have been wearing.
Either way it a frothy creation of man made material I couldn't resist buying.
And before you start wondering (if you haven't already) I won't be wearing it, it's in S's dressing up box. Perfect princess clothing.

Swanage

One of the ladies I work with in the charity shop is very active in her church organising social activites and days out. When she mentioned that one of the coach trips was to Swanage I asked if I could book some seats. I've never visited this seaside town before and as it's not linked up to National Rail it's not somewhere we are likely to get to on a day out.
So bright and early Saturday morning me, my mum, T and S set off with 40 odd other people to spend a day at the seaside.

Our drop off point was just opposite the Swanage Steam Railway. If we were going to be in this part of Dorset for a short break we would definitely have been having been taking a ride on this.


Our first stop was to get a cuppa and we found a little place called Country Foods Kitchen (blogger won't let me do a link). Would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting. Our toasted teacakes just hit the spot and mum said her coffee was delicious. And the staff were really helpful and friendly too.

After being refuelled we were on a mission to buy a bucket and spade and a ball to take to the beach. These we found quite quickly in between stopping to watch the 11th Signals Regiment exercise their freedom of Swanage by marching through the town centre.


We gasped in awe at seeing a real live dalek through a shop window and dashed in to have a closer look. The very kind gentleman inside was more than happy for us to take photos. This made T's day!

Whilst my mum went into another shop I crossed the road to snap this balcony above a deli. Love the faces on the terracotta pots. It all looks so colourful.

Of course being Sawnage the pub in the town centre had to be The White Swan.

My sister had visited Swanage a few months ago and told us about a shop we just had to go into called. Curiosity. Well I could have spent all day in there. So much to look at, it was a bit over whelming! Candles, hearts, jewellery, badges, purses, crockery, photo frames, trinkets, glass ware, the list goes on and on. And the biggest selection of door knobs I've ever seen, these are only part of it.

The children were so good waiting for us to make our selection from the goodies on display we headed straight to the beach to find the right spot to enjoy our lunch.

As you can tell from the photos it wasn't the sunniest of days but this didn't put us off.

The children went in the water, played catch and made sandcastles.

And enjoyed an ice cream, as modelled by a very sandy Miss S here.

Here's mum trying out one of the deckchairs just before we started to pack up and head back to the coach.

Instead of going back the way we had come we decided to go in the opposite direction as I was sure it would lead us back up the hill to our pick up point.

As we strolled along we spotted so many places we hadn't had the time to investigate.

Giant bears.

Beautiful buildings.

More seaside shops.

Shops selling wicker baskets, always a favourite!

Shops selling lovely items for the home and garden.

The pretty floral entrance to the Salvation Army hall.

As we got to the top of this hill it became apparent that my theory was wrong, but luckily there was a couple out walking their dog who told us if we took the short cut we had just walked past we would be right back on track. Thankfully we made it back to the coach on time and we weren't the last ones!

Ladder Love

You may remember last year I acquired a ladder, through Freecycle, to use as a means of plant display. These aren't the only ladders we have in the garden though. A very many years ago we rescued another set which were being thrown away by a neighbour and G fixed them to the wall between us and our neighbour.
And there they sat, only being used sporadically when I could be bothered to use pot uo some plants.
That is until this Spring when we were treated to all that sunny sunshine and then further inspiration struck when I found a couple of little red seaside buckets at a car boot for 10p each.
I gave the wall a lick of white paint to smarten it up, T and S helped me paint the ladders blue and with a few busy lizzies I'm really pleased with the finished result.



The other ladder is still empty as I'm still on the lookout for more suitable red containers to use combined with little terracotta pots.