Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reluctant return



I am back - both in person ( at home) and online having been hiding away in Bath for the Easter fortnight. Some time ago we discovered this holiday flat and have been renting it for two breaks a year ever since. It is in a quiet street but right in town and a perfect place to hunker down. We eat cheap lunch deals out, curl up with a book and deli food in the evening and relish the escape. My sewing machine gets set up on the tiny table you can just make out in this kitchen with the cutting mat on the counter or even over the hob itself and the ironing board squeezed in too. It is not unusual for supper to be tomato soup with batik croutons. Highlights of the trip are always visits to my favourite quilt shop Midsomer Quilting (hi, if you are reading!) out in Chilcompton and the best ever book shop Mr B's Emporium of Reading delights...


... Oh Oh! I just went to their site to get a photo for you and found that they have a whole gallery and I am on it!! What a surprise! - go here and check out the fab shop decoration ( they give you free coffee when you go there and you can wander the stacks with it in your hand) and scroll to the section for the regional award ceremony - that's me in the pink jacket with Dennis. Take particular note of Vlaska the shop dog who is very quiet and erudite and chooses competition winners by licking one of a pile of bones with customers names written on.


This time Dennis bought me this book in place of an Easter Egg - it is fabulous - a mix of textiles and travel and amazing photography. I recommend it. I still got my egg though albeit sneakily. We had the pleasure of taking De, Chris and Brigitta from Midsomer Quilting out to their local pub the Somerset Wagon where they served Creme Egg cheesecake - such a good idea!



On our return it was straight back the study for two days dealing with piles of admin and lecture note writing. I was beginning to forget the benefit of the holiday until the Little Miss next door (aged 6) came and asked to play with me. We made chocolate cake and kicked a ball around the garden. Sometimes it is good to be reminded that the best part of life is licking the bowl!



Finally, there is a post of some embroidery I did in Bath over on my other blog

5 comments:

Kristin L said...

Mr. B's looks like a great place! Looks like the chocolate cake was good too. :-P

June Calender said...

Glad you're back! Was eager for new words and pix -- though when I click the "kitchen" I get a bathroom. No quilting in there but the whole places looks like a lovely hidey-hole. I presume Dennis plunged into some of the 450+ "to read" books he has. When I counted mine they were only about 250, I imagine he's a faster reader than I am.

Diane Perin said...

Looks like you had a lovely break! I can see why you return to that apartment -- it looks like a charming vacation spot.

And now I must thank (and perhaps curse) you for the link to that cottage-finder site. I am at the computer and meant to be working tonight and instead I have been gazing dreamily at holiday cottages all over the UK.

It's good to have specific visual details for my escape fantasies.

Helen said...

One of my favourite childhood memories was watching Mum's Kenwood mixer going around and waiting to scrape out the bowl, hoping that she would leave plenty of cake mixture in it to be scraped out. You have to realise that this was BEFORE television was a household item in NZ. It used to start broadcasting at 5pm! I was about 15 when it changed to colour. Sheesh, we never thought we would be conversing with people across the world by computer!

Pennie said...

Each time we visit Bath we shake our heads at the Locals who just take their magical town for granted! Can't they see how gobbstoppingly beautiful the whole darn place is? Why aren't they walking around staring at the buildings with their mouths open like we do? LOL Love it Love it just Love it! I'm glad you had a great time.