travel tales

 

Whenever I'm abroad I love visiting bookshops, independent ones are best, browsing amongst the books you stumble upon titles and authors you had not heard of or did not know you wanted to read [it's not easy buying books in English locally, one has to go to the larger towns like Utrecht or Breda, of course you could argue I should order at a local bookshop but I don't always know which books I might want to buy, nothing beats browsing] 

The bottom six were bought in The Globe Bookstore and Café in Prague, I've read all but Sam Lee's Nightingale, something to look forward to! I especially loved Sylvia Plath's 'Johnny Panic & the Bible of Dreams'. 'Butter' was hilarious and profound, I got a real taste for eating rice with butter! 

Angela Harding's 'Summer Hum' hails from a lovely bookshop The Crow Road Books in Arundel where we had a breakfast stop on our drive from The South Downs to the Cotswolds and enjoyed a fab avocado/poached egg dish. 

Laurie Lee's three were ordered online whilst preparing our Summer trip to the UK. I had decided we would be staying in four different locations. Our first stop was Litlington in the South Downs, from there to Birdlip in the Cotswolds, continuing our travels to the Peak District, Wirksworth to be precise where we visited long-time friends....finally heading back south to Margate. All of our airb&b accommodations were located on one hiking trail or another, so we were looking forward to a lot of outdoor activities. And walk we did! In all kinds of weather. Sunshine and 30C/ 86F, rain, drizzle, bright blue skies and grey damp mornings, we did it all. Loving every minute.

On our first late afternoon hike in The South Downs the husband wanted to return to civilisation i.e. wifi so he could enlist in a dog competition (19hrs Dutch time opens, by 19.00.30 places are taken)  

I wanted to continue walking to get a close-up view of the Long Man of Wilmington, so we went our separate ways.

I thought I'ld be able to see the Man from above as I was walking along the hill's ridge, but as I discovered you cannot look down upon the image. If I really wanted to get a glimpse I'ld have to walk down into the valley and then all the way back up again as I did not know my way around. So I decided to be content with the fact that I had seen him from the car when we were driving up to our airb&b. What to do next? I did not want to retrace my steps and fortunately met a couple of really friendly Brits who as it turned out were heading for a drink in the Plough & Harrow in Litlington, which was right next to our place! I tagged along with them across open fields abundant with Skylarks! and even several Ravens perched atop the fence poles! Both are rare in the Netherlands, so I felt very lucky to have seen and heard them. Having arrived safely I went to look for my husband so we could grab a bite to eat, as I was hungry and thirsty by then.

 On one of our following evening walks we first heard and then saw a bittern, it was enchanting. I am always slightly amazed at how happy seeing these birds make me feel.

On our second day we walked straight out of our house onto the South Downs Way to our breakfast at the Saltmarsh Farmhouse. Along the way we spotted this chalk horse, so I can now say I have seen a chalk horse on foot.

After breakfast we continued our walk in the direction of the coast, finding ourselves 'suddenly' on a gorgeous pebble beach gazing at the turquoise sea. We then looked up at the first of the Seven Sisters. The weather was amazing and the hike spectacular, up and over the Seven Sisters, arguably the best part of the South Downs way. The views are breathtaking and wherever we went we realised that apart from the points where folks could park their cars nearby, we had the paths to ourselves! 

me getting lost in the Cotswolds on our first evening there..... 

we stayed in Birdlip enjoying this gorgeous view from our tiny 'home'

again we were able to walk straight from our tiny house onto the Cotswolds path and with the use of a Public footpaths-app were able to navigate our way around

Along the Severn Way, another gorgeous walk btw, we caught sight of a naked man lying face down in a dinghy.  He was floating along the river, paddling with his hands it seemed and looked completely at ease. As the tide was coming in we assumed he knew what he was doing and would eventually set foot on land somewhere. For quite a while we would spot him here and there....at some point we forgot about him as we were distracted by our beautiful surroundings and we lost sight of him altogether, I now wonder what became of him? Imagine what the folks thought when he finally did climb on land....

We continued our travels up into the Peak District, staying near friends in Wirksworth, more walking! We enjoyed a very wet walk to Cromford where we revisited Scarthin Books for tea and cake, and books of course! Absolutely one of my favourite independent bookshops in the world. It's an entire house with rooms and higgledy-piggledy staircases leading all over the place, a toilet with a bath, a teeny roof terrace leaning against the hill, books new and second-hand on every subject imaginable...magical!

We spent our last day&night in Margate, our airb&b-host turned out to be an entertaining American who provided us with ample tips on where to eat and what to visit! Her house was within walking distance of everything there is to see and do there....we wandered along the sea front, got a taste of the town centre, spent some time & money in The Margate Bookshop, enjoyed a scrumptious meal at Sete; alas we were unable to visit Tracey Emin's TKE studios as we were there on a weekday and they are only open to the public during the weekends. We went instead to Turner Contemporary which more than made up for this miss, thanks to the Anna Boghiguian show. She is an Egyptian artist I had never heard of, we were both bowled over by her fascinating installations. Afterwards we had our last UK-cup of tea and cake, a final drive along the English countryside to Folkestone where we hopped onto the Shuttle to Calais.....

I returned feeling completely relaxed, there's probably more to tell, maybe in a later post

4 sensitive-dog-cards

Hand sewn curtains, I have always liked the plain white backs of my quilts so I thought they would make a perfect 'front', I love how the seams give it a soft stained-glass effect. I have left the edges rough, and to finish it off I have added a pleater tape and hooks so it can slide like a proper curtain, although the version shown above is still pleater-less

plant table in our living room: all of a sudden I need them indoors as well as outside

bees & birds

Snoopy, probably checking out the water fowl.....

hope you had a good Summer xx