The Little Things

I ♡ the end of day feeling I get from seeing chairs like this, or stacked on top of tables.  I like watching people close up shop - wiping down tables, counting change, flipping the closed sign before they run a hoover round to whisk away the footprints of the day.  

Homemade sloe gin in a lovely bottle with a witty label.  It was T's birthday yesterday, friends came over and took us to dinner on Wednesday evening before we all came back to chat away and sip some of this delicious rocket fuel.

I ♥ Doors

I've always had a fascination with locks, keys, letterboxes, door knobs and door knockers - the best places to find them all at once being doors themselves.  From the most ornate, grandiose entries to the simple, functional ones painted a cheery colour - I can't stop myself seeking them out whenever I'm wandering down a street.  There's a line of course; PVC are not my cup of tea visually speaking, but they're not without their own stories.  It's nigh on impossible for me to spot an interesting something about a door and not want to take a picture or fabricate a history of it's character or the people who use it each day; is it obstinate and only persuaded to budge if you lean your full weight against it and jiggle while you turn the key?  Who lives or works inside? 

Before I sound too much like a burglar casing the joint and planning a break-in I'll tell you my theory: that doors are like books, there is a world behind each one - only as people come and go the story evolves, more fluid than finite ink on a page.

Bath Take Two

One of the most striking sights in Bath is Bath Abbey - it looks imposing by day but possibly even more so when lit up at night.

On our second day we took an open-topped bus tour of Bath, a city tour of around 40 minutes and a skyline tour about the same length.  It was on the city tour that we clocked the location of the Jane Austen Centre!  Tristan and my Dad shared a grimace but they both came with Mum and I to visit the centre, listen to the talk about Jane's life and her relationship with the city of Bath and wander round the exhibits on the shooting of Persuasion (a neck and neck favourite with Pride and Prejudice for me) and of regency life.

I found out plenty of things about Jane's time in Bath and about her family that I hadn't known before and the centre itself is beautifully put together with friendly, knowledgeable staff and also a fabulous gift shop.  Well worth popping by if you're also an Austen fan. 

Beautiful Bath

Before last week Bath was somewhere I'd passed through, fancied seeing more of, but had never spent any time.  Most of my Bath knowledge was gleaned from Jane Austen when reading Persuasion and Northanger Abbey - brilliant novels but no Lonely Planet guides! For starters it was much closer to the Peaks than I'd thought at just under 3 hours drive and the surrounding countryside was lovely, all lush greenery and rolling hills.  It's safe to say I was totally under it's spell within minutes of pitching up at the hotel and couldn't wait to go exploring.  Going to apologise in advance for what'll be a picture-heavy post; I couldn't help snapping away, I was smitten.

You all know how much I love tea and the ritual that comes along with it - well there have to be more tearooms in Bath per square foot than anywhere I've ever been!  In an ideal world I'd have popped into every one but there was so much to see in two days.

Everywhere I looked there was something gorgeous or inspiring.

Even the pavement was welcoming.

We did more walking and exploring than shopping but the shops on offer were such a mixture of traditional, designer, high street and many independent retailers.  I'd like to make another trip for retail therapy alone!

Will post the second batch of snaps tomorrow,

Surroundings

A snapshot of a drive around the Peaks close to sunset. Making the most of my surroundings.

A Little Corner of Bakewell

Being within striking distance of Bakewell is one of the loveliest perks of being on the edge of the Peaks - my first proper visit was just as tourist season was kicking off.  Never again. Shops were so packed that you were less a browser more a sardine, getting something to eat involved a wait long enough to grow a beard (well the men anyway) and just walking along the street was a test in agility; dodging small children, dogs on leads, walking sticks and those dawdlers who stop dead in the middle of the pavement causing pedestrian gridlock. This probably makes me sound grumpy but I'm not big on crowds and I'm really not a lover of heaving tourist spots in season. 

Bakewell in September though is just my cup of tea!  There is enough life and bustle, but fewer people which means plenty of time to browse and wander.  My friend Lulu and I took a trip last Friday, the weather was sunny and breezy and we had a brilliant afternoon.  A few doors down from one of the famous Bakewell Pudding bakeries is a little courtyard set back from the street with a handful of gorgeous shops - the Tsar Emporium (loved the name) a vintage-cum-antiques shop, a handmade chocolate shop, two shops selling handmade and shabby chic loveliness and the tearoom we were searching for; The Lavender Tearoom.  I'd thought it sounded promising when I did a bit of pre-trip googling the night before and wasn't disappointed.  Handwritten menus, a huge selection of teas, cakes and light lunches and the tearoom itself had that eccentric, quintessential British feel of shabby grandeur - miniature portraits on the wall, glass cake cloches on the counter, a touch of gingham and vintage crockery all against a warm cream background in an old building full of character.

Beautiful though it was inside we made the most of the weather and sat in the pretty courtyard.  The wrought iron chairs and tables were flanked with greenery on one side and a path to the collection of small shops on the other, it was like sitting in a not-so-secret walled garden.  We loved it.  I had every intention of trying one of the specialist teas on the menu until Lulu ordered hot chocolate with 'the works' and I had to make it two.  No idea what powder they use it but it was the best hot chocolate I have ever had!  Shavings of dark chocolate and tons of mini marshmallows on top and I'm sure there was a sprinkling of cinnamon and honeycomb in there somewhere too as it had that extra warmth.

It wasn't until we'd ordered our food - Derbyshire rarebit for me and a stilton and cranberry sandwich for Lulu - that I clocked the 'Lavender Tea' blackboard, sounds intriguing and is on the hit list for my next visit. 

We washed it all down with some dandelion & burdock and elderflower pressé before exploring the rest of the courtyard and the shops that had provided such good people-watching. 

The smell coming from the chocolate shop was almost hypnotic so we had to go inside and take a closer look!  I really wish I'd taken better pictures inside the shop so I could show you the range of handmade treats on offer but as the lighting wasn't brilliant my iPhone didn't do too good a job of capturing the tastiness.  The window shot gives you an idea of the traditional sweets for sale at least, I came away with a bag of turkish delight for T who loves the stuff.

How gorgeous is this birdcage?  I was immediately smitten and can't wait to go back - if only to pass more time in this little courtyard and take better photos :-) 

Happy Wednesday! 

Autumn Favourite

Egg Basket Love

The light was perfect so I had to whip out a recent acquisition and get snapping . . .

Little did I know the acquisition of an egg basket would cause controversy between myself and a couple of friends with one telling me to expect salmonella if I use my lovely new egg basket and another saying that since I get through them relatively quickly (they're all gone inside a week) that I should keep them out of the fridge as they taste and cook better that way.  Apparently there is great debate over the storage of eggs and how this affects their freshness and texture - subsequent googling backed this up with some interesting exchanges about it online.

I'm a bit of a fence straddler on this one - my Mum tended stored eggs on top of the fridge rather than inside it.  Eggs generally last a few days in this house as both T and I love omelettes and scrambled egg on toast so it's rare I worry about freshness and if I think one could be iffy I do 'the test'.

Slightly off tangent eggy ramble!  So how do you store yours?

Jem xXx