When it rains

Hello

Living in the Midlands has some drawbacks - a major one is that we are a minimum 

of a 2 hour drive from the coast. And every so often I have a yearning to 

see the sea, eat fish and chips and waste a few pounds (and a couple of hours) 

in the amusements. 

So Last Friday I booked a night for us all at Whitby Youth Hostel. 

We set off at 9.30 on Friday morning, a bit later than planned but it is 

the summer holidays and have you tried getting 3 teenagers/young 20 somethings 

up early when there is no pressing need?

 The weather forecast wasn't good but I live by the motto that 

"the weather is never as bad as they forecast". 

I think on Friday my motto let me down. 

As we headed north the skies brightened, 

my natural optimism grew but as we turned off the A1 and skirted the 

North Yorkshire Moors, visibility dropped to about 20 metres.

  The clouds were low and the rain was heavy. 

We headed for Staithes and sat in the car to ear our lunch. 

Once the rain eased, we headed down into Staithes, dodging the heavy rain showers 

in tea shops. 

It was flipping chilly too, I ended up wearing son's jumper to keep warm!

Fish and chips were eaten in Whitby. 

Entertainment for me in the Youth Hostel was browsing through some old copies of a

 magazine we used to read as children "Essex Countryside" - yes, at heart I am an

 Essex girl! The date on this one is 1969!

I loved the adverts - look at that Capri, 3 litre was pretty impressive!

And look at these adverts for TVs. In the advert above it promotes colour transmission

 as starting in November 1969! And the telephone numbers are so short.

Saturday dawned a much brighter prospect....ahhh! 

This is the Whitby that I had in mind when I booked our one night away!

Even at 10am the harbour was busy - 

everyone eager to escape outside after the wet and cool day before. 

The sun shone brightly - it can't fail to lift the spirits.  

After a walk round Whitby we headed south to Filey, one of my favourite seaside resorts, 

and a place we often stayed in for a week when the children were little. 

It has happy memories for us - how can we forget the time when our younger son

 aged just 3 months managed to roll out of bed and fall in the open suitcase 

by the bed - that was a bit of luck wasn't it!

Or the week when I very nearly came home early from holiday because same son, 

a couple of years older, would not sleep except from 10pm to 6am - 

not the most considerate times for parents, ready for a holiday and hoping for a relaxing week!

Said son is now 19 and sleeps 11pm to 11am (if we let him!)

Ahh... Filey Bay...

fluorescent ice creams...

and an incoming tide!

Then far too soon, it was time to say goodbye once more to the sea!

Until next time Filey!

xXx

Hope you all had a good weekend!

My cottage by the sea and still Felix!

Hello, well, after completing two knitted projects this week, yes two, I have gone back to knitting my own little bit of paradise by the sea.

I posted about this kit here.

My friend also bought this kit and completed her own little cottage long ago and it is so cute! Although she did say that sewing the roses round the door, or in other words, sewing on the beads, was a bit tricky so I'm not looking forward to that bit.

I am still reading The Map of Time by Felix J Palma. This is taking me a looong time, but only because I have been distracted by other events and so I just haven't been reading much recently.

Some nights I have been so tired that by the time I get to bed I don't even bother trying to read, instead I turn the light off immediately,

 and thankfully I am one of those people who can fall asleep within seconds! 

Joining with Ginny's yarn along.

**    Happy knitting    **

xXx

Ahhh......................

That is always the feeling I have when I see the sea..................

Living in the middle of the country means we have to commit to a minimum of a two-hour drive to reach a bit of coast (older son informed me only this week that we lived just 20 miles from the middle of England, although there is some debate about the exact location of the 'true' centre point of England). This is a drawback for someone like me who loves the sea, in all weathers.

This year we hadn't yet made one visit to the sea. We have found that as the children have got older, the holidays where we used to spend a week by the sea perhaps in Cornwall, or Dorset or Northumberland just don't hold quite the same attraction for them anymore but yet a short break to walk along the beach, eat ice creams and spend our coppers on the amusements was acceptable to all. So last week we spent one night at one of our favourite seaside resorts, Filey.

This is how Filey is described: The quaint seaside resort of Filey, positioned on the beautiful Yorkshire Coast, is the perfect place to stay for those looking for a peaceful and relaxing holiday.

Bursting with all the appeal of a traditional Edwardian coastal town, Filey offers a real sense of olde worlde charm. The 5 mile stretch of clean, sandy, award winning beaches are the ideal place to spend your afternoons."

Sounds ideal for us. I posted about a visit daughter and I made to Filey last year here.

On our first day, the weather was better than forecast so we spent several hours on the beach, reading, playing with a bat and ball, drinking tea from a flask,

eating ice creams .............

And I do love to go out for walk in the evening along the sea front,

especially at a time of the evening when normally, if we were at home, we would probably be indoors. 

Even daughter didn't complain about the walk .... ok, I'm kidding, she was on her skateboard, and given a helping-hand uphill by older brother!

Our second day started a bit grey and overcast.

A small purchase at the wool and needlework shop (The Beachcomber) brightened my day. This is such a great shop packed with all sorts of yarny and fabric goodies - and all at a very reasonable price. 

Then, a round of pitch and putt kept us amused for almost 2 hours!

More ice cream followed,

and paddling and sea glass hunting.

 I could spend hours watching the tide coming in.

But eventually, as the late afternoon light hit the cliffs on the north side of the bay, it was time for us to say goodbye to Filey once more.

 

Ahhh................

xXx

A seaside cottage....

Hello,

One of my dreams is to own a little cottage either by the sea or in an isolated location perhaps in the Peak District or on the west coast of Scotland, ideally with stunning views. 

This is just one of my many daydreams! 

So I got very excited recently when I am across a kit on the internet for knitting my own seaside cottage. This kit is sold by 'The Little Knit Kit Company' and what is great news, is that the kit is currently available to purchase in the sale. So it didn't take me to long to decided to order the kit and it arrived about two weeks, and what a delightful package! 

The kit is presented in a brown bag which in turn arrived wrapped in pink tissue paper with cute stickers on the outer packing. 

And inside the brown bag there is wool, needles, pattern, stuffing, felt, sewing thread, buttons and beads - in fact everything you need to complete the cottage!

 Here are some close up photos of how the cottage will look when complete. 

Look at the cute beads, as flowers, around the door - I think this will be trickiest bit of the kit. 

 So it wasn't long after the package arrived before I had the needles out and I started on my cottage.  

 This is the first wall under construction. The kit is easy to complete with knitting in garter stitch  and only simple shaping and sewing up to undertake. 

 Here we are a couple of weeks later with all four walls and the roof knitted, and the 

base is underway. 

 

This is a lovely kit - an enjoyable, easy knitting project.  

And with the Bank Holiday weekend here, it may not be too long before my own little dream cottage is complete!

Have a good weekend

xXx

train travels 1: Filey

Hello,

I started to write this post some time ago but then other posts seemed to be more timely and muscled in on publication. This post, I decided, could be published almost anytime and the subject of this post is, of course, obvious from its title - travels by train! 

Trains are one of my most favourite forms of transport - in fact, it would be difficult to decide on my most favourite - bicycles or trains? For me personally there are so many benefits for travelling by train:

1. Firstly, I have to get to the train station and for me this often entails a cycle ride. It is about a 17 minute cycle ride for me to the station (and nearly all downhill) so of course the cycle ride home takes me a bit longer - probably about 22 minutes. And from where I live, the one way streets are much more favourable to the cyclist riding to the station.
2. Secondly, travelling by train is much more environmentally friendly than travelling by car. 
3. Thirdly, the rail tracks may pass through parts of the countryside not always available for viewing when travelling by car.
4. Fourthly, you can sit and relax when on the train, no stressful driving and busy roads to contend with - definitely a case of "let the train take the strain" 
5. And finally - you can sit and do things when you are travelling by train; I don't feel like I am wasting so much time as when I am driving. My choices of activities, depending on the reason for my train journey include:

• drinking coffee - well, that is a must no matter where I'm going or why. I consider available coffee facilities prior to any journey and plan my strategy - can I buy on the train? Will there be a dining car or an at-seat service? Or shall I buy at my local station prior to boarding or can I purchase en-route while waiting to change trains?

• work - my laptop is an essential item on any work trip

• listening to my music - I love my Apple shuffle, it fits into the smallest of purses and hence bags

• reading - often I take my Kindle Paperwhite with me but it could also me a paperback (sorry this isn't a sponsored commercial for electronic gadgets)

• knitting - here is a link to one item that often accompanies me on any train journey - my portable project - socks!   

Often I indulge in more than one of these activities on any one journey - I say indulge because it does feel like that - an indulgence - a treat of time, for me to relax and enjoy one of my interests.

So I thought I would share with you some of my train journeys. And today, our first journey is one my daughter and I made to Filey on the East Yorkshire coast.

Filey is a lovely old fashioned, small seaside resort which we visited many times as a family when the children were younger  - there is so much to do given its size - pitch and putt, crazy golf, amusements, 

 

(view from the boating lake)

donkey rides, paddling pool, boating lake, miles of beach, cliffs...... and all in easy walking distance of each other.

Sand art.......

paddling.....

 

 

 

 walks along the beach.....

We stayed in a lovely B&B (Bed and breakfast) and had a traditional seaside fish and chip tea - a fun, relaxing two days away.....by train!

xXx