Whirlimagig a Jig

I've had a real holiday week this week with weather to match. I've dragged my lovelies into my holiday mood when I can. On Monday we went to see Despicable Me after school and ate tons of popcorn in the dark (you know the supermarket stuff we all smuggle in trying not to make our bags rustle).

On Tuesday I had a long lazy pub lunch with a friend near Miss Rosey's school and then on Wednesday morning I attacked the car boot in search of any goodies that might be hidden there.

I came away with a pyrex platter (for selling until Mr B saw it and said "oh please let's keep it"), several trims and a couple of patterns (one given away). I also added a punnet of raspberries and some heady smelling French Lavender to my pile before I headed home for my next soujourn.

I've been trying to meet up with C for a while now and finally we managed to pull it off. It's one of those odd meetings where you don't know one another, but you feel you do. You see she knows a few people I know, she reads my blog and leaves a comment or two, I read hers and chat back. We live not too far from one another and have a fair old bit in common so it seemed to make sense to meet up really.

How wonderful when you have a visitor who not only turns up with the sweetest smelling roses all dip dyed the most fabulous shades, but also has a beautiful tin bearing a Victoria Sponge Cake.

I'd whipped up a few chocolate chip buns, but we made inroads into the cake instead.

My head is buzzing with lots of new ideas. I'm not sure which ones will come to be anything, but it sure was good to chat with a likeminded soul who is a supertalented seamstress.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with the practical matter of hiding my grey roots under a paint job of chocolate dye and getting on with Little Bun's dress.

I cut the pieces out for this one on Monday. Really it should be a quick job, but I've been distracted by being sociable and you just can't do both (I surely can't anyways).

I also started chopping up a few fat quarters as I want to re-stock my etsy shelves early next week. With Miss Rosey breaking up on Friday and then a round of sports day and other activities at Little Bun's school I'll be having to be even more disciplined with myself if I want to get things done when I plan to.

Now the week has come around to its end. Thursday was the most glorious of days. I'd suggested to my man that we needed a special day, just for the two of us. Being self-employed he finds it very hard to take time off as there's no one else to do his work for him. Our plan was to pack up a picnic and go somewhere we'd never been before. My mum did the school run both ends of the day so we could go to our own time clock. Being a parent that's the one thing I miss the most and so it made the day even more perfect. We could do and be as we wanted when we wanted and it was bliss.

We chose to head to Ely for the day and it turned out to be the perfect choice.

We ate our picnic lunch under the trees watching the houseboats, afterwards we strolled along the river just as the sun began to shine in the bluest of skies.

Without realising where we were heading we entered what we thought were park gates and found ourselves in the grounds of Ely Cathedral. Horses and a donkey grazed just in front and not for the first time that day we said the girls would love this. As good as time just the two of us is, we still feel odd without our two gorgeous sidekicks.

The stillness of the horses added to the tranquility of the setting.

We only made it to the first door in the cathedral as there was no way we were going to pay £15 for the pleasure. I could have tagged on to the Italian group, but we thought my blondie 6ft 5" man might stand out as not being with them.

Anyway it was no matter as we could still wander around the grounds through the gates and explore the small city (apparently the smallest in England don't you know).

We found stage coach signs, visited Oliver Cromwell's home and oohheed and aaahed at lots of buildings we fell in love with.

After a fair few miles of exploring here and there we decided it was time to head back to the river where a pub terrace and some cold shandies beckoned.

After sharing our adventure with the girls, we've been made to promise we'll take them to explore too. They love discovering new places as much as us.