Monday 29 June 2015

Sweetpeas and a Beautiful Crochet Blanket





Today the following things have made me happy ...
  • a beautiful crochet blanket which arrived from an Ebay seller (charkai2011). The rainbow colours are so cheery and the wool is so soft it makes you want to curl up under it and take a nap in the sunshine :)
  • a jug of sweetpeas from our garden - they smell divine :)
  • meeting a little short-haired Dachshund called 'Chip' in the park at Ripon - I think that made Whiskers very happy too as she couldn't get enough of playing with him :)

I hope you've all had some happiness today too x

Sunday 28 June 2015

Cloudy Days in Runswick Bay

In order to make the most of my last few days before returning to work next week we decided to have an impromptu break on the beautiful North Yorkshire coast. I hastily made some calls and managed to get us booked in to The Runswick Bay Hotel for two nights and we packed up our essentials and headed off on Thursday morning for another adventure.

The hotel is perfectly placed at the top of the hill within easy reach of the bay and adjacent to a National Trust field with a beautiful walk along the top of the coast. We didn't know about this walk and it was such a wonderful surprise. The hedgerows were packed with cow parsley, blackthorn bushes, rosehips, wild grasses and flowers, dog roses ...





There were many bees pollinating !

There was even a duck pond with a family of ducks :)



And a lovely wooden bench to rest along the way ...



And some horses in an adjacent field ...







The views from the top of the cliff were stunning ...


On our first night we followed a footpath down to the bay which meandered amongst the beautiful cottages. The views from the top were fantastic ...



Fortunately there were lots of places to stop and enjoy the scenery including this secluded seat tucked away above some steep steps ...






One of my favourite things was peeking at all the little cottages and their beautiful gardens ...












A huge fig tree !





And watching the antics of the seagulls ! ...





On Friday we spent the whole day walking around the bay, collecting shells and sea glass and rock-pooling.




We saw a lot of wildflowers and plants down by the sea ...













The girls had a lot of fun swimming and digging in the sand !



So much seaweed !

Both digging the same hole !




We found this little crab !




And saw lots of nesting birds along the cliffs ...





For lunch we headed back to The Royal Hotel where they serve the best prawn marie rose sandwiches and chips ever :)






After lunch we went rock-pooling and climbing and saw an amazing cormorant with his wings outstretched ...





It was a really wonderful break. I think often the improptu getaways are always the best - spontaneous and unplanned.

I really hope you enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them - Fiona x