Things I am Thankful For... Life is so Exciting !!

I am so over-excited, I may just explode any time soon!!  There is so very much I have to tell you about the last couple of weeks, that I just don't know where to start!  

As you know, I've been a busy bee.  But whilst I have been a busy bee, so much has happened, so many lovely blogging experiences too, that I have to share with you as soon as I possibly can.  I fear that my excitement at having so much news to pass on may just spill out onto the blog page in one big jumbled mess of bubbly woop-de-dooo hyperactivity with no sense of chronology whatsover!!!   

For starters:


I went along to the Vintage and Handmade Fair on Saturday, FOR THE FIRST TIME - yes!  My first V&H!  And I was BESIDE MYSELF with JOY and totally fit to BURST with DELIGHT from the moment we opened the door to ..... well I was going to say, until we left the building, but I am still bubbling with excitement 3 days later......

What more can I add to the ACCOLADES bestowed on the Fair and the AMAZING organisation of Jayne and Michele in making it happen, than has already been said on so many other blogs in the last couple of days?   

I dont' have a single photo of my own to share with you because my HEAD WAS DOWN and my eyes were FLITTING from one beautiful object to the next, from one STUNNING table of Vintage GLORIOUSNESS  to the next, that my camera wasn't given a thought and stayed cosy in my bag the whole time.

I wasn't in Seventh Heaven ... I was in SEVEN THOUSANDTH Heaven!   

If I had a FORTUNE I would have spread it all around those most TALENTED and so very FRIENDLY ladies who were selling their wares on Saturday.  I would have hired a fleet of ARTICULATED lorries to take my purchases home for me.  Of course, I don't have a fortune, but I did buy such wonderful goodies as you see here.  And I coveted ever so many other goodies which have not (yet!) found their way home.  Not least, I am very-much-indeed HAUNTED by the EXQUSITE festive hangings and most ROMANTIC jewellery made by "Jane and the Happy Crow".

As well as being a child in a sweet shop, my MOST FAVOURITE aspect of the fair was meeting all the lovely people I have discovered here in blogland.  It was so very SPECIAL to be able to chat face to face with Niki, Michele and Donna.  But without a doubt, the HIGHLIGHT of the day for me was meeting my wonderfully JOLLY and HAPPY letter writing swap partner, Katie of Textile Treasure Seeker.  

 I've borrowed this picture from Katie's blog!

Katie GLOWS with warmth and loveliness - I could spend a week chatting with her and still have so much more to discuss.  And it was so lovely to meet Mr Treasure and Katie's parents too.  Mr Bun was MOST HAPPY indeed to chat about the hometown, Malvern, with the extended Treasure family.

Oh blogland is just such a great place to be!  And when blogland becomes REAL LAND - it is the most exciting and THRILLING place to be! 

Thank you to all those hard working, talented Bloggers who brought their wares to the fair on Saturday.  And to all the hardworking Mr Bloggers who helped move all those goodies into place.  

I can't wait for the next V&H in May !!!  Now.... I must find a purse to start saving my pennies for the occasion.....

PS: My purchases shown here are from the following talented ladies:

Fabrics:  Donna Flower @ The Fabric of my Life

Tea Pot (to match my existing tea set!): Lucy Bloom

Hanging White Heart: Christine @ The Sea Garden

1950's Adverts/threads/crystal droplet/and a decorated spoon already in the hands of a dear pal (!): all from Niki @Nostalgia at the Stonehouse 

Noddy badges: Michele @ Cowboys & Custard

Seasonal

I love Spiced Chai.  It is the ideal seasonal drink.  I have hunted high and low for the perfect version of this delicious drink and I've even tried making up my own version.  (Anyone recommend a recipe?)  


But for now, this 'instant' version is my very most favourite.... though it is unlikely to be the healthiest!


As I write the wind is lashing rain against the window.... time for an aromatic cup of Chai made in one of our favourite mugs of the moment - given to me by lovely Alex at Pink Feather Paradise for this swap.

I hope you are dry and cosy this afternoon.

Swanlike

I would very much love to tell you that I am totally swanlike at the moment...

I am not, but I'd like to be.  I am in school most of this week, but will return soon to post lots of lovely pictures and tell you about the glorious gifts I have received from fellow bloggers.  

The bedroom is snowy white (the room at least, is swanlike!) and we continued into one of the spare rooms - our house is whitening into Narnia!

I'll be back again soon....

Colourful Cars, White Walls and You Can Keep Your Hat On

Frome.  

The cars I'd drive (above & below) -  if I had ever so much money (and space to store them).

A visit to our cafe of the moment for lunch: homemade hummous and rosemary bread.   Do you like their wallpaper?  I am delighting in the discovery of Yannoh here.

The Provider of All Things Secondhand sent a pure wool Hobbs skirt my way via the Charity Shop.  

Laughing until we cried watching "The Full Monty" with all the family. 

Today was spent painting our bedroom white.

An interlude for tea and an iced danish pastry with my sister and her hubby.

Wishing, as always, that I could have just one totally empty room.

Mr Bun made the most scrummy tea: garlic and herb tortellini with pesto sauce, broccoli, and homemade tomato and garlic bread.

Happy Days!

Grab Your Binoculars, Come Follow Me.....

Come follow me over here....

Holiday Postcard No 4 : Trains, Teashops and Turrets

Venturing further afield, to the very edge of Somerset where land meets the Bristol Channel, we visited Minehead and Dunster on a sunny and warm Friday.

Minehead was a revelation to me.  I've not visited since I was a child and only had vague memories of the beach.  We arrived in sunshine and found ourselves in the delightfully old fashioned "The Avenue" which is reminiscent of main streets in small European towns.  Yes, really!  There was even a tempting aroma of cooked garlic wafting from one of the restaurants.  What makes me say it seemed European?  Because the street is wide, tree-lined with shops and restaurants set well back from the road -  perfect for watching the world go by from an al fresco lunch table.  And the majority of shops are independent traders - hallelujah! for a high street which doesn't look like every other....

We enjoyed sitting in the warm sunshine outside this cafe - isn't it delightful? And how wonderful to have 'Horlicks' on the menu!  Oh yes, we also enjoyed our perennial favourite: toasted tea cakes...... bliss!

What is it that draws us to trains of bygone days?  Is it the slow pace?  The steam?  Collective memories of "Brief Encounter"? Whatever it is, aren't vintage carriages and renovated train stations so romantic and homely and cosy?

We couldn't take a train ride that day, but would love to return for some of the festive specials, such as the ride to visit "Dunster by Candlelight".

Talking of which, you may remember that we had considered renting a cottage in Dunster, prior to deciding on a "holiday at home".   The place still beckoned us and we had to visit...

Dunster Castle is surprising.  It isn't a grey-stoned cold castle inside, but instead it is  a very comfortable, welcoming home with the most spectacular views across Somerset, over the Channel towards South Wales.   The more public reception rooms are luxurious with intricately relief - patterned plaster ceilings.  These rooms hosted many society balls and parties and it is easy to imagine dancing in a glorious 1930's ballgown across the wooden floors.  

Upstairs is the comfy, relaxed and very informal 'family home' with hospitable squashy sofas for visitors to rest on.   Many rooms have original handmade wallpapers, whilst others are to be replicated by the National Trust.  In one darkly furnished bedroom, I really did not feel comfortable and felt quite a chill and anxiety inside me as we entered the room.  Luckily I had Mr Bun's protection (!) though he was bewildered as to why I wanted to make a speedy exit from the room - I could only look down the secret passageway whilst holding his hand!  I'm sure I must be sensitive to the spirit of a place.... who knows, maybe a ghost haunts the room?! It was spooky anyway.....


As I've said before, the village of Dunster is perfectly suited to the cooler seasons and I can't wait to return for Dunster by Candlelight.  It has plenty of lovely tea rooms, delightful shops to browse and the most attractive wide high street with cobbled pavements, lined by a patchwork of beautiful houses.  

One of my Most-Favourite-I-could-live-inside shops is here in Dunster:  "The 5 Quarters" .  It is full of crystals, shells, stunning fairy-like silver jewellery, home accessories, decorations, etc.  Many of their items are white, silver, feathery, dove-grey coloured, floaty, lacy, dreamy, feminine - rather reminiscent of the kind of Exquisite Items made my the Most Lovely and Talented Lynn, over at "Sea Angels".  If you are reading Lynn, I hope you will one day find your way to "The 5 Quarters" as I'm sure you'll love it!

With our earlier visit to Radstock Museum, this trip to the Somerset coast was the highlight of the week for me - not least, because the sun blessed our outing!  

We had such a lot of fun and good times during our "Holiday at Home" - one week was really not long enough!   But we have many ideas for the next "H@H" which we'll probably enjoy in in January.  Thank you for all your lovely wishes and warm, friendly comments about this experience - bloggers truly are the most Generous of people - yes, that's YOU!

Pouring rain here today, which is just as well as I have a VIP sewing project to get on with.....  See you soon! 

Holiday Postcard No 3 : Coal and Kinship

As the rain pours and the wind buffets outside and there is no hope of a car boot sale today, it seems right to post another virtual postcard (or two) of our "Holiday at Home".  So snuggle up to your favourite squashy cushion with a cup of something warming and let's begin...

A model of the area around the current museum building.  There was a passenger line, a coalfield line and a coal canal.  The museum is in the building with the pointed entrance - top right of the photo.

We live in part of the old Somerset Coalfield.  Many people are amazed to discover that coal was mined in this part of the country, but at it's peak there were dozens of pit heads locally, the closest was less than quarter of a mile away from where I sit writing to you now!

You know how it is, there are visitor attractions literally on your doorstep which you've never visited and yet you have flown around the world to visit Sydney Opera House or The Collosseum in Rome.  Our Holiday at Home gave us opportunities to rectify such contradictions of modern life and to start understanding our local history.   It is also a case of visiting a place, or doing an activity, when the time is right... some activities / places just float around in your conscious mind for a few months, or years, before finding a prepared and open bed of brain cells which finally say "Yes!  Now is the time - here is the space!"  And then your conscious mind tells you "Go visit Radstock Museum, because you'll be Very Glad Indeed that you did...!"

This carriage was found as a wreck in a nearby field and then fully restored and painted.

 

So we did.  We visited Radstock Museum.  And I am Oh So Glad that we did.  To be precise, exploring the contents of the Museum was one of My Most Favourite Events of the Year.  Of course, having been 'born and bred' just a few miles away, it was Very Exciting Indeed for me to learn about my social and industrial heritage.  Museums are great certainly, but is there anything more Exciting and Thrilling than to see exhibits with names of places which you've known since forever?  There is Ownership and Kinship and Pride in seeing a little slice of your own memory cells lovingly displayed in a clear glass case in a Museum.  It is almost, very nearly almost, as good as seeing your own Name or Photo in that smooth glass case.  Don't you agree?

What are we having for tea, Mum?

 

Radstock Museum is housed in the old Market Hall where I remember shopping amongst market stalls with my family when I was a small child.  Just as I remember seeing some of the freight trains outside the building, long ago.  I grew up only a mile or so from the line which carried The Titfield Thunderbolt.   (You may have watched this 1950's movie as a matinee in the good old days, when TV channels showed matinees......)

All aboard the train!  Shall we go to Bristol for the day?

 

This award winning Museum is a tribute to the Somerset Coalminer 

• his work
• the home he lived in
• his local co-operative shop
• how his children were educated
• the sports games he played and his leisure time
• and his final resting place

 The miners shot at the Dunkerton pit were just a mile from my childhood home - I never knew this had happened.

And what a tribute it is!  My excitement at exploring local history often gave way to heartfelt emotion at the hard lives of these people.  Less than two generations away, can we even begin to imagine the pain of crawling on hands and knees pulling a cart full of coal through a barely candle-lit shallow tunnel?  With a guss and crook tied around the bare flesh of your waist, which would quickly graze the skin and cause open wounds which never had time to heal? 

The infamous guss and crook - click on this picture to enlarge

Looking at the model of the pit workers in the photo above, I couldn't help but wonder if my Grampy experienced such hard labour.  Grampy worked in the stone mines which built much of twentieth century Bath.  Might he have worked in such grave-like conditions?  Were stone mines any 'easier' or more 'comfortable' than coal mines?  


We have been Raving about the Museum for over a week to anyone who will listen!  We've been urging friends and family To Go Visit because it is an Exceptional Experience.  

One of the lifts used to transport miners down to the pit there would be 6 men huddled together on this lift platform with the pit pony tied into the cage above.  Using a rope (!) to lower the lift cage, the controller at the top had a knot tied in the rope so that he knew when to stop lowering the cage before it hit the ground like a stone falling down a well....

Mr Bun and I will return again and again.  Not least because we hope to become Members soon.  Also because my Most Favourite and Heavenly local fabric shop, Midsomer Quilting, has a truly wonderful exhibition of handmade quilts on display in the Museum until the end of November.    More about Midsomer Quilting another time.  


So, could anything match the Joy of visiting the Museum?  Could any other Holiday at Home activity or excursion delight us as much?  Well, yes!  Almost!  Look out for Postcard Number 4, to see where we ventured next....