Bath III

Welcome to the last instalment of what I got up to in Bath, which is really 'what I bought in Bath', and I suspect, the bit you're most interested in.  Snuggled away down a side street, we came across The Makery.  It's a cute little shop absolutely rammed with button, ribbons, fabric and stuff fabric-y sewing-y peeps will love.  When I walked through the door, I was greeted with an almighty table of buttons.  Heaven.

Excuse the slight blur, by now I was shaking with anticipation

I managed to resist the buttons, but I did come away with some fat quarters, mainly justified by the fact that one of them had robots on, and another had trucks on.  It's so hard to find designs for boys.  We'll skip over the small detail of me not actually having children.  Or being able to quilt.

I picked up some new tailor's chalk as I recently smashed mine and have been fiddling with the shards whenever I sew.  I also bought a few spools, some big oak ones and some smaller (pine?) ones.  Then I bought this:

I am totally and utterly smitten with it.  It's a bit difficult to see, as it's cream and all our walls are light colours, but you can click on the image for a better view.  Sadly, after carrying it around Bath very carefully all day without incident, I got on the 390 bus here in London for the last leg of my journey and was almost bounced down the bus when the driver decided to try a racing start.  One of the prongs broke off my beloved spool rack.  Why can't bus drivers wait until people are sitting?  It wasn't rush hour and I was the only person getting on a bus which had about three passengers.  Grr!  Anyway, I still have the prong if anyone has any ideas how best to reattach it.  It's made of plastic-coated wire, a bit like clothes horses.  I suspect it may require more than a dab of superglue.

So there you go.  Bath.,  Well worth a visit.  Just be careful getting on a London bus with precious objects.

Bath II

As promised, here's a bit more of what we got up to in Bath.  For a small town, there's an awful lot to see and do.

Decisions, decisions...

We plumped for the Jane Austen Centre and lots of tea.  I can recommend it.  The Centre has a little tour which starts with an explanation of why Jane Austen went to Bath, the connection between the town, the author and her novels and then you're directed through a little exhibition and told to take as many photos as you like.  What a refreshing change!  There are lots of wonderful costumes out on display.

A somewhat irresistible welcome sign

At the end, there's a cute little gift shop where I bought a poster of ladies' fashions from 1805 - 1835.  It's on the wall above me as I type.  It wasn't until we were leaving though that I spotted this sign:

It did make me wonder about their priorities...

Bath

Wow, a whole week without a blog post!  In my defense, I've not been here.  Well, only briefly to throw one bag of clothes in the washing machine, pack another bag and zoom off again.  It's been a rather lovely week all told.  It started out in beautiful Bath and ended in lovely Ludlow.  It may take two or three posts for me to tell you all about it.

Bath was first.  A couple of friends and I were there for the bank holiday weekend and my goodness, we were lucky with the weather!  With the exception of one good soaking, it only rained while we were in tea shops.  And Bath has tea shops a-plenty.

We didn't actually go in to the Roman Baths, a shocking decision for one with a Classics background, I know, but we were really, really tired by then.  We did go and peer at one of the pools through the window in the tearooms there though (that counts, right?).  The tearooms themselves were rather fantastic. A big, light airy room, a pianist, people having afternoon teas served on towering serving plates overflowing with petite sandwiches and perfect cakes.  I had a pot of tea and a millionaires shortbread.  There was nothing petite about it, I can tell you!

The fork is there for scale.  It wasn't a dessert fork.  What you can't really see in the picture, is how thick it was.  I was on the verge of loosening my belt when we left...!

The other wonderful thing about Bath is the architecture.  It really is a beautiful town with curving regency terraces and a stunning abbey.  The camera had quite a workout, but here are the best from the abbey:

 The height of cathedrals and the like always wows me when I'm inside.  They really are an amazing feat of engineering.

 There's a beautifully carved set of doors

Lots and lots of incredibly colourful stained glass

And a spectacular ceiling.

This isn't all I got up to.  I'll share a bit more tomorrow.