Can you believe I forgot to bring any craft away with me, so the first thing I bought (apart from a pasty for lunch!) was a hook and 2 balls of yarn.
I know a nice little wool shop in the middle of Penzance so headed there first. The yarn I chose is Hayfield’s Spirit. It’s 20% wool and has a lovely soft feel. It isn’t the thickest DK but luckily works up well with the 4mm hook I bought. The colourway is ‘Breeze’, the blues and greys perfectly reflect the changing colours of the Cornish sea view we have from our cottage. It’s a few minutes walk from the South West Coast Path and overlooks the sea and a lighthouse.
I’ve brought my Tilted Squares blanket with me to snuggle under. That’s my one packing triumph this year; I always think I should bring a blanket away in September because it gets quite cool during evenings and at night. It’s such a cheery thing to see on a bed or sofa. All the complex patterns in the world can’t beat a bit of classic granny squaring! Ah! So why not make another?! I’m still deciding whether to go for a multi-square rectangular or one simple round and round you go square blanket.
My view as I sit up in bed in the morning:
It’s already named the Coast Path blanket, though this will probably change a few times. It won’t be tilting this time because I’m changing direction on every round.
I’m off to sip my tea, make some breakfast and discuss plans for the day now.
What are you making at the moment? Have you managed to go away anywhere?
Tenby – still so light at nine in the evening 
There’s something about the joining of these motifs that has turned them into a thing of real beauty. I loved stumbling across, fortunately not literally, this bicycle after a walk and a chat to the coastwatch guard at Cape Cornwall.
Do you see why I absolutely love West Cornwall? The sea there from left to right as we like being in the villages, along the coast roads and South West Coast Path which stretches from St Ives to Land’s End. As you’re basically on a peninsula the sea is all around, it’s bliss for a land-locked water lover like myself. It wasn’t too hot either with the sea breeze to cool things down, but there was still a fair bit of slapping on sunscreen as the temperatures were high. We are having a proper summer here, it’s begun to feel unrelenting now actually; gardens and the land need rain.
And everywhere, and I mean everywhere, you could hear ‘Its coming home, it’s coming home, football’s coming home’ playing, singing, chanted (while staggering) or shouted. The euphoria of England winning the quarter-final against Sweden was tangible. Noisy. Jubilant. By Sunday evening I had to slowly sing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ through twice to get rid of the ear worm which plagued me from hearing that damn song so much!
Falmouth 
Rhubarb Sour and a Negroni
Thatchers Blush and Vintage cider 
Rhododendron at 
Foxgloves, whitebells, bluebells, cow parsley, buttercups and clover along the lanes and coast path
Pendeen lighthouse and the 
Trevethan gin at Porthleven Nauti pizza place 
Fowey (pronounced Foy to rhyme with joy) 
I also got another fix of the seaside, albeit courtesy of the North sea. It is not, it has to be said, as pretty as the Atlantic sea which surrounds West Cornwall, but it is good to walk along to Sutton. I certainly felt I needed to walk at least 5 miles! We walked 8 by the end of the day.
My cousin hosts several BBQs from early summer to mid-autumn for family and different groups of friends. We try to go to one, or maybe two, each year. They’re always good fun, with everybody mucking in. The informal rule is that every time you go to and from the cottage, across the tiny lane to her field, you take something. I have to admit that the (huge) glass of champagne I had on arrival went straight to my head, so the only thing I initially managed to take across was another glass of champagne! But if this was hash-tag land I’d probably be typing #winwin.
Sun, sea and ice-cream. The first of many this year, I hope. This was Friday at Bognor Regis after a good walk along the prom. It’s lemon meringue flavour; and had fizzy crunchy little meringue pieces mixed into the tangy lemon. I’m looking out for this again!
West Wittering has a beautiful sandy expanse of beach. On Saturday lunchtime it was full of happy dogs playing, kite surfers, kite flying families, horses galloping along the beach and walkers striding out in the sun. It was t-shirt weather again, woo hoo! 
Apart from watching others enjoying the beach, stopping to examine interesting looking pebbles (I have one with a fossil) and look for sea glass, we played ‘which one would you like’ as we passed beach houses. I like the chalet style on the right. What about you? 
We’d walked 5 miles along the shore, not easy going on pebbles towards the end. We walked on sand some of the way, but the tide was coming in fast and covering it as we got to East Wittering and Bracklesham Bay. We stopped at the Medmerry Holiday village, which fortunately had a very comfortable pub. This gate made me smile as we walked back to the beach after lager shandy, crisps and a well needed pit-stop. (You know that feeling of relief girls?!)
How’s that for driftwood?
Although I had a rule that I wouldn’t start any new crochet until I’d finished the motif blanket, my fingers felt sooo itchy to do something. It feels like weeks! I packed my basket full of new yarn, but with the great weather for walking I didn’t open it at all the whole weekend. Evenings were for wine, a little chocolate, reading or a film.
On Sunday we visited 
I had low expectations for the scent garden at Uppark, this early in the year, but wow! The scent from so many hyacinths was stunning. Unfortunately my nose and eyes ran for the rest of the day! Oh well, we’re heading to hay fever season. I’ve just checked my anti-histamine supplies and typically all are out of date. There’s obviously good business in the hay fever relief industry.
Aren’t these fritillieries beauties? 
I did start some new crochet (tut, tut) when home. It’s bright and sunny again today; so I’ll nip into the garden later to try to take some decent photos for you.
The Little Room of Rachell 
