Wholesome

Friday afternoon I rose from my desk to be hit with some pretty bad pain through my back, hip and whole right leg. Dr. Google suggested sciatica. I’m always cautious about my back after slipping a disk about 10 years ago, and so I took this a sign that I needed a quiet weekend after all of the exciting things I’ve been doing recently

Saturday’s weather was very supportive of doing nothing. It was grim, so aside from venturing out for some toiletries we needed, dropping off a bag of donations at the charity shop and getting some chips for dinner, I wasn’t really tempted to do anything else.

Sunday, I had a very lazy start to my day. I stayed in bed and finished ‘Goodbye to Berlin’. Set in Berlin in the lead up to the rise of fascism, I think there are so many comparisons to be made with current events in the UK. Last week’s election results would most definitely point to this.

This is a fab book, another like 1984 that had me questioning why we didn’t read these at school. These would have been far more useful than Thomas Hardy, if you ask me. Often I donate books to charity after reading them, but this one will be going into a pile of books that I’ll encourage little Miss to read when she’s older, along with 1984 of course. 

Pancake with banana, Greek yogurt and honey

After finishing my book, I made pancakes for breakfast. I always make pancakes on one day of the weekend. They are little Miss’ favourite breakfast.

Then I thought it wise to tackle the garden. Little Miss helped me as we pulled up weeds, replaced fallen down trellis, trimmed back honeysuckle and nipped to B&Q to buy a stash of flowers to fill our pots and her fairy garden with.

Weeds everywhere (before)

Somehow a pumpkin plant has sneaked in, and we’re going to try to grow little Miss a pumpkin to carve in our raised beds. Whilst the end result was so fulfilling, paracetamol was my friend afterwards as I tried to dull the pain I’d reignited with all of the garden activity. 

And looking so much better afterwards 

This evening I will be soaking away my pains in a bath, and getting ready for the week ahead. 

D.I.S.C.O

 I hope you’ve all had a delightful long weekend. I love this time of year, successive Bank Holidays make four day work weeks feel like the norm. As usual I crammed my weekend with activities, and it was great fun.

As is often the case, when you have children you make friends with some of the other Mums. Our little group decided that we wanted to go to a Daytime Disco, which is infinitely easier when you need to arrange childcare etc, and sounded like an absolute blast.

Outfit selfie in the pub mirror (pub looks empty because everyone was soaking up the sun in the beer garden)

The day for that came around on Saturday. A 70s, 80s and 90s disco at the Spa. We met up beforehand in a local bar for some cocktails and food before heading down to dance the day away.

It was so much fun! There were some characters there, like this dude who was fully kitted out in a light up suit. The vibe was great, and honestly we can’t wait to do it again, I think we all felt like we were in our 20s again!

The next day my feet didn’t work. Hours of dancing in high boots, I’m definitely out of practice. The weather was absolutely awful, cold with pea soup fog. The chap came across and chopped up an old chair for me to take to the tip, then we went to the arcade. He seemed to win all of the tickets from the 2p machines. They’re now in little Misses bag of tickets to cash in when she has collected enough of them.

Afterwards we had fish and chips. It was the laid back kind of Sunday I needed after the excitement of the previous day. 

Monday, the sun was out but the mercury was staying stubbornly low! It was also Thelma’s 5th birthday. May 4th, I call her my Star Wars Dog. 

She was thoroughly spoiled with a nice dinner, toys and posh biscuits. What a lucky Pug she is!

We ventured across to Malton as we had tickets to see the Michael Jackson movie. Little Miss loves Michael Jackson, so she was thrilled and I have to say, it was a great production. It reminded me just how good Michael Jackson’s music was. 

Much more wrapped up for a visit to Malton

Just like that we’re into the throes of another week and I’m back at work. I’ve had a very exciting delivery today though. As a long time collector of scarves, a Hermes has been on my wishlist for a long time. We visited the Hermes store in Paris last year, but there is no way I would spend over £500 on a scarf.

After much saving (because even vintage ones are pricey) and much watching many different options on Vinted and eBay, I finally bought one. I had it verified, which means delivery takes longer but gives me peace of mind, and it arrived today. It’s a thing of beauty and I’m so happy with it. What a way to start the week!

Joining with the linkup at Nancy’s Fashion Style

Shipwrecks and Lighthouses

 You may remember a few weeks back, the chap and I made what felt like an expedition to see some shipwrecks just south of Whitby. I shot some film while were there, and in Whitby itself. I’ve had the images back for a while now but life has been hectic at the moment, so I’ve not had a chance to share.

I’m so pleased with the results. I’m definitely going to be continuing my love affair with film photography. I’ll start with one of my favourites, which a number of other people have declared to be their favourite too, Whitby lighthouse.

Of course, no amateur photographer can go near Whitby without capturing the gothic splendour of the Abbey.

Then Saltwick bay, and those fascinating shipwrecks. 

Not only was it a fabulous day out, but I managed to capture some good images too. 

None of these have been filtered, the only editing they’ve had is a small crop here and there, all of the results are from the camera work.

Sci-fi Scarborough and other adventures

 There’s a sci-fi convention that has taken place in Scarborough every year for, I don’t know how many years, but a number of years. Despite being big sci-fi fans, (Mum is a Trekkie and a massive Dr. Who fan while me and little Miss love the excitement of Star Wars) we’ve never been. This year, we decided to check it out and it was amazing.

Little Miss dressed up as Princess Leia, she was the only Princess Leia on the Saturday (we only went on one day), but there were lots of other people dressed as characters from Star Wars and all of them were so friendly to a young fan.

Battling Ghostrider

I didn’t dress up in costume, but I was thrilled to see so many characters that I love! 

While there was a good spread of various sci-fi interests, so much to see and do and buy, authors, artists and makers, I was surprised at how dominant a feature Dr. Who was. This made Mum very happy, although I think the very realistic Davros circulating the convention in his motorised Dalek may have given her flashbacks to her childhood, and being scared of him on TV.

Would I go again? Absolutely! I definitely didn’t expect it to be so good, and of course the blue skies and sunshine helped

On Sunday I visited the chap. A few days earlier his doggy had undergone an operation so I wanted to see him and bring him a toy from little Miss. thankfully he was all ok.

Then, me and the chap went tent shopping! I was ridiculously excited running around Go Outdoors wanting to buy all the things. I used to love camping, and I’m thrilled to be getting back into it just a little. 

Later in the year we are going to one of favourite summer things, an outdoor dance concert. I’ve booked a pitch at the camp site down the road and honestly I may be as excited about the camping as I am about the concert. Of course I drifted towards the bright Barbie pink confection of a tent!

Eventually the chap was the voice of reason, and we bought a far more suitable small tent for us both. It’s lovely though, I genuinely am so excited.

The chap approved of this one

After all that shopping we went for a delicious carvery lunch to finish off our afternoon. It was a busy weekend, I felt like I needed another to get over it, but what a fun and exciting one! 

Films, Frocks and Fun

 As I mentioned in last week’s post, my week was already off to a good start. My friend was coming over for a visit from Leeds. I met him from the train, and after grabbing a coffee at Greensmith and Thackeray I gave him a whistlestop tour of some of the beautiful sights of Scarborough.

As a fellow fan of visiting churches, I took him through the old town to the beautiful Catholic Church, St. Peter’s. All the years I’ve lived here and this was the first time I’d been in. It was beautiful.

We also visited St. Mary’s, home to the grave of Anne Brontë and with one of the most beautiful views out across the bay. 

We pottered around some charity shops. I was thrilled to find Less by Patrick Grant in Oxfam, I’ve been after it for a while. I read a lot of it during my week off, and it’s very interesting, the history of industry certainly makes you realise how political everything we buy is. I’m not sure it will stop me buying altogether, but at least if Vinted and charity shops are my main sources then I can be confident that at least I’m saving things from the potential evils of landfill!

Tuesday morning little Miss had a play date with her friend and I had a good catchup with her friend’s Mum, who happens to be a very good friend of mine. We pondered going to the pictures in the afternoon, but instead, while waiting for a prescription for Mum we decided to peruse some charity shops. 

After bemoaning the poor pickings of charity shops during the previous week, declaring them dead to me, I couldn’t believe my luck. I found two gorgeous dresses, under a tenner for both! Not bad at all, and not least because the green one is still £62 on the Debenhams website! Charity shop faith restored! 

Still £62 on the Debenhams website

After a lazy Wednesday morning we decided to head to Malton for a potter, and to see the new Super Mario movie. It was hot! So hot that I didn’t even need to wear a coat, a rare occurrence in April! 

After a leisurely lunch in the Chapel house cafe, which, as the name would suggest is within a church, we perused the charity shops. I was lucky once again, getting a nice skirt for work and a Falmer Heritage boho top. I also managed to get a lovely skirt for little Miss (that I forgot to photograph). 

Thankfully we had booked a late afternoon viewing of the film, so we didn’t miss too much of the glorious sunshine. I fully expected to endure rather than enjoy the film but actually it was quite fun and cheerful so we had an all round good time.

I always love this little building by the cinema in Malton. I can just imagine Scrooge and Bob Cratchett at their little desks.

The rest of the week was mostly occupied with boring but necessary jobs. Clearing the lean to, a tip run and cleaning the car, as well as the far less boring task of collecting my Vinted purchases from the locker. A new book and an amazing whimsical skirt! 

Sunday we finished off the week with a trip to our favourite arcade, which has now added a rather enticing ice cream parlour.

Followed by a walk on the beach, a perfect end to the week before returning to the routine of school and work.