Last days of summer

 Now that the school holidays are over we decided to take advantage of the good weather and to go to Weymouth for an outing - want to come with us?

The beach was almost empty - no Punch and Judy, no children building sandcastles, no lobster coloured sunbathers,no noise and bustle just acres of sand!

The donkeys were still there though looking a little bored as there were no queues of children wanting a ride I wonder if they continue to come till the end of September or just till it's obviously not worthwhile any more.  They are all really well looked after and beautifully groomed and even though I can't have a ride I love to see them.

We walked along to the far end of the beach and round to the harbour.

Over the bridge (you might just be able to see the bridge in the distance) and along the other side - the wind was chilly in spite of the sun and we were glad we were wearing our fleece jackets although some hardy souls were still going sleeveless and in shorts.

You wouldn't want to come dashing out of any of these houses and not looking where you were going!

Once round the Nothe headland we were out of the wind and it was warm in the sunshine.  We walked as far as we could along here and then had to turn off towards civilisation again walking down the narrow streets and back towards the busyness of the harbour area at Brewers Quay.

As always I found a feline friend - isn't he lovely?  I didn't stop long talking to him as I was afraid he might attempt to come to me through the railings and then be in on the pavement and danger of traffic so I said goodbye and continued walking.

Last time I was here Brewers Quay was empty and plans were for turning it into hotel, offices andapartments but for some reason that doesn't seem to be happening and it is now filled with little antique/junk/craft shops we had a poke round and then had lunch in our usual little cafe. 

Walked back round to the main beach and along towards Greenhill and the pebbly part before noticing that the sky looked a little threatening and thought perhaps it was time to return to the bus stop and get the bus back to the Park and Ride where we had left the car. (Reading though this post I am struck by how different the sky looks in all the photos - no longer plain unclouded blue but a more interesting sky with clouds forever changing.)

The guest houses were still decorated with lots of flowers...

I don't ever remember noticing quite so many flowers in window boxes everywhere as I have this year - remember me showing you some in London too?

I have ticked off several of my items on the to do list for this past week:

Patty pan squash cake

Have made bread a couple of times, made a cake using the pattypan squashes I got free from the farm shop where I did some of my weekly shop, been through my recipe file and made a couple of different dinners, had a couple of walks including one in search of blackberries when I didn't find those but came back with a bag of elderberries which I have turned into a couple of bottles of syrup for winter colds and coughs.

Thought what a wonderful plant elder is.  The blossoms are so delightful every one consisting of myriad tiny cream five petaled flowers nodding in the sunshine and which can be used in making elderflower syrup, champagne and go beautifully with gooseberries in summer then come the berries dark and shiny glistening in the autumn light and these too can be used for syrup, wine and when I get the other ingredients to go with them to make hedgerow jam too.  As I stripped the berries from the stalks I noticed how beautiful the remaining stalks were being deep purple/red and umbelliferous in shape an inspiration for embroidery I thought!  The tree is said to ward off evil influences although folklore also suggests that witches congregate beneath elders (must be fairly small people as they are rarely tall enough to congregate under!) and you can make peashooters from the twigs which are easily hollowed out too!  All that from one bush.

I also got my unfinished quilt out and had a look at it though not actually done any more sewing on it yet!  And did a few more rows on a crochet shawl I am making - not bad going eh?  Let's see what happens next week.