Jolly Holiday In Lyme Regis Pt.2

Hello again! Thank you for your lovely comments on my first instalment of my Lyme Regis holiday, I'm glad it did this glorious town justice and encouraged a few future visits! I did end up taking my old faithful Olympus XA3 with me, and luckily as these few photos show, it was still working perfectly! I was keeping it mostly for family album shots but as these show, things still DO look better on film, particularly the blues! This little whippet was just taking in the view...(or actually, refusing to head down the perilous Cobb Steps!) and I just couldn't resist! This was the weather we had almost every day, can't believe how lucky we were!

A cheeky snap of Andrew  actually RELAXING ON HOLIDAY (although he would probably say he was dreaming up his next photography lecture!) Behold the stylish grumpy cat t shirt too, one of my favourite Etsy purchases! The next day Seasalt's weather chart was predicting slightly less glorious weather, so the best plan of action? SHOPPING of course! And off to Bridport we went! (Back on the Iphone photos now!)

Bridport is a brilliant market town only a few miles from Lyme Regis, full of fantastic independent book shops, cafe's, bakeries and the best antiques quarter I've been too! Near the main car park in town are the lanes full of different antique/vintage/upcycled shops crammed full of brilliant finds at reasonable (not south east!) prices! My favourite one is Bridport Antiques, which is where I found this lovely selection, I can't help loving these Amish Barn Stars even though they are all over the high street, this is the real deal! 

We had a return visit to D. Palmer Postcards and Cameras which I have blogged about before HERE, it is a true Aladdins cave of photographic and film paraphernalia, Andrew surprisingly never leaves empty handed! I bought the amazing mint coloured viewers in the second photo, as well as some wonderful vintage portraits I couldn't bear to leave behind. I really recommend a visit if you're in town, it's just a five minute walk from the antiques quarter and these sort of characterful shops need all our support! 

After a picnic lunch in the Bridport allotments we headed back in Lyme Regis where I headed to The Old Watch House Wet Fish Shop to pick something for dinner. The shop is right by The Cobb itself so you can't find fresher fish or a bigger selection in town, I had to take some photos as it was such a joy to be in a proper fishmongers! We resisted the 'Pint O' Prawns' and took home plenty of Mackerel instead.

One of the perks of going on holiday off-season is that you can actually find a seat in the local restaurants and cafes! One afternoon Andrew&I took our books and headed to Aroma which was only around the corner from our holiday home. We spent a happy few hours sampling a bit of everything! Frothy coffee's first, then a 'Lyme Fog' smoky pot of tea, then tasty bruschetta's for lunch! It was also a dairy free/gluten free paradise (perfect for awkward types like me!) but for those who fancy a traditional Dorset Cream Tea - I recommend you head here, only minutes from the beach too!

Something we were DETERMINED to tick off the holiday wish list this year was to go on one of Lyme Museums history tours, so we were thrilled to get places on the Mary Anning tour, and we even had lovely weather to enjoy it with! This amazing ammonite floor is outside the museum itself, I always admire it! The tour itself was great, our guide taught us lots of new information about Lyme Regis itself as well as Mary Anning's story and was a good workout to boot, the tour didn't shy away from the steepest hills!

The last place on the tour was the Lyme Regis Parish Church where Mary Anning is buried, and when I stepped inside I spotted this particularly interesting nautical themed stained glass window, I  loved the detail of the seagulls and the perfect rich blues of the sea. The church is situated in Uplyme so it has a fantastic view of the coastline and you can reach the coastal walkway easily from it's grounds.

And as we walked back into town for a restoring cup of tea and warm pasty (two words: Pasty Presto - yummm!), the sun came out blazing again!  Thank you as always for reading, hope this post brought some sunshine into an otherwise, rainy grey autumn day! Have a lovely weekend! Katie

Jolly Holiday In Lyme Regis Pt.1

‘A very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better.'

Jane Austen, Persuasion

Hello there! I am now home after a very jolly week in Lyme Regis, a coastal town we visit as a family every year as to be honest, we've yet to find somewhere we adore more! It has such rich historical and literary history, Jane Austen visited in the early 1800's and loved it so much she used it as the setting in her novel Persuasion. John Fowles The French Lieutenant's Woman gave us the haunting image of Sarah Woodruff stood alone on The Cobb (the iconic harbour wall) surrounded by crashing waves, staring across the sea, apparently waiting for her lost lover to return. 

And of course, Lyme Regis is the birthplace of one of my heroines Mary Anning (who I have written about HERE) who scoured the coastline her whole life, shaping the course of Palaeontology, discovering the first complete Ichthyosaur and Plesiosaur skeletons. The beaches are still full of potential fossil finds, no matter the weather there are people hunting through the pebbles for treasures.

Have I done Lyme justice and gotten you suitably enthusiastic? Good stuff, bring on the photo's!

We were staying at the gorgeous 10 Coombe Street for the week, and I was delighted to find it was everything I had hoped for after a quite fraught search trying to find accommodation large enough for 6 of us AND being dog friendly, this seemed the perfect choice for us. I can't understand why less desirable properties I found don't allow even small dogs? You wouldn't even know Mollie had been there if I'd snuck her in and trust me, Lyme Regis and the surrounding towns are SO dog friendly in the shops and cafe's it seems ridiculous! But here, see the welcome note below, here we were in good company! :)

Various buildings have been on this plot, their purposes included a grocer's shop, a dairy, a B&B and now it's an extremely comfy holiday home! It's only a short walk to the beach, Lyme Regis Museum and all the lovely shops, cafes and restaurants you could want to visit - I highly recommend it! 

I adored the collection of Lyme Regis memorabilia dotted throughout the house, and the well stocked dresser of films (including any featuring Lyme!) books and puzzles, but as we had sunshine every day, we didn't make the most of them - although I am not complaining! Visiting off season is fine with me, less hectic in town, less children, less stress in general! I could come in the depths of winter and still have a whale of a time!

(Check out the knitted Mary Anning and French Lieutenants Woman on the dresser!)

To try and keep up the good habits I did go for several early morning jogs along the beachfront along to The Cobb, and I discovered it's the best time to appreciate Lyme and just chill out! The only people I bumped into were the cafe owners and the bin men, the beach was deserted! Once I reached The Cobb I found I had it all to myself, after arriving later than the fishermen but earlier than the tourists, so sat and enjoyed the gentle rippling sea and the sound of seagulls. There was the most amazing morning light, I did manage to get it in one of the photo's, September really has been beautiful! 

Just further along from the house we were staying in is an official Banksy artwork he created in 2012, it's unknown why he chose a Crane but it does sit very well in it's surroundings, and it's a great contemporary addition to Lyme's tourist attractions! I love just wandering the lanes (and climbing up the ridiculously steep streets!) being nosey at each houses individual features. Ammonites pop out at you from walls and stepping stones, and ornate woodwork and colourful shutters set these houses apart from the usual crumbling seaside buildings.

I think I better wrap this first lot of holiday snaps up here, but I hope it's been a pleasant virtual trip so far! I don't think I've been so snap-happy on a holiday before so there is plenty more to come! Hope you have a super weekend, thank you for reading!

Katie

Seaside Holiday 2013

Forgive me for being so terribly slow on blog updates recently! Happily, I finally managed to escape to the sea with my family for our usual holiday in Charmouth/Lyme Regis last week. We always rent a beautiful manor house in Charmouth high street, and just spend the time walking down to the Jurassic Coast, breakfasting with freshly baked goodies from the charming Charmouth bakery (which does looks like someones garage on first look!) and generally enjoying a slower, more relaxed pace of life (except for the hoards of tourists in Lyme of course, but we don't count ourselves in that throng, as we do go every year, so it feels like home! Lyme Loyalists!) We were actually very lucky with the weather, plenty of sun in between the sea mist, beautiful!

The waves against the stunning, mysterious Cobb at Lyme, one of my favourite places to just, well, be!

We always head to Bridport on the Saturday and Wednesday as it's market day in the town and there's a healthy mix of vintage/handmade/second hand amongst the local goods, I highly recommend it! I also appreciate that Bridport is so dog friendly, almost all the individual shops and cafes welcome them, and there's bowls of water everywhere for them to cool off. This jolly-doggie atmosphere had a positive influence on a usually-grumpy Mollie, and she was very well behaved, even when the above cream tea (Bruce's, not mine I swear!) was being munched just above her head! I recommend the Bridport Art Centre for lunch, really tasty food&drinks if you can get a seat!

We also payed a visit to the brilliant D.Palmers Postcards&Camera shop, which I wrote about in detail last year HERE . I did purchase some excellent photographs for the collections, but I'll save those for another post! In the meantime, take a look at the goodies that await you inside this Aladdins camera cave, Bruce always finds some bargain camera gadgets too, but for me it's all about the curiosities!

We also managed to visit the Charmouth Fossil Shop that lies at the very top of the high street, a very friendly and fascinating shop indeed! As I have yet to discover my own fossil on the beaches, I took home two beautiful local ammonites from here, which have pride of place with my other beach combing finds! That amazing polished sphere in the bottom of this photo is actually fossilised wood - utterly amazing, but slightly out of my budget for now, as was the fascinating fossilised flower in the next photograph!

When I walk along the beach at Charmouth, I can't help but imagine Mary Anning (Who I wrote about for International Women's Day HERE) silhouetted against the waves, picking at rocks which could hold a fascinating Jurassic secret. I really do feel at home there, I do hope to escape to the sea one day, but until then, we shall keep enjoying our Enid-Blighton-esq seaside holidays, with lashings of ginger beer!

Hope you're having a super summer!

Katie