A trip to Bath

If you had been in Oakhill early this morning you would have seen two very sleepy-looking fuzzy black dogs being marched around the village playing field – before they had been served their breakfast!  Yes, it was Daisy and Ben who were totally horrified by this outrageous event!  But we needed to make the most of the early morning sunshine as heavy prolonged showers were forecast for the day ahead and I wanted to make sure they had a nice walk before I left them for the morning.  As soon as they had been settled, with breakfast eaten and nice chews to enjoy during my absence, I headed off to Bath for my routine dental check up (that didn’t reveal any problems phew!).

Afterwards there was plenty of time for a wander round. Bath is a beautiful city built of wonderful honey-coloured stone  which glows warmly in on a sunny afternoon, though perhaps isn’t at its best on a grey day like today. I headed up towards Milsom Street past the Theatre Royal …

This was built in 1805 and is one of the oldest working theatres in the country.   But I had no time to stop today to see what’s on.  The car park meter was ticking and I was headed for a different destination – one of my favourite shops – Anthropologie.  So it was past the florist on the corner …

A beautiful display of spring bulbs. (sorry the picture’s a bit blurry – it was starting to rain and I was trying to juggle my umbrella, shopping bag and phone, whilst avoiding other hurrying shoppers!).  One of the things I love about Bath is that there’s a photo-opportunity at every corner ….

Even in the rain it’s such an attractive city – which is why it’s a World Heritage Site I guess and I feel very lucky that I now live just 30 minutes away.  I love the painted wall of this building ….

The old and the new together! I wonder what the original users of the Circulating Library and Reading Room would make of Jamie Oliver’s Italian Restaurant now installed in its place!?

It was a good thing I enjoyed the walk so much as today, most unusually, I was disappointed in Anthropologie.  I think it was because the sale was in full swing, so there were racks of reduced clothes taking up most of the ground floor, and elsewhere all the Christmas displays were being dismantled, and the new spring stock hadn’t yet been arranged in their places. But a couple of items did catch my eye.  I love this colourful owl plate …

And was particularly intrigued by this idea.  There were no labels – so I’m calling them “Patchwork Pictures” as they’re a sort of patchwork with wood and canvas …

I really like these – I think they’d be such a talking point and I don’t think I’d grow tired of looking at them, always wondering what the missing pieces of the pictures contained.  And even the frames have been cut and rejoined to make really unique upcycled designs.

Then back to the car park past the Abbey – always beautiful of course …

And home again – where two happy black furry faces were pressed up against the window watching for my return and on the mat the latest paperback copy of the Bustle & Sew Magazine had been delivered by Amazon (I always like to buy one to check everything looks good in print).

The January issue is now available to purchase in paperback from Amazon worldwide.

Just CLICK HERE to find it on Amazon.co.uk and CLICK HERE for Amazon.com