Way, way, way too hot

 The temperatures reached silly levels this week, with one of the highest in England being recorded not far from our town, at Pitsford Reservoir at 38.2 Celsius on Monday and then it went up to 40.2 the next day at Heathrow.  One of my friends recorded 49 degrees C in her sunny back garden due to reflected heat! It's just crazy weather for the UK and I want it to stop.

Luckily we were away in the caravan down near Bridport in Dorset, where the sea breezes kept the inferno down to a mere 33 degrees on Monday and 29 on Sunday and Tuesday.  Our pitch had high privacy hedges on three sides so from 3pm onwards there was enough shade for us to sit in to wait it out until evening - DH with a wet towel on his head and me resorting to dampening my entire dress front every half hour or so.  On Monday we actually hid in Morrison's (a supermarket) air conditioned cafe from 12-3 until there was going to be some shade at the campsite.   We were probably better off at night because we can open windows on all four sides of the caravan and it didn't hold the heat the way masonry house walls would. Subsequent days were rainy and muggy before setttling down to more normal summer weather, so it was a pretty challenging week weatherwise and clothes-wise.  Luckily I had purposefully overpacked so I had clothes and shoes for pretty much any condition we faced.

Consequently we had a very relaxed week as the weather conditions prevented us from gallivanting around to lots of sights and walks like we normally would.  We had some nice walks in Bridport in the morning or evening before it got hot, and visited West Bay and its shingle beach a few times.  

I particularly liked that there were loads of what I call 'proper' seagulls, big and white instead of the scruffy smaller grey coloured gulls at many seaside locations.

The rain and clouds on the cliffs at West Bay

Walking on Eggardon Hill - an old Iron Age hillfort with stunning views to the sea

We love higgledy-piggledy secondhand bookshops.

I was rather taken aback to spot 'My First Coffee Machine' on a shelf in a toy store where DH was looking at models - I am obviously completely out of touch with the modern child's preferences. Although the coffee machine was on the same shelf with more traditional pretend appliances such as irons, washing machines, cash registers etc.

Bridport has several antique stores, as does Crewkerne a few miles further north - and we spent a couple of enjoyable mornings poking around. We did quite well for secondhand books, and  I found this carved coquilla nut which is probably an old thimble holder - the actual colour is a dark chocolate brown, for some reason my phone is lightening the pictures.

I also found a very sweet little carved firescreen, probably Victorian, which has a replacement embroidery in a 1920s/30s style.  The wood needs a bit of a clean up but otherwise it's in pretty good shape.

And an impulse buy was this very handsome little worktable, not sure if it's Victorian or Georgian. They were practically giving it away because it needs restoration. But on first glance the woodwork is sound, it just needs refinishing and some veneer replaced. And of course the inside is in a poor state but I think could be improved and repaired.  Another project for me.

Other than books and antiques, I didn't buy a lot this week.  These lace bobbins were ridiculously cheap at one antique bric-a-brac store, 10 for £3.50, so I got three lots of those to share with my friends. The mosaic letter was from a craft shop and I got it home safely only to drop it on the floor and break the tip of the leaf off, aaargh - DH is going to repair it for me.  The bag pattern was secondhand in a craft shop. The vintage huck towel was from another antique shop, I have a few of these already and use them as hand towels in the bathroom.  The glass art reminded me of cherry blossom from Japan, it's by a glass artist called Kathryn Webley.  The rather charming embroidered felt pincushion (which has a weighted base) was from a craft fair at West Bay.

On the holiday I did some more work on the cross stitch Iris bookmark, the Aldi boucle t-shirt reknit, and the lace shawl from Paducah.  But it was so hot that I will admit to spending a lot of time scrolling on Facebook and watching sumo matches on Youtube.  Now that I'm home, I need to get back to quilting on the frame.

Unsurprisingly, the garden suffered a bit in the heat with noone to water it. The central hydrangea in a big pot looks like a dried flower arrangement now, and there are a few other casualties.  But most of it has pulled through and I've got the drip hoses running now to get some water into the beds.  That was our last full week away as DH is now getting low on holiday days, so we may only manage a few long weekends in the caravan before it gets packed away into winter storage.  Even though we are limited by DH's leave allowance, we're still really glad we bought the caravan last year. It's lovely to have a comfortable base without having to take a chance on a rundown hotel or a tired self-catering cottage.

If you're in the UK, hope you survived the heatwave okay.  At least my basement sewing room stays cool!