I had a wonderful weekend with Harvey in the West Country.  We stayed at my Step-Father Ian’s beautiful home in Sidmouth for a couple of nights.  I am lucky to have such loving and welcoming hosts as Ian and Helen and the comfortable home to stay in is a bonus.

I really wanted to see my Uncle Clive while I was in Dorset and to go to ‘Yarn’ in Bridport, a shop that sells everything you need for knitting.  So on Saturday morning we met Uncle Clive in Bridport for coffee, with his niece Melissa and her fiancee Alistair. We met at the Soulshine Cafe on South Street which was very good. Yarn was great too and the lady who runs the shop, Rosie, is so helpful I left a happy customer and with my next project all bagged up and ready to begin.I did well to leave with only one new project as I could have chosen loads.After a potter about Bridport we went to The Stables for lunch and they had a vegan menu which always makes me happy.I had the Bute Island Blazer.It was fabulous.Are you a Broadchurch fan?  I am and near Bridport is West Bay where Broadchurch is set, so we had a good look around.This beach  features in every episode.The hill in the distance was the setting for the argument with the newspaper editor this week and the round building is the police station in the drama.The harbour is in most episodes.This amazing pear sorbet has nothing to do with Broadchurch but it was so delicious it deserved a photo.There is a river that feeds in to the harbour which I found very picturesque.All very lovely.My step-Mother, Helen, loves plants, inside and outside and she is very good at nurturing and growing them.This conservatory is a wonderful place to sit and relax in.  It’s lovely all year round and particularly in the sunshine.I should have taken a photo of the dinner table on Friday as it was so pretty and dinner was lovely.  Ian and Helen went to a lot of trouble to buy multiple vegan food offerings which I was very grateful for.  We had pasta on Friday and on Saturday we had a very tasty black bean casserole with falafel and salad.  I really enjoyed it.We had quite a lazy at home day on Sunday.  I had a large fruit and vegetable juice for breakfast and we then strolled along in the bright sunshine, beside the river to Sidmouth beach.Such a pretty spot.The red cliffs of Sidmouth beach are quite dramatic and if you look at the sea, the first few feet closest to the shoreline are red too.We walked along the promenade to the part of the beach near Jacob’s Ladder.We then pottered about in the rock pools.We left the beach via a steep staircase called Jacob’s Ladder.  Good views at the top.I had a delightfully tranquil afternoon, reading, knitting and snoozing in a chair in the beautiful garden.Every inch of this garden is filled with beautiful flowers and there are no weeds anywhere.

Helen even has a lemon tree full of lemons!I have potting shed envy.For supper we had bbq’d pizza and salad for supper.  Mine was delicious.Thank you Ian and Helen for such a wonderful weekend.  We both felt very loved, well entertained and certainly well fed.