brighten your day
Hello! Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x
Today I enjoyed pottering about the house with the family, celebrating not only midsummer, but Father's Day too.
Today I put my apron on over my pyjamas, turned the radio on and baked a cake.
Today I decorated my cake with rice paper butterflies and made a promise to myself to make a Summer Solstice cake every year from now on.
Today I packed up a speedy picnic and we journeyed into the countryside to enjoy an impromptu al fresco lunch.
Today I loved the way the grasses looked so utterly summery.
Today I loved the babbling sound of the river as I ate my lunch.
Today I celebrated this beautiful midsummers day eating cake and fresh strawberries beside the river with my family and felt blessed beyond words by this life of ours.
&As the sun spirals its longest dance - cleanse us, As nature shows bounty and fertility - bless us. Let all things live with loving intent and to fulfil their truest destiny.&
Wishing you all a blessed Summer/Winter Solstice, wherever you are on this gorgeous planet of ours. I hope your day has been filled with happiness.
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It's official :: the Attic24 household has c.h.a.o.s written all over it. Do you know this phrase? It's a
and stands for &Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome&. It describes the state of affairs when one's house reaches a level of such untidiness that it's embarrassing for all concerned. Yeah, things here are really that bad right now.
This is not by any means a sudden revelation as for quite some time now I've experienced that heavy-hearted feeling when I am at home surrounded by the clutter and mess of everyday life. Every single room is a disaster zone, there is just such a crazy amount of stuff absolutely everywhere. There is clutter in every nook and cranny of absolutely every room in the house (excepting the bathroom, thank heavens for small mercies). It's overwhelming, and to be truthful, a touch depressing. 
But you know me, I'm generally pretty upbeat about most things and not one to sink into any sort of depression....so I have summoned up some optimism and motivation and made a tentative start. On Monday I sat down with my some colourful little stickers and my favourite writing pens {gorgeous Staedter Fineliners, find them on
& }, and I made a Home-Loving plan.
For the next five weeks I am going to attempt to tackle the main areas of the house, using the
to form my basic plan. The timing is just right as we have five weeks left of the school year before the summer holidays start. And I am really in LOVE with the idea that maybe-possibly-perhaps I stand a chance of having a much more loved-up home by then. Ever hopeful, that's me!
I really quite like the Flylady approach, although at the moment I am only extracting the bits that feel like they will work for me. I am going to do a little bit each day, and try not to feel overwhelmed. BabySteps and all that. So this week, we are in
As this is the one room in my house that is remarkably tidy (hallelujah) I didn't have to spend time de-cluttering in here. So I simply made a five-day bathroom cleaning plan for myself, and get this - I HaVe StUcK tO tHe PLaN!!!!!!! I really have!!
This week I've spent a little bit of time each day getting on with the job of cleaning in here. I've put on my Home Loving apron, donned my Easy to Wear Household Gloves with a Luxury Comfort Lining, gathered together my cleaning cloths, scrubbers, sponges and sprays and set to work. I can tell you that it's been &&OK&&, truthfully I haven't much enjoyed the scrubbing and cleaning, but I have felt a weirdly satisfying sort of rising contentment at making progress and doing some pretty physical work for a change.
I've got two more days left in this little room, which will involve cleaning out the small cupboard, cleaning various dusty decorative objects, eliminating cobwebs from the ceiling and finally, scrubbing the floor.
I really hope I can keep it up, especially as the other rooms in the house are waaaay worse than the bathroom. Next week we move to
where I know there will be a fair bit of work involved. Crikey, I still clearly remember the 225 objects from 2011 (, in case you are wondering what I am on about). Oh well, I shall remain positive and give it my best. Fifteen minutes of decluttering a day, how hard can it be?
Last night when I uploaded these pictures, I realised that I haven't really talked very much about my current Blanket-In-Progress (my BiP?!). Which is a bit strange as I usually like to talk a LOT about every single bit of crochet that passes through my hands. So I thought that as I'm giddily galloping along the Home Stretch now, perhaps it would be a good time to show you a bit  more of this beauty.
I started working on the squares for my Harmony blanket in early April (just in time for my Easter jollies down in Dorset), and it has proven to be a wonderfully absorbing project. A touch addictive, these cutesome squares really have had me entranced right from the word go. Unusually for me, I approached the making of this blanket in a very methodical way, which I think has really helped the journey to feel relaxed and pleasurable. I started out by making all the middles first (the fiddly first round), then I worked on rounds 2 - 5 in batches of fourteen at a time (which is one vertical strip) so they never felt overwhelming. There are 126 of them in total (14 x 9) and I can honestly say I never once got bored of them. 
Round 6 is the joining round, and I devised a variation of the
method for this round. I joined in vertical strips and loved being able to watch my blanket grow in this way, it's been very satisfying and has delivered rather a lot of hooky feel-good. Also, I've actually remembered to take photographs of my making process so in due course I'll be able to share a full tutorial for making both the Harmony squares and the joining method. In fact, I've been miraculously organised with this blanket, it's really not like me at all as I'm usually flying by the seat of my pants!
On Friday, I finished the last of the joining, quietly folded up my blanket and immediately began to ponder the business of designing a border for it....
....oh those colours!! Yum, yum, yum!!!!!!! The Harmony colour pack has fifteen colours of Stylecraft Special DK in total (14 main colours, plus the soft
which I used for joining). I knew I wanted to make quite a deep border to frame the squares, so I set about choosing 8 beautifully harmonious colours to do the job. I took aaaaaaaaaaaaages choosing these colours, endlessly swapping them about until I felt truly delighted by the way they play together. 
Working on the border is pure pleasure, I am in love with making these long, easy rows. Being on the Home Stretch is really rather exciting you know, and needless to say I am feeling rather ridiculously excited by the imminent ta-dah moment. I've got that tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach :)  
This was me on Sunday afternoon, stretched out on the sofa enjoying some peaceful hooky. Funny isn't it, the above photo does look very peaceful and tranquil and for a moment I almost convinced myself that that was the reality. But nooooooo - you can add to the above image the soundtrack of && intermingled with the sound of several noisy children playing. And while you're at it, you can also picture me getting up and down numerous times to help build a Lego Batcave/provide refreshments/see to the laundry/find a lost Lego piece/answer the door etc etc. So not peaceful, but at least crochet has the advantage of being easily pick-up-and-put-downable. It's very accommodating like that, tolerates the interruptions of family life rather well in fact.
And in related home-front news, we have a new sofa. It's grey, but that fact is growing easier to live with each and every day. Our old sofa took us valiantly through fifteen years of tough family life, and after three (failed) repairs to it's sagging underparts it finally gave up and died on us last week. It was rather comical at the time as J was sitting on it when it completely collapsed and swallowed him up, man, I laughed so hard I nearly had an accident.
Anyhoooooow, we took a trip to Ikea on Saturday and chose this
which was pretty much the only sofa available that would a) fit in/on the car and b) fit into the house. I can confirm that this is a very comfy piece of furniture, and I predict many hours of happy hooky time will take place right there. Bring it on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 EDIT TO ADD for those of you asking about the HARMONY colour pack, I'm hoping to have everything ready by the middle of July, so not too long to wait xxxx
We have entered early Summer and I am totally in love with it all, it's just so delicious, nostalgic, light, golden and down right lovely. This week has been delightful, with day after day of sunshine and actual warmth, I have flip-flopped about town with my red painted toenails and bare arms and felt properly in love with the seasonal warmth and beautifully long, golden days.
The fairground came to town this week as it's our annual Gala tomorrow, it's all so nostalgic and I am filled with memories of my own teenage years growing up in a seaside town with a summer carnival and fairground. Last night on a whim I took Little Lady and we walked to the park just to catch a whiff of fairground spirit and the scent of a beautiful warm summer evening. I had a sudden memory of the golden buttercup meadow and felt compelled to go seek it out and drink in the colour and light. It was truly beautiful - these photos were taken around 9pm last night, I absolutely love love love love our long summer daylight-filled hours at this time of year, such happiness and optimism in the air.
Wishing you much happiness this weekend, I hope it brings you light, love and laughter in abundance xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For quite a while I've wanted to find a satisfying project to use up the yarn oddments I've gathered after making
in the past year or so. I wanted to make something bright and joyful that used a mixed palette of many colours, but using only small quantities of each colour. A quick, portable project that could be popped into my bag and taken with me on holiday, to the beach, to the cafe, to friends houses.
I enjoyed winding up these small 20g balls of yarn using my trusty , arranging them into on old plastic tub to create a pleasing colour palette to work from. And then I got busy with my 4mm hook.........
.....and made a whole stack of these small three-round .
It's a very easy pattern used by crocheters all over the world, a variation on the classic granny square. I didn't create the pattern (It's been around in the public domain for a long time), but I did write up a tutorial to show how I make them {}.
I also shared my method of joining these squares which creates an almost invisible seam and a very neat finish. The secret is to leave 30cm tail ends when you finish crocheting each square, then use these ends to methodically stitch the squares together. I wrote a full tutorial to explain this process which you can find towards the end of the .
I just love seeing all these colours together, the harmonious and cheerful look makes me very happy :)
I didn't labour over these squares at all, I simply made a few here and a few there, working my way through my yummy box of colours until I had made enough. I made 63 squares in total using 36 different colours of Stylecraft Special DK, arranging them in a 7 x 9 block and joining them by stitching them together row by row....
....^^^very pleasing, wouldn't you say?!
Each square measures approximately 7cm across, and I made enough to be able to fit round a rectangular 30 x 50 cm cushion pad {I bought mine from Amazon }
The idea was to simply fold the crochet in half....
...with right sides together and use the same stitching technique to join the two short sides together square by square. The crochet then becomes a tube, which is ready for a bit of edging around the two open ends.
After a fair bit of deliberation, I kept the edging very simple, working three rows of treble crochet and a final row of double crochet (UK terms).
Colourclock Cushion Edging
:: ROUND 1 :: start in any stitch, chain 3, then work 1 treble in each stitch around. When you come to the bit where two squares join, you need to space the trebles out as evenly as possible when you work over the stitched seam (as in the above picture).
Remember you are effectively working in a big circle around the edge, so you will end up arriving right back to where you started. Slip Stitch into the 3rd chain of the beginning chain-3 to close the round, then fasten off and darn in the ends securely.
I took the above photo to give you a visual idea of how the cushion cover should be looking at this stage - your cover should fit your cushion pad quite snuggly, with only a tiny bit of overlap over the two short sides.
:: ROUND 2 :: the second round of the edging is a simple round of treble stitches. So start in any stitch, chain 3, then work 1 treble into each stitch around. Slip Stitch into 3rd chain of beginning chain-3 to close the round, then fasten off and darn in the ends.
The third and fourth rounds are worked in the same colour.
:: ROUND 3 :: start in any stitch, chain 3, then work 1 treble into each stitch around. Slip Stitch into 3rd chain of beginning chain-3 to close the round, but don't fasten off.
:: ROUND 4 :: chain 2, then work 1 double crochet into each stitch around. Slip Stitch into 2nd chain of beginning chain-2 to close the round, then fasten off and neatly darn in the ends.
Work the second edging at the other end of the cushion cover in exactly the same way. Now it's time to Button Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I opened up my button tin and picked out a colourful selection of 15mm buttons, you will need 14 x 15mm buttons in total for this project. I already happen to have a mixed collection of different sized coloured buttons for just this sort of thing, but if you wish to buy some then search for &mixed craft buttons& on eBay or Amazon. I did a little search and found
(I like the mix of colours) but there are loads to choose from on the internet. Don't go off on a button-buying frenzy now, tempting as it might be, and please don't blame me if you end up with a sizeable button stash.....
....right, back to the cushion. The idea for the button closure is very simple and very effective. First job is to get some pins and mark out the spacing for your buttons. Fold you cushion cover neatly in half, then open up one end slightly - you will be stitching the buttons to the INSIDE/WRONG SIDE of your cushion cover. Start by finding the centre and mark with a pin, then evenly space 3 more pins on either side (seven in total). Mine worked out as being one pin every 8 stitches.
This is what it should look like - pins pinned along the inside edge, evenly spaced and centred. Choose seven 15mm buttons.
I managed to find a darning needle that had an eye big enough for the yarn to thread through, but small enough so it would fit through the holes in the buttons. Secure your thread at the base of round 3, exactly where your first pin is. Stitch the button in place (remember it will be on the inside/wrong side of your cushion cover!)
Work your way along, securing your yarn at the base of round 3 where the pin marked the place, then neatly stitching on a button using yarn.
If you can't find a darning needle to accommodate the yarn and size of button hole, simply use a sewing needle and sewing thread to stitch on your button instead.
ooooooooooo, looking beautifully neat and buttony!
Now do you see what's going on here, have you worked out the cleverness of this button closure yet?
You simply use the gaps between the treble stitches in round 3 as button holes, ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nifty or what????!!!! The simplicity of this idea pleases me hugely, and it is just soooooo neat!
Sweet, sweet cushion cover with your buttony edging, oh I do rather like your charming good looks and your happy colour combos!
You may have already noticed that I deliberately arranged the colours in two halves. So the first half (picture above) has a definite rainbow effect....
....and the second half has a more random patchwork effect. You can also see in the above picture that the buttons aren't visible on the reverse side.
I absolutely love the buttons, I know it's all very predictable, but I just can't help my button-loving heart ?
I also really love how p-l-u-m-p the cushion turned out to be, this cushion pad has a polyester hollowfibre filling so will probably flatten a bit as the cushion gets used....
....but right now I am loving the plumpety-plump look and feel of it.
I finished making my cushion this morning at the studio where I happen to have seven (seven!) dining chairs plus two (two!) old Lloyd Loom chairs. That's a lot of chairs ready and waiting to star in a little photo shoot....
...but I think this particular chair took to the job in hand the best.
I dearly, dearly love this chair, it has a lot of sentimental memories attached and I wrote a little story about it Hard to believe that was six years ago now, my my, how time does fly when you're having lots of creative fun :)
I've loved making this cushion and sharing the journey with you, I wonder if you might feel inspired to make one for yourself one day? It's a great holiday project (those little squares like to travel you know) and I would really enjoy hearing about it if you do give it a go.
Here is a round up of the pattern information and materials used for this project ::
(including a how-to for the joining method)
(Clover Amour, my favourite), perfect for using with DK weight yarn.
? HAPPY HOOKING my friends!
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I called into the supermarket to buy a banana on my way to the studio this morning and came out with a banana and a bunch of Sweet Williams in my bag.
I hadn't even been aware that I needed flowers, and there was nothing floral on my mind at all (I was in banana mode), but almost against my will I found myself drawn to the flowery bit of the supermarket. I circumnavigated it once, taking in the colours of tulips, roses and the big mixed bouquets. I bent to sniff a bunch of stocks and that was when I caught sight of the sweet williams. I didn't hesitate for a second, this bunch was up and out of the bucket in the blink of an eye, dripping water all over my trousers and blinding me with that gorgeous, glorious vibrant colour..........
.........oh the heat!!! Those red hot pinks and fiery magentas are so loud and beautiful, I love them!!!!!!! I really like that these lovely flowers are seasonal and grown in English soil at this time of the year making them a very affordable luxury (?1.80 for this little lot).
I take great pleasure in dealing with my frequent fresh flower hauls, taking my time and really enjoying the whole experience. I love carrying them from the shop and bringing them home or to my studio. I enjoy selecting a jug if I'm at home (I always use this stripy one for flowers on my studio table), and I enjoy unwrapping them and releasing the stems from their packaging. I snip and arrange the individual stems, placing each one into the jug with care. I really, really enjoy this process very much.
I remember reading a book by Tricia Guild once, a book all about enjoying flowers in the home {}. She talks about the &intense joy& of selecting and arranging flowers, of the way they evoke emotions and encourage you to live in the present moment. I so get that, do you?
Once my sweet williams were all arranged on my table this morning, I sat down with my coffee and feasted my eyes.
Often we only glance at an arrangement of flowers as we walk into a room, give them mere seconds of our fleeting attention as we pass by. Every once in a while it's such a wonderful thing to sit close and pay attention for a minute or two. You know, really look at each petal, drink in the intense colours and study the tiny little details.
Such a simple, beautiful way to start the day, I can highly recommend it.
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? SOLID GRANNY SQUARES ?
How to make them and how to join them....
THE COMPLETE TUTORIAL IS READY!
H a p P y ? H o O k y!!
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Oh the sun came back yesterday my friends, we have had blue skies and warmth, I went out without a coat on, I painted my toenails red and wore my flipflops!!!!! Happiness to be found in all of that, how I have missed the feeling of gentle early summer warmth, I had almost forgotten what it was like.
I've had a super-busy week, working hard in my studio on various projects, meeting friends and welcoming lovely visitors. I've arrived here at Friday evening and I am absolutely pooped. I had hoped to sit and work on the tutorial for the solid squares tonight, but after uploading all the pictures I'm sorry that I am just too tired to write it.I will work on it tomorrow for you if I am able to fit it in amongst family stuff.
The above picture is my cushion cover, I'm awaiting delivery of the 30 x 50 cm rectangular cushion pad so that I can check I've made it the right size and finish it off with an edging and some buttons. I've worked it in one piece but it will be folded in half and fastened along the two short sides, which is why it looks big for a cushion cover. I've loved making it - can't wait to see how it comes together.
Hoping you've enjoyed a lovely week, and thanks SO much for all your wonderful comments on my holiday posts, thank you.
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We were lucky with the weather last week for the most part, with two out of the four days giving us blue skies and sunshine. It was a blessing, and I was so glad that we were able to enjoy two days of coastal walking amidst the two damp, grey days of pootling and pottering and trying to hide from the wind.
For this five mile circular walk, we started out from the quiet coastal village of
which sits high above sea level with sweeping views and beautiful skies.
It's a very, very quiet place with a small population, we found the local residents to be curious and friendly.....
....and quite up-close-and-personal! Mooooooooooooooo!!
The weather was bright and breezy with a touch of the c-word - the sunlight was very beautiful and the scudding clouds were racing across the large expanse of sky, but it was c-c-c-c-c-cold up here on the cliff. We were all wrapped up warm and didn't mind the stiff wind too much. It was refreshing and invigorating in a gusty sort of a way, filling our lungs with great gulps of air as we walked.
And the light on the sea, oh my, all those multiple shades of sunlit blue filled my brain and made me very happy, I am easily pleased as you well know. It doesn't take much.
I stopped here a while, resting on a wooden bench while the rest of the family strode across a field to explore an old , a relic from World War II. I chose to stay on the cliff side and have my back to the Historically Important Relics, preferring instead to feast my eyes on the endless blue of the horizon.
All too soon, our walk began to veer inland and away from the cliff edge, eventually bringing us to this old disused railway line.
The railway used to run for 20 miles along the coast here between Scarborough and Whitby, but closed in 1965 due to &increasing road competition and a consequent drop in passenger usage outside of the peak summer seasons&. These days it's a popular trail for
and also provides a bit of easy, sheltered sauntering for pedestrians. It was actually quite warm along here as we suddenly had bit of a respite from the cold wind. I even took my coat off at one point, holy moly!!
This gorgeous, stunning view was mine all mine as I ate my lunch that day. It's exactly what I saw from my seat in the car, wowsers, it was a pretty great backdrop for a cosy car picnic. I love picnicking, did I say that already? Someone asked me yesterday about our picnics, what we had and how we carried it all, (I loved those questions!). Well we don't eat anything adventurous, but it's satisfying and yummy all the same. I made filled wholemeal rolls stuffed with ham, cheese, cucumber, sweet cherry tomatoes, a slathering of cream cheese and a squidge of mayo. We had crisps to go with it, then there were some little red apples and chocolate-coated cereal bars for afters ( which we all love).
A while back we bought some super-cheap rainbow plastic plates from Ikea () - 90p for six! They are wonderful to pack in the rucksack with the picnic and a great design with the little rim that runs all the way round. It means that crisps and grapes and the such like don't go sliding off the plate when your offspring insist on eating their lunch whilst continuing to do other things. And after lunch, you can turn them upside down and they double up as neat frisbees, that's an Attic24 Top Tip for ya!! I carry all our lunch in
which I bought recently, it's a good size to pop in the rucksack and remarkably I can manage to fit lunch-for-five in it. Just. We all drink water to make life easy, then the idea is that after lunch we are free to go in search of a guilt-free coffee/milkshake/beer with possible cake/ice cream/baked goods as well. It works for us.
Anyhooooooooooow, lunch was done and dusted and we needed somewhere suitable for an afternoon pootle, somewhere to provide the aforementioned beverage and sweet treats. And what better place to choose than one of my all time favourite destinations :: Robin Hoods Bay.
Robin Hood's Bay is just a little further up the coast from Ravenscar so it wasn't far to drive at all. Our first stop was the pub! Yes, priorities and all that, well Little B desperately needed a wee and there is
right at the top of the hill with a beautiful garden overlooking the bay, so it was the obvious choice.
We started out in the beer garden, but with a chilly wind gusting off the sea we decided to move inside and perch on some bar stools with our bevvies. This is a very relaxed,
and children are made welcome here which is always something of a relief when you have three Little People to accommodate and have your taste buds set on a pint of good local ale.
After some top notch refreshment, we took a wander down the steep pathway...
....emerging at the bottom of the street where the village feels as if it is literally tumbling into the sea.
The tide was high when we were there which reduces the beach to a teensy strip of sand, but as you can see from the above photo the tide had turned and the sea was already starting to recede. Once the tide is fully out, there are rock pools galore to explore here....
....these families obviously couldn't wait and were strung out in a comical line as the first of the rocks were revealed.
There has been an ice cream van down on this beach for as long as I can remember, which must be going back a good 20 years since I began coming here with J.
The Little People couldn't believe their luck when they were offered an ice cream hot on the heels of lemonade and crisps at the pub - double treats on this sunny day!
We strolled along the beach, admiring the view and the ever changing sunshine and shadows playing out over the blue of the sea. My heart was full on this afternoon.
Robin Hoods Bay is such a quirky little place, I don't think you could find anywhere more charming. The tumble of old buildings is just wonderful, with gorgeous little views and vistas around every twist and turn.
The streets are steep and narrow....
....but every so often they level out as you wind your way around the quiet little residential pathways.
Every single cottage here in the old part of the village oozes charm by the bucket load. The majority are used as holiday rentals, so there is an ever-so-slightly unreal feel about the whole place, but that certainly doesn't make it any less appealing. It really is a delightful place, and I always feel like my heart and soul is happy when I'm here. It's my happy place.
My mind (and heart) was filled with rather a large number of residential fantasies as we strolled through the village, along the lines of &...I wonder what it would be like to live there....ooo look at those cute windows, I would love to look inside.....&, I do this rather a lot I've noticed, I wonder if you do to?
As we huffed and puffed back up the steep hill and away out of the village, we paused for frequent looks back over our shoulders at the coastline we were leaving behind. I don't mind leaving Robin Hoods Bay too much as I know I will always be back. It's just that kind of a place.
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ps, just for fun - these are the words of mine that the spell checker couldn't handle....
pootling, mooooooooooooooo, wowsers, squidge, mayo, slathering, frisbees, anyhooooooooooow, bevvies.
Laughing to myself at that little lot! Right, I'm off, back soon with a crochet pattern for you, just in time for the weekend.........get your 4mm hooks and odds and ends of DK yarn at the ready......
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I have been walking for pleasure all of my adult life, striding out through the Dorset countryside and along the southern coastline in my teenage years, then hiking through the northern hills of the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales through my twenties, thirties and forties. Scenic walking and picnicking is very high on my list of Absoulutely Wonderful Things To Do, it has given me untold amounts of pleasure over the years, that's for sure.
Becoming a parent scuppers walking activity slightly - when they were babes we still managed to walk by stuffing them into backpacks, bribing them with snacks and carrying them about on our backs. But any sort of pleasurable walking grinds to a halt once you are in possession of a toddler or two. Now that we are firmly out of toddlerdom, walking is right back on our leisure agenda and I can't tell you how good that feels. Little B (5), Little Lady (11) and Little Man (12) are turning out to be pretty great walkers and last week we managed two modest, five mile circular walks. I read somewhere that when walking with young children you can pretty much equate their age with the number of miles you can expect them to walk, and we have found this to be pretty true. Five miles for a five year old is  spot on, providing you are armed with copious amounts of sweets/chocolates/snacks.
The first walk we did last week started and finished in Whitby, which is a favourite place of ours. We were last there
spending a very cold, wintry time freezing our butts off on the deserted beach. May is thankfully a very different prospect to February, and the day we made our walk it was bright and sunny with a brisk breeze blowing off the sea.
The English countryside in May is absolutely stunning, I think it's probably my most favourite time of the entire year to be out and about breathing it all in.
The first part of our walk was inland, up and away from Whitby town and out across open farmland.
I really love to see these fields of Rapeseed (grown as an ) in full bloom, the colour is magnificent in a very in-your-face type of way. Usually viewed from a distance as we journey about in the car, it was breathtaking to be walking a path right alongside the plants.
The colour of the flowers is so vibrant it almost hurts to gaze at it for too long. I was surprised by how tall the plants were too - I took some amazing photos of my two big Little People standing amongst the flowers, with only their eyes and the tops of their heads visible above the mass of yellow.
A little part of the walk was along this quiet road, giving us some beautiful views of the ancient Abbey that is a famous landmark along this coastline.
I was walking with Little B, we were the slow portion of the family party. We lingered behind the others, me taking photos and him poking about in the undergrowth looking for things of interest. This furry caterpillar was examined at close quarters before being given a new home amidst a bed of buttercups.
After a couple miles we arrived at the cliff edge, with the return part of the walk following the Cleveland Way coastal path back into Whitby.
The views were incredibly beautiful on this bright sunny day, the shades of sky, sea and cliff merged to create a very fresh, uplifting palette of feel-good colour.
In the interests of honesty, I need to confess to you that around about now we had a bit of a bust up, and a rather vocal family argument ensued. It was midday, and the Little Peeps were hungry and wanted to stop. I had told them about this secluded little beach that J and I had once picnicked on and they had their hearts set on it for lunch. It's a bit of a trek to get down (a flight of wooden steps down from the cliff top) and even more of a trek to get back up again (same wooden steps but double the effort), but they wanted to do it and I agreed it would be a lovely place to stop. J however had other ideas. He didn't want to do the steps, in fact he didn't want to be down at sea level at all. He likes to be high up you see, he is a man who likes viewing views. So he said we should walk on and stop when we got near the abbey (with views across Whitby harbour). We argued. I might even have raised my voice a little, but he was adamant his way was the only way and refused to go down the steps. So what was I to do? In the end after much huffing and puffing, I gave in and we all carried on walking.
Anyhow - despite having to walk an extra half an hour with a very whingey, grumbly, hungry Little B, we did eventually find a very nice place to eat lunch (with spectacular coastal views) and I tried to get over my sulking. Family time can sometimes be like this can't it, differences of opinion, different likes and needs. Mostly we all get along really really well, but when I look at these photos, I can still remember how cross I felt when we didn't get to go to that little beach! Sigh, I really must let it go!
Whitby was as bustling as ever, with swathes of tourists milling about and a continuous stream of boats coming in and out of the busy harbour.
It's a lovely old town and despite the crowds and rather touristy feel it still retains a lot of it's charm.
Descending from the abbey on the cliff top to the harbour side is via 199 stone steps, and the Little People loved this part of the walk. They positively flew down, it was fun to watch them.
We took a walk out long the right hand stone pier......
....right to the lighthouse tower at the end. And then we made a unanimous family decision to head into the old town to visit one of our favourite cafés for some much needed refreshment. No arguments there, no sulking either. Pheww.
This is the lovely tucked away behind the main street in Whitby old town. It can be hard to find if you don't know of it, there is a small sign directing you down a narrow alley way, which opens up into this lovely little courtyard.
It was warm enough for us to sit outside to enjoy our well earned afternoon treat, and what a lovely treat it was too. J and I had delicious mugs of cappuccino with a shared slab of mouth watering coffee and walnut cake. The Little Peeps chose the most decadent drinks on the menu - milkshakes served with a huge blob of ice cream floating on the top. Oh you should have seen their faces, it was utter delight to watch them guzzle these down. I can highly recommend them for any Little Peeps requiring a combined pleasure hit/energy boost.
All that walking and fresh air last week was great for mind, body and soul, I've come home feeling refreshed and energised and very happy with my lot. I've got one more walk to share, I hope you don't mind tagging along? There will be some lovely views, see you then.....
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