Brighton, I HEART you, and corsetry!

I am skipping across what happened between leaving Auckland and arriving in Brighton on the south coast of England. Short version: binge watching TV, officious airport staff, insomnia, tube stations and suitcases, kittens, trains.
And here I am in Brighton! What a place, it speaks directly to my heart as a Wellingtonian, but added value is AMAZING architecture everywhere. These are all from the street I stayed on my first night here.

I was laughing with my lovely friend Hester who lives here, how our kiwi eyes see so many details and think, how can that be allowed, it would kill someone in a quake! and then realise, no chance of that happening!
So far I have been on a tour of the pier, water front and some of the town, stocked up at Boots, drunk lots of good coffee, and finally slept for a few hours. Oh, and I had the most exciting experience that I could have, being me. Some of you will appreciate this!
I stayed in an AirBnB on the street shown, and my landlady mentioned in passing that a corsetry business was over the road, in a perfectly unassuming house! This business is Axfords and I was over there knocking on the door asking to chat to Michael the owner in two minutes.

 Michael was happy to talk to me, and the more I saw the more I was blown away. These guys make their own spiral boning, have coutil and cotton/viscose satin and other fabrics woven for them - they've been at it 125 years and in the cutting room (photo) I got to touch and coo and the quality of the garments is fantastic.
I love that this company started in 1880 making utility garments really, at a time when most women would be wearing a corset of some kind. And right through until corsetry evolved into a specific kind of garment for much more niche purposes. Michael says they make corsets for the theatre and TV, and the current production of Rocky Horror.They have three manufacturing locations as Brighton is a place where you have to work around the buildings not vice versa. Their HQ is 82 Centurion Road, where I found them, however...

...this is the other side of the house which is built into the hill so it appears a lot bigger from New Dorset Street that runs behind. The garment construction and boning making happen in two other buildings around the town. There's a big A bricked into the gable that you may be able to make out in the photo - this building was built for Axfords, pretty impressive.
Every corset is made from start to finish by the same corsetiere. Those of us who sew will appreciate what a difference this makes to the quality of the garment. There's as much engineering as sewing in a corset and controlling this is a big part of the quality and durability of the resulting garment.
And can I say that the cutting room smelled like it should? Like an Atelier should. Just magical.
Thank you Michael for letting this random kiwi fizzing with excitement and spouting nonsense in her tired state, into your business and talking to her. I couldn't think of a more fun thing to do - beats the Pier hands down!

Day one, the long flight

23/10 10.02pm. Auckland International Terminal.

Finally, departure day has arrived. After a day of finding things to occupy myself including dishes, ironing shirts and watching Hustle to get a feel for London, I finally go to the shop to meet David. Putting the smaller case on the shop scales confirms my doubts that it is more than 7kg. Off to the airport we finally head, and we have a teary departing at the drop off.

First things first – weighing bags, My large suitcase which could be 23kg and which I was convinced was close to that, weighs 16kg. What can I say, in spite of appearances, I am a weakling. The small one however weighs 9.5kg. So I remove 2.5 kg of crap from it and transfer the crap over to the big one. Sorted.

Then I try to check in at a kiosk. It will not read my passport. Uh oh. I take a look and there is my unsaggy 2011 photo. I had left home with my expired passport!

A quick panicky call to David and he is on the job; happily I am an hour early. The amazing woman at the desk reassures me it is all fine, checks me into the best seats all the way (as I discover later), we chat about grandparents and our childhoods and badly designed things and she labels my suitcase and all the things and soon my knight in shining Peugeot is back with the new, saggy face photo passport. (I don’t really mind it just amuses me!) He’s my hero! A bit anti-climactic after the teary farewell.

An uneventful flight north and a pleasant stroll through a cool, still evening from the Auckland Domestic to the International terminal and here I am, with three hours to kill and nothing to do but buy over-priced food or souvenirs. I buy a jaunty travel pillow festooned with pohutukawa flowers. The woman shop assistant whispers that she is afraid of another customer who appears to be under the influence of something – extreme tiredness, drugs, who knows. Luckily that customer follows me out rambling and wanders off. I feel like I have opened a window to let a wasp escape.

I finally pass through the passenger-only gates, abandoning the bottle of L&P I bought to wash down pills, and am faced with a huge concourse of booze and perfumes and makeup. The smell is overpowering, my sinuses are not happy. How ironic that we cannot bring more than 100mls of liquid into this space filled with tens of thousands of bottles. With my precious reserves of fund raised money, it just seems so surplus. Finally out the other side, I am sitting quietly in the departure area of my gate, with a handful of travellers. The flight is very under full and I hope to get a row to myself. Or at last an empty seat beside me.

I feel so very unprepared for this trip. I’ve never been apart from David for so long since our first year of long distance bonding. My comfort zone does not include solo travel, lugging suitcases, public transport, staying with people, and living with minimal clothes. For these reasons alone it is good that I am doing it. I desperately need a kick up my butt – performing was meant to be that but it comes too easily to me. I need my life shaking up.

I know that millions do this every day, but I feel like Bear Grylls taking on the Amazon.

Getting to the UK one Frida at a time

Hi all, I am on a plane in 14 sleeps and the big old whiteboard is covered in things to do! I arrive at Heathrow on 24 October and will be back in New Zealand by 16 November.
I am broke, cassé, skint, and in order to be able to eat, travel and have somewhere to stay while I am there, I've been fundraising. The gigs I have do pay, and for that I am grateful, but to raise the balance I have been making and selling Frida and Mary jacket patches. Frida outsells Mary by about 10 to one but that's to be expected!
It's actually really satisfying to be able to raise money by making things myself. And with these sales, sales of false drag lashes and performance fees I've raised enough to get by without having to rely on my credit card too much!
Other than that, I'm doing some free lance work, sewing for myself and others, and dealing with three massive things going totally wrong in my life all at once.  Two of them could be sorted by me getting a full time job or a longer term contract, and the third will probably come right faster if I did as well, because the stress of the situation would diminish a lot.
I don't want to go into details about any of them here, sorry to be vague but I'm in that weird place where pretending everything is OK is just not possible because it isn't, yet sharing the details is not a thing I can do right now either. Suffice to say that corporate greed and earthquakes are behind the troubles. One day I'll tell all.
In the meantime, I am blown away by the kindness of people!!! Friends and family who through small and huge acts of kindness just keep reminding me that life is worth persisting with.
On my to-do list is Fabricabrac this Saturday. The bi annual huge destash market that started in Wellington and is now happening all over NZ. I decided to use it as  chance to clear out my ridiculous stash of fabric in the shop store room and today Penny and I hauled out boxes and bins full of it!

This is a FRACTION of what we unearthed. It was crazy. I found stuff I forgot I had, had bought again, and generally realised that I am a HOARDER.
Anyway it's sorted more or less, scraps in colour themed bags, size and value sorted, everything. And I tell you I am not bringing stuff back. I kept back about a binful at most, the rest if it doesn't sell is going to a charity. But I think I'll be seeing lots of happy people walk out with it.
And thus will I make just a little bit more for my trip. :) In full knowledge of the money wasted on buying it in the first place. But to be honest I've not really added to my hoards much in the past few years, I've just dragged the stuff around after me. So by getting rid of it, it is an end of yet another era!
If you are in Wellington and love fabric, come to Fabricabrac - at St Anne's Hall, Emmett Street, Newtown 10am-2pm this Saturday 13 October. There's a huge car park and the church collects a gold coin donation for it. You can do your fruit and vege shopping next door too! https://fabricabrac.wordpress.com/wgtn/
Update after Fabricabrac: I went with five boxes and came back with one small box! WIN!

My August!

 I'm starting at the most recent and working backward. Last Sunday we had a photo shoot for our Time Travel Cabaret air raid shelter show in November. I am utterly stuffed to the gill with pride that my baby sister is joining us FINALLY. She sings like a dream and has so much stage presence. I've dug her out of suburban family contentment. She's not unhappy about it. Here we are in full quasi 1944 gear.

Here's the whole crew. We've not got the proper pics back yet, so it's selfies for now. 

Since my last post, I've started a 25 hour a week IT contract on top of the shop, so I am using my time with more...determination? I feel a little squeezed in, like my life is wearing shapewear. It's not terrible, but it is slowing down my blog reading and writing. Bah

AND, I have acquired my first ever knee high boots! Look! They fit my huge calves. Bliss! They were a swap.
AND, I attended the New Zealand Burlesque Festival. What an incredible experience that was. If I was a different person I would have five posts full of photos to show you all how incredible it all was. Set in the little village of Devonport on Auckland's North Shore, we had an amazing time of it. But I am terrible at photos and so you'll have to take my word for it. Here's a couple of shots of me on stage at the Saturday Spectacular Tease show

 Doing despicable things to my hookah

A close up dressing room selfie that shows my Mad Hatter makeup better. My most fun face to do!

The curtain call. Son Jack is the lithe figure in black at the right end. I am fourth right along the back, just where the black panel finishes. I still had my weird makeup on. 

Sunday started with a brunch at which the national Golden Garters Awards are handed out. These are by voting only, and I was totally blown away to be nominated for two - Favourite MC, and Faovourite non-Strip Tease Act with Clever for our Foodtard Song. Hans (Clever Hansel) couldn't come to the Festival so I took along his photo - seen here propped against my water glass at the brunch table. SoundBitch and Sharne are deep in talk - probably about life with a ponytail and black T-shirt aesthetic lol. 

 Well, the upshot was that I won Favourite MC, and here is my very gold award on the Wall of Amazing Things in my living room. Foodtard lost out to the act I voted for so I was stoked about that! it involves synchronised swimmers, a pole and Bolero. It is AMAZING.

This award means a lot to me as I am a tireless campaigner for Emcees who are entertaining but also respectful and do not take over a show. I must say the Emcee for our show, Miss La Vida, was FANTASTIC and hopefully will appear on the finalist list next year.

So that's me for now. I am tired, sore, contented, stressed, honoured, busy, challenged. Many more less readworthy things are happening and I may touch upon them if I get to post more often.

Thank you for reading dear ones xo

On Touring, Thrifting and Coffee

Well in the past 72 hours I have driven 1200km through snow, rain and sunshine, performed, bought amazing things en route, and made new friends. And now I am relaxing for a day before another big week.
After our first show in Whakatane was postponed because the weather meant we couldn't get there, we rescheduled for Friday 7 August. So at 7am on Friday, I headed off to pick up my two companions and fellow performers, Moxie Fizz and Lady Sane.
We drove nearly 600km in wonderful weather, for which I thanked many lucky stars, and got to Whakatane by 4pm as planned.
The saga of the show began when we walked into the room, saw the stage and all of our hearts sank. All being the three of us, our wonderful leader Cherry Boomb, and Pussy Galorrez. Real names withheld to protect the innocent. I am not going to go into the details of the next three hours, wherein LadyPower transformed an almost unworkable set up into a passable venue, nor of the show itself which was pretty damned good in spite of said venue and because of us! And the great staff there who did their best to help us out. We were a Test Case for them so the boss didn't want to overinvest, you see. So we got paid the worst and had to deal with the worst conditions. From now on it will probably be fabulous. And this is why I would quite like to go back, in spite of it all.
ANYWAY, what I wanted to show you is the loot I scored on the way home!!! We stopped for a good break in Taupo, which for the uninitiated is a gorgeous little town on the shores of Lake Taupo the population of which increases 20x over in summer. It is winter here but it is still hummy, and Moxie and I went off to find junk or craft shops as we love to do.
We ended up in an antique/junk shop where the owners were enjoying a fish and chip lunch on the counter because classy. Smelled good though! Scanning the crammed cabinets of china and knickknacks, I spied buttons. BUTTONS!! Czech glass, old buttons. Just a few but so pretty. Mrs Fishnchips said, there's more in those drawers - and soon we had the little shallow drawers flung open on hundreds of twinkling glass buttons.
Between us we bought about 70 buttons and this is my haul:

Aren't they pretty! The big leaf ones are 32mm across (1 1/4 inches) and are what drew my eye. 

Glass buttons make the most incredible sound when you move them around together. I am immediately reminded of the precious glass marbles so popular when I was young. I took this photo on my kitchen bench, and as I never wear blue, it's probably not the best backdrop to show them off - they are chosen to wear with rich red, purples, golds and blacks, cos that is how I roll.

After beating the snow front on the Desert Road, where State Highway 1 runs across a volcanic plain of extraordinarily wild beauty seen many times in the LOTR and Hobbit movies, we ended up in Taihape. Here we found a junk shop so unappealing I nearly walked out, until I saw that among the total rubbish were some gems, at proper junk shop prices. I could have filled a trailer with charmingly ugly, oak modernist furniture for a few dollars, but I restrained myself to one oak Queen Anne stool that would fit in the back.

I am so torn between giving this a chalk paint treatment or leaving it as oak. I think I'll re-cover the top and then decide. It is so lovely - and useful too! 

Lady Sane came away with a bag of clothes and Moxie found some sewing patterns so everyone felt the opshopping love.

Now on the way up, I got my first speeding ticket since 2000. So, my first in this century. MORTIFIED was I, as I am a nana driver, but it was a straight bit and I got carried away. This happened on the outskirts of Hunterville, where we also stopped on the way home for a hot snack. I did what I have done many times - putting a hot coffee on the dash while I get into the car and move it to the cup holder when BOOSH, off it fell, spilling its smelly, milky self all over me, the driver floor, door and dash. Many tissues later, the worst was cleaned up but I am never stopping in Hunterville again as I feel it is not on my side.

 

In spite of speeding tickets, rickety stages, microphone batteries dying mid song, coffee spills and because of fantastic company, show camaraderie, a great audience, sequins, comfy motel beds, beautiful snow and op shopping, it was a fabulous weekend.

And to come - this week is the Award Ceremony for the Top Shop awards, in which Made on Marion is a finalist, and I have a posh top to make for it so double reason for a follow up post - new outfit AND outcome!

Happy Sunday everyone! xo

Sofa lovin'

This weekend, MrC and I escaped to our favourite weekend getaway, Martinborough. Not just because we are lushes who love nothing more than go to wineries, taste the wines, buy the wines and bring them home and drink them, nonono. That's just PART of the attraction!
The weather is great. The cafes are great. And it has quirky shops, which given how tiny the town is, I'm amazed that I keep discovering. My latest find is Graham and Sons, Upholsterers.
Not only is the Son who served us a bit of a hottie, he is also a master craftsman, and a man, I feel, of great Taste in Furniture.
I present in support of this theory Exhibit A:

A typical bergere suite, as found in Grandparents' front rooms all over this green and pleasant land. Including my mother's, which the one above is NOT, I might add. This was a random on trademe, and excellent buying at $150 for the whole suite.
The trouble with these lovely and compact and elegant suites is that the cane in the arms and back busts, and once it has gone, there's no fixing it. But our Son of Graham had an idea:

 Remove cane bits and upholster instead, of course!

 Not a fan of 1960's mahogany, he also distressed the frame. I love it!

A truly smart piece of furniture that honours its provenance. I'm not totally sold on the neutral ikat fabric but I love the idea, and it is an upholstery project not beyond a smart person with a few clues.
Now wouldn't the olive cut velour horror in the first photo come up a treat with this kind of overhaul!

UK Revisited: a Twist of Lyme

I LOVE Lyme Regis. Famous for its Jurassic fossils, and for its role in "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles, Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and Tracy Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures," it has well and truly enough character to sustain such interest.
We found a small and beautiful town packed with history, interesting shops and really, really friendly people. Way more than most other places we went. There is a thriving creative community, including artists, craftspeople and fab food.

Looking back down the famous Cobb - a breakwater of stone that was built in the 13th C but has been enhanced and rebuilt many times, with the nice flat bit I am standing on dating back about 150 years. The top of the Cobb itself is flat but slopes at a rather drunken angle and so I left it to MrC the Mountain Goat.

Looking out to sea from the walkable part of the Cobb. The wee plaque you can see on the right says NO CLIMBING ON THE ROCKS. Like I would!

I think these are the steps from which Louisa Musgrove tries to jump into Captain Wentworth's arms in the 1996 film of Persuasion. However, these steps were built well after that date. The steps to which Austen referred were probably these ones:

Terrifying! Seeing these gave me a whole new appreciation of the accident waiting to happen!

Lyme as seen from the end of the Cobb. SO pretty! And such a nice place!

In the window of a hat shop full of fabulous things. Amazing dress. The lady who makes these creations has a studio in Lyme and the hat shop owner sent us off to find her but we couldn't. The place is a rabbit warren!
One of the nicest places is a shop called Eco-logical-you. I spent ages in this eclectic shop that is a hub of ecological, ethical and fair-trade products from dishwash liquid to felt bags. Bought a fair bit of stuff too, while chatting to the very nice and friendly owner.

The gorgeous Umbrella House, featured in a previous blog about Black and White houses, is on the hill above Lyme.
Lyme is SubLyme. Can't wait to get back :)

UK Revisited 1: Cirencester

When we were in the UK I fell, hard, for Cirencester. It is a largish cathedral town in the Cotswolds and is oozing with charm and history. It is also still prosperous, with only a few empty shops in tucked away corners. In some towns we visited, up to a third of shops were empty. So sad.
Cirencester has an amazing cathedral, amazing shops, and predictably, no discernible decent coffee.
A shop that really captured my imagination was Cirencester Cupcakes. the lady who owns it set it up with her redundancy payout about three years ago - initially working from home. It was what she really wanted to do, and that was inspiring! She introduced me to the Giant Cupcake concept, which I intend to exploit further, and she was so happy! Clearly she works like a trooper, running a business by herself that covers so many points of sale, products etc. But she was happy.
I didn't get a photo of her or a decent one of the shop alas - we went off to have a (blah) coffee nearby and when I went back, she had nipped out. I am sure we will meet again :)

Tucked away in Swans Lane, you still cannot miss the hot pink fabulousness!

Where it all happens - a simple set up not unlike a domestic kitchen, but it works well.

My other favourite shop in Cirencester is Plum Boutique. Like a one off TCD, really, it stocks sizes 14-32, really gorgeous stuff from all over Europe (apparently Germany and Scandinavia make lovely larger size designs) where I bought a fab shirt and earrings. The owner was SO friendly and the prices, by our standards, pretty reasonable. The shirt I bought for 85GBP, but a shirt like it, had I been able to get one here anyway, would easily have been 400NZD, which is over twice the price. Hmm, maybe I ought to be importing such things into NZ!

Anyway, I love Cirencester. So much more to it than these two titbits. I have since found out that my unerring ability to spot the most expensive thing in a given space is still working - the area is among the dearest real estate in the UK. Weel, it's a decent-sized town, it has history and is gorgeous, it is in the Cotswolds - not surprising really!

Running away for the weekend...

...it was fab! MrC and I shot off after work on Friday night to the little town of Martinborough, which is about an hour out of Wellington in 'wine country.' Laid out like a Union Jack with a square in the middle, Martinborough is charming, full of gorgeous weekend houses for rent, cosy restaurants, and there are easily 40 wineries within a 10km radius making some of the finest wines in the world.

Aethena House, which is only 50m from the square, utterly gorgeous inside and out (thanks to my clever cousin Lynley's efforts about 10 years ago before she sold it on) and the perfect retreat for two townies needing a rest cure. :) It has four bedrooms and we think it may be a nice place to take a group of friends next time!
ANYWAY, on Saturday after a leisurely brunch on the back lawn, we hit the wine trail. Each time we go, we look for small wineries where we can talk to the winemakers. I love their passion for their product, all the words that dance around with them.
First stop, Coney Wines on Dry River Road. Forgot to take photos. Duh. We bought a Que Sera Syrah and a Ritz Reisling or two. Coney wines all come with tongue in cheek musical names and silly lymerics. The wine in the bottles however is pretty darn fabulous. The syrah is a 
peppery, berry flavoured riot with vetiver overtones that really did inspire lyrical outpourings! The Ritz Riesling spritzes on the tongue and has a light fruity palate that I love. Reminds me of the zibibbo we had for our wedding toasts. Incidentally they gave us a mini bottle of a rose called "Pink Floyd's wet dream"!
Next was Schuberts, much closer to town and run with German passion and hand crafted care. Nice wines, very expensive ($65 a bottle for the one I liked best!) we surprised ourselves by coming away with a cab/merlot blend and a sticky called Dolce made from Muller Thurgau. It was like apricot and honey heaven on the tongue and I HAD to have it. The cab/merlot just kept on giving and conjuring up music in my head so we got it too.
Last was Croft Winery, a "must stop at, every time" winery on the main road into town. I love the place - May Croft is the warm hearted Anglican Archdeacon for South Wairarapa and her husband Peter is a wonderful winemaker with an artist's passion and a scientist's precision. He does this thing where as you take a mouthful of his wine he tells you what he wanted it to do to your palate, and by jingo, it happens. Such precision, such artistry. And May makes amazing pastes from the grapes, most recently a sauvignon blanc paste that we enjoyed immensely on crackers with cheese for afternoon tea. Lovely people whose love of life comes through in their products.
All that wine talk must be boring some of you, sorry! On Sunday we went craft shopping. There are several shops selling all sorts in Martinborough, and I bought a 1972 Golden Hands album full of delightful ideas and projects that took me back to my childhood. In the window she had a selection of those necklaces made from fabric, but with beads in between:

A nice combination of textures and patterns in these necklaces...

And then home. Via Sawmillers Quiltery where I picked up cupcake buttons and a couple of fat quarter packs.

Well, how could I resist!

Birthday treats

For my birthday I decided I wanted to be back in Lillingstone Lovell with Nicola and Bruce at the Gables. Nicola's was the very first B&B I booked as it is just outside Buckingham where I had to be for my Vanguard course, and we hit it off immediately. She is a delight! Her enormous kitchen is always full of baking as she does catering, and she is very funny and loves people and, well, she is just AMAZING! So, back we came and had two great outings to celebrate.
On the 1st we went to an Indian restaurant that has to be seen to be believed. The building used to be a Victorian Children's home and so no doubt the site of untold grief, but the building is a magnificent gothic pile and the restaurant is in the main hall, which is about 40 feet high.

Photo taken upward to capture the WOW factor of this amazing space.
The food was delicious too, and the company marvellous. It was a memorable evening and a fine way to celebrate my 46th year.
THEN on the 2nd, we went to Dalesford Organics. What an eye opener! Amazing Cotswold style buildings white washed everywhere with an organic farm shop, homewares shop, cafe, clothing shop, wine shop etc all around beautifully manicured gardens. The staff are all beautiful too. The people who go there I am told all work for Channel 4 and look like people out of a catalogue - Yummy Mummies in full makeup and designer clothes with perfect children. Gorgeous men with immaculate jerseys tied around their shoulders and perfect teeth. It has to be seen to be believed.
In the homewares shop, everything is plain. There are plain linen tablecloths that look like they are made out of old monk's habits in a range of porridgey organic colours, and of course the PRICES!!!
So, we had a great time and a delicious afternoon tea of lemon meringue, scones and rhubarb fool with good coffee, and welsh rarebit.

 The mezzanine of the farm shop where you can buy tablecloths made from monks habits and perfectly plain china for a king's ransom. Mind you, Nicole bought a gorgeous glass cake plate with a foot, big enough to take a giant pavlova!

 Love the golden cotswold stone, high ceilings and white beams.

 The farm shop. At this point I was asked/told not to take photos so that's all the interiors I can show you.

 Beautiful gardens. It was a bit nippy to sit outside but we had a lovely wander.

 The dog park! The canine in residence is made of thatch and wire, a bit like the birds and owls we see from time to time on a thatched roof :)
So, a lovely afternoon, and for dessert that night we had the gooseberry and elderflower icecream Nicola bought there, with strawberries. Heaven!

Seeing the world in black and white

England is abloom with daffodils and blossoms; there is plenty of colour However, I m fascinated by the black and white houses. Not all are Tudor, I love that Mock Tudor here is something that happened in the 18th C!! In NZ, it happened in the 1970's!

 In Shrewsbury or Hereford, can't remember now but both towns are black and white house heaven! Do click on the image, hopefully in its bigger size you can see how very higgledy piggledy this place is.

 Shrewsbury? Hereford? Sorry! What amazes me is that you will find 17th C houses/shops with a Boots Chemist or a Costa's cafe in the bottom of them. Talk about two centuries living together!

 This one leans ominously over the street-look how crooked the windows are! The leaning I think was built in but as these jutting out second storeys are not really supported by anything, it may also be down to time. Me, I wouldn't be standing in the window jumping upside down, all I'm sayin'.

 Isn't this a cutey! And take a look at the door and frame! The doors on these places are amazing. I'm doing a whole blog on doors one day. Hereford.

 The Old House in Hereford town square. It's a museum and the upper rooms are full of furniture from the time. All bedrooms interconnect upstairs as was the Tudor way, and the labels suggest that the curtains on four poster beds were not just for warmth but also privacy!

Oh My Giddy Aunt! This is Umbrella Cottage just 30m down the road from our B&B in Lyme Regis. Amazingly it was built in the 19th C! Early on mind you. It was a Toll house originally. So far it tops my Favourite House list. I've not seen any others like it. Has anyone else?
These are a mere sampling of the buildings we've seen and I've photographed. So much house bling, so little time!