Five on Friday

As I sat down to write this post a couple of hours ago the news was breaking about the attack in Munich. Many of you know Germany is very close to my heart, and indeed some of my closest friends are actually currently in Munich. They are safe, and I am thankful, but thinking of all those affected. It's a scary world we live in, with so much bad news in the space of just a couple of weeks - Nice, the train near Wuerzberg and now Munich.

It felt rather glib to write a cheery blog post after hearing the news, but I want to share five pictures that have made me happy this week. I have not joined in with Amy and her lovely link up for a really long time, but here I am - please do go and read other peoples' posts here.

1. This week I finally graduated! I had a lovely day, my parents and brother came as well as C and it was a sunny and happy occasion. My two close friends who started at the same time as me graduated the same day and it was the perfect ending to my studies.

2. My lovely colleagues bought me some bubbly as a well done - it was so kind of them and very much appreciated. I drank it with the parentals and C the evening after I graduated.

3. Lots of crafting time has been a real novelty. My Mum and I are making a blanket together, a simple granny square affair in simple colours. These are my efforts thus far.

4. I am having another go at knitting! Tiny steps, but a certain crafting-adverse man dropped hints about knitted jumpers. Any kind of endorsement's enough for me!

5. We have been doing a lot of hosting lately, it has been wonderful to catch up with friends and have them in our home. I have made a couple of pavlovas for people, and am improving my meringue skills greatly!

Wishing you all well my friends, stay safe whereever you may be

Camper Tales - Robin Hood's Bay and the Yorkshire Coast

Last week we had a wonderful few days up on the North Yorkshire coast. It was a part of the country neither of us had ever been to before and we had a great time exploring the area. We were quite lucky with weather, it wasn't brilliant sunshine but not much rain (mostly at night) and we ended up doing a lot of walking. Since when did I go on walking holidays? Past me would not believe it quite frankly!

We stayed just outside Robin Hood's Bay, which was stunning. The campsite was up on the hill with the most beautiful view.

We were close to both the Cleveland way, the coastal path, and the Cinder Track - the old railway trail. We explored both thoroughly and left exhausted but happy. One of my favourite walks was from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby. We followed the path out of the bay enjoying the views, it was quite quiet but nice to greet the occasional walkers.

I loved this cute lighthouse - apparently the water is really shallow around the coastline, so I bet this really is a lifesaver.

And this colony of seagulls - I'd never seen one before. I have no idea how they sleep on such shallow ledges, I certainly wouldn't be able to!

Here's the famous Whitby Abbey - I've not read Dracula I must confess, so I think a lot of the landmarks were rather lost on me. I must add it to my long list of things to read.

Whitby itself was so cute, it was a bit too busy for us to wander much - we were too shattered after the walk  - but it was amazing just spending time in the harbour.

My other favourite walk was from Robin Hood's Bay to Scarborough, 15 miles in total so a big achievement for me! Lots of coastal path views, and steep hills but worth every second.

Scarborough was quite cloudy, and again being shattered we didn't wander around at all - we just collapsed onto the bus back to Robin Hood's Bay! I loved the colourful beach huts on the front though.

Bonnie also got pimped up - an awning was a good idea and meant we didn't need to cook in the rain!

Peaks Revisited and Summer Crochet

My amazing talented wonderful husband fixed my laptop! So here I am again back in my bloggy space, oh how I've missed it.

We've been quite busy the last few weeks, some camper trips, seeing friends - all nice summer activities. I've even been managing to do a fair bit of crafting which didn't seem to be the case last summer! At the end of June we headed back to the peak district, to the same campsite (ever creatures of habit) for one night, and managed a nice long walk in what is possibly my favourite place to walk. I used to find walking challenging, and I'm not good at heights, so managing to climbing some peaks has felt like an achievement and I can't wait to explore more of the area.

It was not the best of weather, a bit drizzly and overcast, but that was actually quite nice to walk in. We headed up to Mam Tor and the ridge, and this time made it across and up to Back Tor and Loose Hill, it was really lovely with the lower clouds and weather front moving in.

Good old Bonnie was waiting for us when we got back, always a sight for sore eyes and weary legs. This trip the weather was bad enough in the evening for us to have to cook in the van - a cramped experience but an adventure!

And here is my favourite summer crochet accessory so far - another cowl, but more lightweight than usual!

I wear it for work a lot, it's super comfy and goes with most of my clothes! Pattern from here.

An unwelcome hiatus

My computer is rather messed up at the moment. Luckily I have a computer doctor in the house but sadly there are no quick solutions as we wait for different parts to arrive and check what the problem actually is. It's fairly typical as I've been wanting to blog for weeks now, having rediscovered my bogging mojo. Sigh. Well I must be patient and hope to return to my space here soon, and be able to comment on other blogs. I am reading from afar and looking forward to being back in the thick of it as soon as I can :)