Blissful Bath

Goodness! I have at least a trillion things to blog this week! My house is full of parcels, still boxed but opened and spilling everywhere, waiting until I have a moment to put the contents away, photograph them, make them, or plant them! More on that later.

Our trip to Bath was absoultely wonderful! Gorgeous weather, gorgeous company (just me and Mr), and very sore legs. I don't think i've ever walked so far!! We stayed in a spa hotel though, so plenty of relaxation and good food too. Infact, we did something we have never done whilst on a weekend away - after making thorough use of the spa facilities we stayed in and had room service. Absolute BLISS!

If I didn't live in such a beautiful place already, I would live in Bath - or Edinburgh, another famously Georgian city surrounded by hills, and close to my heart too as I grew up there until I was 15.


The very first time I visited Bath I was immediately struck by the similarity of the two cities and often wonder, if an alien was to drop into Bath, and then into Edinburgh or vice versa, would it be very difficult for him or her to discern the difference without speaking to the locals!

There is always lots to see and do in Bath. There are lovely little higgledy piggledy streets to explore with little shops and boutiques selling all manner of whathaveyou. We don't get this in Oxford as retail space is so expensive that only the big brand high street names can afford shops here. So if you want good shopping, don't come to Oxford!!

There are also lots of art galleries and shops in Bath, and upon our travels we happened upon this exhibition, the Art of Ronnie Wood.

Inside there were 2 huge rooms full of his incredible work! I had absolutely no idea that he was such an accomplished and talented artist. We took the picture below for Jimmy. It is a portrait of a man named Robert Johnston. Do you know who he is? Despite thinking we know a bit about music, neither did we until Jimmy informed us in a rather superior manner, that this man was a "blues picker" of the 1930's, often cited as a major influence by many of today's "greats" ..

This here below is Great Pulteney Street, leading into Laura Place. This is a street which was built for posing and promenading and so it's easy to imagine yourself in that time, surrounded by the wealthy ladies and gends of the day, dressed up in all their finery, hoping to catch somebody's attention!

A bit like this bloke, who wasn't exactly "dressed" except for the "firework" - can you see it? He was certainly grabbing lots of attention outside the Pump Room though!!


It wasn't what you might call warm either!!

In Bath, most of the street names were etched or painted onto the walls at the time of building. I love the name of this street! It would mean something quite different nowadays! But here, it is rather genteel and makes me think of Georgian and Victorian high society having a jolly good time !

Gay Street runs into The Circus, which is a circle of (yet more) grand Georgian houses surrounding a green. There were different carvings above the doorways all around the circle of town houses including this old fireman's helmet!

If you look behind at the other side of the houses you will see that despite their identical and immaculate frontage, each house is infact completely different. They were built by different architechts who wished to incorporate their own designs, and so the only restriction was that the front of the houses look the same.

As anticipated we did pay a visit to the fashion museum. It isn't as extensive as the V&A fashion department in London, but that didn't stop me photographing the displays like a lunatic, and I will show you those tomorrow.