holidays are too nice, dangerously nice, you start to think 'i could get used to this'. a little town called dartmouth is a very nice place to stay indeed. it's quite curious, as you can only really reach it by boat. (unless you want to go the long way round) i stayed in one of the narrowest houses in england. It's 9ft wide and beautiful. i've read two books. the first was Eight Months on Ghazza Street by Hilary Mantel. It was just so good. I wanted to read it because i know very little about the middle east and their relations with the west, but i think it's interesting. I thought this book might ease me into it. I cant even describe what made it so good but it just was.

the second book is the comforters by Muriel Spark. im still only half way through but its intriguing. plus the cover illlustration is lovely. i do have a fondness for penguin books and the smell of an old paperback

on my travels i visited Greenway house, where Agatha Christie lived with her husband and archeologist max many many mooooooooons ago. Their house isnt like big posh homes you can visit around the country, instead it was large but snug all at once. what made it even more exciting for me was the fact the whole family were collectors. i thought i'd died it was so goood. it was full of collections of pocket watches, collections of ornate silver stamp holders, cigarette cards, chinese vases, fine bone china, tiny wooden boxes. ooooooooh it was dreamy. unfortunatley you cant take photos in there which was more than a little disappointing.

another stunning old home was coleton fishacre. i assure you it's much more magical than it sounds. why they gave such an unflattering name to such a stunning place, i'll never know. It was the home of Rupert D'Oyly Carte and his wife. The whole house is so incredibly art deco, i think they were something of pioneers in the arts & crafts movement in the 20's/30's. they too collected, but i suppose in a more minimal way. there were beautiful pieces of furniature, ornaments, cigarette holders, paintings, china. But best of all was the garden. the house sits on top of a hill in kingswear, and the garden runs around the house and all the way down to pudcome cove. the biggest most magical garden i have ever been in, with gorgeous views of the sea. another interesting thing about their garden is that because the coast is close to the gulf stream they have the ability to grow tropical plants and flowers. some of them were really like nothing i have ever seen before. giant ruhbarb type plants at least two men tall, little babbling brooks, whole hillsides covered in hydrangeas.