A little tribute to Ellen

28th March was my paternal grandma Ellen's birthday, and as she is one of the people whose stories I am the sum of, today I'm sharing something she made for me when I was little.

This is an epic photo of me in about 1974/75 on the beach in Cornwall wearing a towelling beach robe my Nan made for me. My brother had one too, but I can't remember what colour his was and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any photographic evidence of it.

The idea was that we would come out of the sea, freezing cold and we could pop on our beach robes to warm up!

My Nan made a lot of clothes and often visited us with a suitcase of not quite finished things that we would then try on so she could get the fit right. Sometimes they were full of pins and we used to moan a lot as kids. Now of course I really appreciate how lovely and totally unique the items she made for us really were.

I think we can all agree I am rocking this beach look - I don't think I said it enough at the time, thanks Nan x