A Little Escape

Hello Lovelies,
How are you? I hope things are running smoothly in your lives. Mine, well, it's not so smooth at the moment. Real life here is a tad stressful. I seem to have a shed load of issues to cope with....one of which is an actual shed, currently half finished and leaking like a sieve. More on that another day.

There is also illness, accidents and incompetence conspiring to upset my equilibrium. I've been feeling especially frazzled this week.

Thankfully, today mum suggested a little outing, and it turned out to be just what I needed.
We travelled into the smallest county in England....Rutland. And stopped in the pretty market town of Uppingham.

The weather was lovely, and the flowers were still blooming.

Though you could see it was autumn not summer.

I have never visited this town before and I was pleasantly surprised.

Lots of stone buildings housing independent shops.

and pretty, sunlit corners.

Which opened onto the market square.

I loved this seasonal window display.

And the old buildings on the high street.

Within one is a charity shop that has  books AND a tea shop. Perfect.

Mum, who's a lifelong artist and art enthusiast, was looking for a gallery she had heard about. Thankfully the volunteer who brought our refreshments knew where it was and gave us excellent directions.

Refreshed we walked back up the high street, admiring the baskets.

 flowers.

And Yarny signs.

 Stitch Upp. Great name :0)

A view of the high street.

And the church across the square.

There's an ornamental light here, which the sun illuminated.

 Mum decided to sit in the car while I explored a bit further.

I liked this quiet corner of the churchyard with it's rooftop view.

And the church it's self.

Old cottages always make me smile.

 I wandered around and soon found a narrow passage that led back to the shops.

And our parking spot.

 

Mum had done a quick sketch of the scene.

 I look forward to seeing a painting of this mum :0)

The gallery we were looking for was in a nearby garden centre 

It was a great space with work by the owner and many other inspiring artists. There were even some views of my childhood home by talented artist Robin Mason. You can see them HERE and HERE
Ahhh, lovely Haworth. I must re-visit you soon :0)

You can see more of the work on display HERE.  So much to see. I really loved soaking it all in. And forgetting the issues I have been rather overwhelmed by at times recently.

Back home I unwrapped the gift mum had bought me in the charity shop, and went into the building site  garden to pick a few blooms to fill this lovely hand made jug.

That's better. Flowers do make me happy. I really must remember to pick a posy for the mantle more often.

I'm feeling much brighter tonight, due in part to some issues now being resolved, and to getting away from the others for a while. Sorry to be a bit cryptic here. I'm ok and I do hope you are too.

Jacquie x

Sunny Seaside Moments

Hello again Lovelies,

carrying on with my holiday posts, I thought I would share my favourite day of our week in Spain with you today.

Towards the end of our holiday we decided to take a little trip on one of the boats we had seen visiting the main beach in Tossa de Mar.

As we left it was lovely to see the impressive castle from the water.

and to pass by jagged rocks.

The whole coast is rugged and beautiful.



and dotted with caves.

Which we went inside.

and the crew threw bread for the fish :0)

Back into the light.

This trip was to a small bay and a beach called Cala Giverola.

It was beautiful, but when we arrived it was not as peaceful as the photo above suggests.

There was a water park behind the beach and loud music was blaring out.

Eldest and I  decided to go and investigate some of the paths we could see climbing the steep hills that ran down to the water.

Ahhhh, what a peaceful spot with a simply stunning view.

Thankfully the music did not last long and we could relax on the beach. In the late afternoon my walking buddy agreed to investigate another footpath.



I loved looking down on the turquoise waters.

What a perfectly summery scene.

Eldest was happy to climb higher to take in the landscape (seascape?)

But after a while we decided it would be best to rejoin the others.

Back at sea-level hubby and youngest were snorkelling.

I just love the light as the sun gets lower in the sky, the glittery reflections are something special, don't you agree?

The underwater world here contained exciting, colour changing octopi apparently. 

I do like snorkelling, but on this occasion I was more than happy to stand in the crystal clear water. 

and watch the waves lapping the shore.

Just look at the wonderful colour of those pebbles, so vibrant and glowing when wet and illuminated by the setting sun.

I always wish that special light would last just a little longer, that I could bottle the atmosphere, to save it for a dull winters day.

But all too soon the last boat of the day was here. Time to leave this idyllic spot.

It was a perfect outing to make some happy holiday memories for us all to look back on.

Jacquie x