A Slow Monday

Hello Lovelies,

having worked the weekend I had a day off today. I needed to pop to the shops but the good weather tempted me to put on my boots and take the long route.

As you can see it's been pretty wet here lately.

I wandered down the lane enjoying the sunshine.

and noticing a buzzard soaring in the blue sky.

The colours of winter. Faded green grass, brown hedgerows and bleached grass.

There were not many birds around, possibly because of that buzzard. I did spot a pretty chaffinch .

Eventually I got back to the village streets. This householder always plants flowers in these little drains. It's such a simple thing that always makes me smile.

Peeking in the yarn shop window I noticed it's Valentines theme.

And there's a notice outside the florist about ordering your Valentines day flowers.

In the local shop there are cards and chocolate and some very expensive roses.

As we are trying to be thrifty at the moment I certainly wasn't tempted by any of that. In fact hubby and I  have agreed not to buy anything for Valentines this year.

 I haven't even bought any Daffodils for a few weeks. But a £1 bunch did make it's way into my basket today.

 And they seemed like more of a treat than usual.

Walking home I smiled at the snowdrops by the church.

And once home I realised it was a great drying day...woohoo. This is the first time this year my north facing garden has had enough sun.

 For our tea I made a stir fry and added left over beef ( brisket) from yesterday's roast dinner. It was a big hit and I was happy to have found another thrifty success.

There was also time for some crochet. I'm enjoying using up scraps of yarn and hope to  turn them into another blanket

I was inspired by  THIS wonderful blanket  and I've already made all 36 centres required. Now I just need to turn them all into 11 round squares like this, before joining as I go with the 12th round.

I do love a slow day with sunshine, flowers and yarn.
Jacquie x

Light Night

Hello Lovelies,
for 10 years now the city of Nottingham has had a Light Night. We have never been before but this year we finally managed to get there. Well, the "we" on this occasion was hubby, eldest and I. the other two boys were not keen to go.

There are events all around the city but we decided to start at the Castle.
Nottingham castle is set in lovely gardens, and many coloured lights had been used to illuminate the plants. The effect was very striking.

HERE is the scene in daylight, just to give you an idea of the setting, as it's hard to see from my pictures.

I loved this wicker Robin Hood statue.

The background lights were constantly changing colour. It was very effective.

So much colour...in February. 

As a lady stood next to me observed..."it's amazing what you can do with a few coloured lights".

From the gardens we climbed up to the castle it's self.

Sadly the original castle that stood on this huge rock overlooking the town of "Snottingham"....yes really :0)....is long gone.

The building that is now here is a museum and on light night there's free admission.

You can't deny it's built in the perfect defensive position, high on a rock with views for miles from it's battlements.

It's slightly dizzying looking down at the streets below.

 Gosh it was chilly up there, the temperature hovered around zero Celsius and the odd snowflake fluttered down.

It's a shame the cloud obscured the full moon.

Here's the entrance to the castle, complete with coloured lights. We did pop inside for a visit...it was warm inside.

Back outside the bandstand attracted our attention.

I loved this dreamy installation with it's suspended umbrellas and changing colours.

As we left the castle we saw the signs for another open attraction. The Brewhouse yard museum is much more my sort of museum than the castle really. It's years since I have been but I recall great room sets that brought an era to life.

Down the hill we went, past a really old pub.

The oldest in England.

There were plenty of people down here. In fact there was a long queue to get into the museum, so we decided to give it a miss on this occasion.

I loved the lights illuminating parts of castle rock.

And the heat from this fire was so welcome.

There was one more place we wanted to see so we climbed up the hill again.

 Every sort of light up thing imaginable was for sale by the castle. I felt glad my boys are past pestering me for this sort of stuff.

It's not far at all from the castle to the Old Market square, which is sporting a huge wheel at the moment. It's only here till March so it was nice to see it as part of the light night attractions.

This side of the wheel was prettier. So many lights.

constantly changing colour.

I did not feel tempted to go for a ride. I think my fairground ride days are over...except for the carousel.

I loved  the look of the wheel though.

And how it brightened up a winters evening.

And I always love to see old buildings with character.

After a while we could stand the cold no longer.

So we headed home for hot chocolate and home made fruit loaf.

We loved our first Light Night visit...I certainly hope it's not the last.
Jacquie x