If music be the food of love, play on............

We are lucky in Sheffield that we can go out and listen to live music any night of the week.  We have venues large and small and everything in between catering for every taste in music.   Here are some that I've managed to catch recently.

The wonderful Paul Carrack (a Sheffielder) ex of Squeeze, Mike & the Mechanics and many other great bands, played in the Botanical Gardens in Summer.  He was tremendous.   

 The Leadmill was the venue for the totally gorgeous Mr Jack Savoretti.  He too was amazing.  The Leadmill is a fairly small venue and Jack sounded amazing up close.

 Stop looking at me with those eyes young man!!!!!!

 He played with a band of excellent musicians, we had a great night.

 The City Hall was the venue for Squeeze - the full band.  They sang all my faves (apart from my absolute fave!!) and took me back to some great times in the 1980's.

 We also got the added bonus of Dr John Cooper Clarke thrown in at the Squeeze gig.   We didn't expect him to be as funny as he was.  I love people who are so clever with language and words..  He held us spellbound.  Very inspirational.

 The City Hall was also the venue for ABC and the South Bank Orchestra

 They played several of their hits and the second half of the show was given over to the iconic albumn "Lexicon of Love" which I know is a personal favourite of many of you.

 I had never given it much thought before, but at a time when Synth Pop was all the rage, ABC were still making music with lots of real musicians.

 It was a great concert and everyone sang and danced along.

And I got to meet one of my favourite bloggers too!  (although sadly we didn't take a photo! ).  I knew that  Curtise at The Second Hand Years was going and kept a look out for her.  It's always lovely to put a real face to the name.  Great to me you Curtise. xx

Youlgreave

On Saturday, if we hadn't been walking with our walking group, we would have taken one look at the weather and stayed in!  It was raining very heavily when we set off, but we prepared for the weather and went off to meet the rest of the group in the fab little village of Youlgreave in Derbyshire.  I've trained our leader well - as he drove past us, he yelled from his car that there was a coffee morning at the local chapel, so we headed there to wait for the rest of them.

 We weren't very far into the walk when the rain cleared up and we were all suddenly wearing too many clothes!

 The Youlgreave walk was one that I had suggested, but our leader had tinkered with my favourite stroll and we ended up wandering in places where I hadn't walked before - so that was a bonus.

 We came across a shooting party.  We were on the Haddon Hall Estate - it felt very Downton Abbey!

 We passed so many gorgeous farms and cottages .

 The day had a beautiful autumnal feel to if - see what we would have missed if we had stayed at home,

 I love this area.  It is very peaceful and a bit off the beaten track for tourists to the Peak District.

 I think we walked about 9 miles with a couple of steep ups and downs.  I am finding 9 or 10 miles just right for a walk these days.  Before we joined the group, 5 miles was my limit.

 Off course, we ended up in the pub after the walk (as usual).

I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday.

Poppies at Bradfield Church

Thanks to Facebook, I found out that the Church at Bradfield near Sheffield was projecting poppies onto the front this week.  Hubby and I went along this evening for a look so I thought I'd share my photo's with you.  I think the poppies are on until Sunday.

 It is such a simple but effective idea.  We thought it looked stunning.

 We discovered the pub next door was having  a bonfire and firework display with pie & peas and a pint too.  Bonus!!

Derwent Dam

It is my favourite time of the year for walking in the Derwent Valley around the Dam.  Come with me and enjoy the beautiful autumnal colours.