The day after tomorrow

And so after our evening stroll, it was far too nice for me to go indoors, so whilst the young man revised, and the dancing queen "chillaxed", I sat out and quoffed a nice largish glass of wine.  All of a sudden I noticed this really strange glowing cloud over our garden - so I shouted them to come and have a look at it.

 "It reminds me of the space ship in the movie The Day After Tomorrow"  I said.
Puzzled looks from the kids.
"Do you mean Independance Day?"
"Oh yes, I think I do" I said
"It'll be the wine" one of them said to the other!

 So I sat waiting to be abducted by aliens - but they obviously had other plans and they sped off.

So I poured myself another glass.

Summer evenings

It's that time of year when I have to work extra hours to cover staff holidays - so I have managed to miss all of the great weather! I insisted on an evening stroll after work yesterday though, and I thought that Elsecar Park would be nice.

 Over the summer, they have local brass bands organised for the bandstand on Sunday's.  I will try and catch one of these.

 I also insisted that the teenagers joined me - they still moan if I extend the walk from my original plan, which I always do!  "How much further?" They often ask "Just around the next corner" I always reply!

 In olden days, it was called "Elsecar by the sea" as locals used to paddle in the reservoir before they were able to get to the coast.  They even built a couple of little beaches around it.  Its very popular with Anglers now.

 So, just around the corner we went.  Passed the Bun and Milk club - which I think was so called because they used to hand out food to poorer families.

 There are still quite a lot of very pretty miners cottages about.  Elsecar colliery was owned by the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth and were reputed to be good employers.  The cottages in Elsecar are much nicer than ones in other local ex mining villages.

 I've photographed this Clematis before, but it is so spectacular.  The folk who live in the house will be expecting me next year!

I hope you are managing to make the most of this lovely summer weather.

My little corner of the world

Today I was able to show off my lovely little corner of the world.  Rosie - one of my lovely bloggy friends that I have met up with before had expressed an interest in coming to see the village and big house in Wentworth - so I offered to play tour guide for the day.  Rosie and husband/chauffeur/expert Pizza maker  Paul arrived mid morning in the corner of the car park - as arranged.

 After a picnic start, we headed straight down to the big house.

 They were quite impressed by its size - but I explained that this was actually just the stable block!

 Just around the corner, tucked out of the way is the great house itself - Wentworth Woodhouse.

 I won't go into detail about it as I have brought you here many times before - but never on such a hot day!

 We ventured down to look at 2 of the 4 lakes,

 By this time we were getting extremely hot!

 After a walk back through the village, we found a cool refuge in the old church - which is now disused, but open on Sundays now throughout the summer.

 and then we wandered into the newer church

 Before heading back to the ornamental gardens at the garden centre.  Here's Rosie emerging from the bear pit!

 The light in the gardens was beautiful and lit up the gorgeous acer trees.

I had a wonderful day.  We walked and chatted and had ice cream, tea, enormous cream scones.  I think we took about a 1000 photographs between us! I hope you enjoyed it both of you, and I hope your arms are not too sore Rosie - they looked really red when you left!

He writes the songs that make the whole world sing.

And so on Saturday morning my sister and I boarded a train and travelled across the Pennines to Manchester.  We checked into our very swish boutique hotel, and then hit the town for a spot of sight seeing, shopping and lunch.

 You cannot beat a decent northern Town Hall for architectural Splendour.  They rival any Cathedral in England or France.

 They were built when northern towns and cities were showing off there prosperity.

 Although it was a grey day, we were thankful that there was no rain!
We decided to wander through Harvey Nics, where we stroked Jimmy Choo and Laboutin shoes, but had more real interest in the cafe!
The tasting boxes were indeed incredibly tasty

 And I think a bottle of Prosecco on a Saturday afternoon might become "a thing"!!

 Cheers!!  I must be tiddly to post a photo of myself!

 All too soon it was time to dash back to the hotel via the very Disneyesque Printworks

 Where the bunting is hung in profusion.

 After a quick freshen up and into our glad rags, we hot footed it to Manchester Arena

 Where with several hundred other "Fanilows" we sung and danced and cried our eyes out with the lovely lovely man himself..

 (Barry Manilow Michela - you may have to ask your Mum!)  We had great seats, but we were up and dancing with every one else.  He was just magic.

 You know that when I was 15, I used to listen to Radio Luxembourg under my pillow at night - just to hear "Mandy".  I also used to buy all his LP's as soon as they came out and rush home to play them over and over again until I had learned all the words.  I knew every word of every song he sang and I sang my heart out.  Thank you Barry for making me feel like a fifteen year old girl again.  And he said that he would be back, so it may not have been our last time together after all.

 And then on the way back to our hotel, who should we bump into but the Queen of England!

A totally and utterly brilliant night all together - and I reckon I shall be annoying everyone this week by singing my Manilow repertoire! And Lydia - who are "Take That"?

A date with an old flame

This weekend I am going to see an old flame.  I first fell in love with him when I was fifteen years old, and all though times have changed, we both have grown older, but my love for him has never waned.

Every time I see him, I think it might be the last, and I feel that more than ever this time - so I hope it will be very special.  I hope his recent hip replacement holds out when he gets a bit energetic!   I know that when I see and hear him, he will make me fall in love all over again, but then undoubtedly he will break my heart before we part.  There's no "could" about it, it "will" be magic.
You know I'll be telling you all when I get back.

Wendy Capri

Back in the early 1980's when I worked in the "proper office", we used to spend our lunch breaks busy knitting away.  If you came to work with us and you couldn't knit, you could by the time you left!  We found a fabulous and cheap supply of knitting cotton on Barnsley market - 2 lovely sisters who bought sub standard Wendy Wools from a local factory (when we used to have them!).  I would be despatched on Saturday mornings to bulk buy, and the divi up the wool on Monday morning - I knew how to motivate the girls!.

One of my colleagues wrote a fab pattern.  It was basically 2 pieces and you knitted the pieces up according to your preference, either 2 slash necks, 2 v necks (so you got a very lovely V back as well) or one of each.  Sleeves were added later when we knitted in mohair for winter.

We would start clicking the needles on Monday lunchtime and by Friday night we would have a new top to go out in!

I loved them, they were fabulous and cost around £1 to make at the time.  Oh those were the days. x