Heart shaped

One of the reasons I hate working full time to cover for a colleague is that hubby often starts work at 5pm, which means we don't see each other for days. On these days, we often communicate by post-it-note, Thanks to the lovely Lisa, who sent me some heart shaped goodies to cheer me up when i had to work late, we can now communicate romantically by post-it-note!!!

The Stumpery

I finished work at 3pm, and hubby (who was on a day off) had walked up to meet me. We decided not to go straight home, but to detour to the gardens at Wentworth Castle and use our annual pass. One area of the garden that we have never visited is the Stumpery, so that is where we headed. However we had to pass the beautiful fagrant roses in the Union Jack garden - I'd love to know what these are and I wish we had scratch n sniff blogging so that you too could smell them.


So this is what a Stumpery is, and an easy idea to translate to a smaller garden too I think, but perhaps with just one stump.

I felt as if I was in a fairy glen - it is a lovely part of the garden.

On our way back, we passed the old church which sits in the middle of the estate - it is really well preserved.

Which is more than can be said for the old conservetory. However the trust have secured some funding for this, and they are fundraising like mad to raise the rest. It is a huge place and will look stunning when it is finally restored.

It was a great walk. and made me feel as if my day wasn't all work. I love long light summer days.

All females great and small.

On Friday night, I had a night out with "the girls". The venue was somewhere I love to go for a night out, Baldwins in Sheffield. Baldwins host theme nights. Its a great idea, you book a table or tables depending on the size of your party and turn up for a lovely meal, followed by dancing to a live band and a disco. The nights are very popular for special birthdays, works nights out, general get togethers etc. (I have to say I was very impressed with the young girl who was having her hen night here with her friends and relatives - so much more tasteful than trawling the streets getting hammered!) The atmosphere is great, they seem to have the knack of getting you into the party spirit straight away. The theme for our night out was "Ascot Ladies Day".

It struck me as I danced the night away, that the room was full of ladies ranging from short to tall, thin to plump, young to old, abled, disabled, black, white and everything in between that almost all of these ladies would have gone through a general crisis of confidence, the nightmare of "getting ready" that I had - piles of clothing on the bedroom floor that was too tight, not right, the face in the mirror not looking as it should, makeup only making it look worse! But every last one of them looked stunning, beautiful and amazing. As if Gok Wan had turned each and every one of them out! It was like a "Here come the girls" advert. Almost every one of them danced till late too - especially the table of 80 year olds. Wow!

Aren't women great!

My own attempt at glamour for the evening can be seen on the sidebar as I insisted on being photographed looking half decent for a change! I have to say, I was way under dressed! but my wardrobe caters for camping trips and not trips to Ascot!! I had a fabulous time.

PS my bargainous shoes £5 brand new Jane Shiltons are the most comfortable dancing shoes ever!

Sharrow Vale Road

Come wander with me down Sharrow Vale Road in Sheffield. I love this area of Sheffield - its so much nicer than the centre of town for shopping at the moment. All the shops, restaurants,bars etc are individually owned and the area has almost a villagey feel to it. I can only show you a very very small selection of the places along here, but I hope you get a feel for it.

Firstly, one of the newer shops and the brilliantly named "Sharrow Marrow"- a greengrocers selling "local" fruit and veg. We bought peas in the pod that had been grown by our next door neighbours in Doncaster.

I loved the imaginative container for the fresh herbs. My great grandad used to call chamber pots "Guzunders" as it "Guzunder" the bed! I may have to borrow this idea.

The walls are decorated in spectacular fashion in these parts.

The furniture store has some nice pieces - but is a bit pricey. There are plenty of gorgeous "home" type stores on the road.

Some of the old pubs have been turned into very succesful bars and music venues. Sheffield has plenty of venues where you can catch live music, whatever your taste - I think that it is a great selling point for the city.

It has several small boutiques that are not too pricey either. The Dancing queen likes to have a nosey around these (on pay day!) as you can get something a bit individual from these places . There are also lots of "vintage" type shops selling clothing, jewellery, bags etc that are worth a rummage around.

There is a good discount fabric shop, and also a wool shop.

There are proper florists dotted around.

The Lescar hotel - famous locally for hosting "The Comedy Club" is on Sharrow Vale Road. Lots of great comedians have played here.

We were thrilled to find Pete McKee's new Gallery had opened . I love the name - it was the name of one of his collections. The gallery is amazing - I could move into it.
The dog on the front of his shop is his famous "council" dog that also featured in one of his earlier collections.

Pete kindly allowed me to take a photo inside his gallery of his kitchen - where he had "Hancocks Half Hour" playing on his Roberts radio. You'll notice that the table features a bottle of "Hendo's" relish!!!

He has some stunning pieces of art (and furniture!) in the gallery. This is one of the designs that he did for fashion designer Paul Smith for his Tokyo exhibition. It's currently featured on Paul Smith Bags and Tee Shirts - I am hoping he starts to do similar stuff to sell in the gallery. If you are local and get chance to pop in, then do so - its a real treat.

To say you are spoiled for choice when it comes to eateries here is an understatement. A few of our favourites are:

The Greedy Greek - where we had lunch. It's always sooooooooo tasty.

Fancie - I took you here last time I visited, just before Christmas. Wonderful cup cakes.

When I worked evenings, Hubby and I used to have regular breakfast "dates" at Cafe Ceres. The owner is french - and it shows.

On one of the side roads (Hickmott Road) is Nonnas Takeaway. Nonnas is a v trendy, v posey, but v delicious Italian Restaurant/Cafe/Place to be seen - on the main Eccclesall Road. Its little "Cucina" is stuffed full of gorgeous goodies - from cakes to full blown meals. You can get a picnic in a box for 2 to share to take to a nearby park. What a romantic thing to do. Sorry the photo is blurred, but I had to take it quickly as I was getting some odd looks from the Italians (or is that just their normal look Michela!!)inside, and hubby was getting a bit embarrassed!

We can recommend the Burrito's from the Mexican across the road too.

It must be great to be able to stroll along and shop regularly on here. It has a good selection of (very longstanding and proper)butchers, fishmongers, and bakeries.

I couldn't resist taking one of these for the football mad young man.

The Pottery Ponds

I had heard about The Pottery Ponds and Waterloo Kiln, and I had driven past it a million times, but on this wonderful summer evening, hubby and I decided to pull into the car park and have a gander.





All I can say is WOW!!!! This is all that remains now of the potteries that made the now very collectible Rockingham Pottery. If you have any Rockingham Pottery, apparently its worth much more than a substantial lottery win.

The only remaining kiln is in surprisingly good condition. It has been used as an isolation hospital and a house since it stopped making pottery.

You can't get inside, but you can see inside - Its a bit like a tardis, it looks smaller on the outside than it does from the inside.

So once again, I have found another fascinating piece of history 5 minutes away from my house!

As we drove back home, we decided to stop and have a walk through Wentworth park, past Wentworth Woodhouse as it was such a beautiful evening.

The house is splendid and takes my breath away every time I walk by it. I have only managed to get in once. A while back, it was a teacher training college, and they held a Craft Fair in the entrance hall. These days, it is owned (on a short lease I believe) by a recluse who lives in it with his impressive art collection. The only people he has apparently allowed to visit is The Georgian Society, my pal and I have considered joining them as we would LOVE a tour.

It was a lovely evening stroll.

The World Cup

For his birthday, the young man requested a World Cup football. This is how he watches every match.

He plays the full 90 minutes of every match - plus a bit before and after too.

Boston Castle & Canklow Woods

My daughter has been banging on about how good the walks around Boston Castle in Rotherham are since she had to do some filming for a media project there.
Now I'm not a big fan of the town of Rotherham as you know, but with not much time to spare on Saturday afternoon, Hubby and I decided to take a look - and we were really surprised.

Boston Castle was built in the 1700's as a hunting lodge by the Earls of Effingham to commemorate the Boston Tea Party. At this time, the Earls of Effingham were very influential in Britain and a few of them were Prime Ministers . I believe they were related to royalty too. This is another place that I would love to step back in time and see how the place looked in history. These days, the Castle itself is slipping into decay. What a shame.

It stands in Boston Park, which I have to admit, I had never heard of despite working about 200 yards from here for about 8years a while back. The park is a bit neglected, but it has some interesting little corners. This was the original entrance to Jesus College built by Sir Thomas Rotherham in the early 1400's. Rotherhams 6th form college (called Thomas Rotherham) is currently built at the back of here)

One of the best bits is the trail that the council have put around the ancient woodland. They have put lots of interesting boards on the trail featuring the history, geography and nature for this very spot.

There are over 20 of these information boards - all with fascinating facts.

I cannot believe that Rotherham was EVER just north of the equator - it would have had a far better climate than it currently has. Fascinating.

We totally loved it and found it really interesting. We shall be going back for a longer walk.

The real best bit is the view from the Castle itself. I had just bought my new camera, and hadn't quite got the hang of it, so you cannot really see how stunning the views are from the top of the hill. You can see right over Sheffield, and out towards the Peak District. I bet in looked very different in the 1700's.