Sailing from Portsmouth

I've been on holiday to France and it's taken me longer than usual to get back into the swing of things.  I can't even blame the holiday washing as we wore very few clothes as the weather was extremely kind to us and we wore mainly swimwear for 2 weeks! 

We started our journey fro Portsmouth again - on a very hot day.  

 I had noticed that the tickets we bought for the Historic Dockyard were still valid, so as we had all day to explore before we caught our ferry, we decided to look around some of the exhibits that we hadn't seen last year.

 This was the first time I had ever been on a submarine.  It was fascinating, but confirmed my suspicions that I never want to go to sea in one!!  It was extremely claustrophobic and I could not imagine 75+ Matelot's on board with all the supplies that they needed..

 The guide pointed out that they would have been able to smoke abord too - I cannot imagine how bad the air quality would have been.  You didn't get your own bed either as there is not enough room.  The beds were used on a shift system!

 All the guides had been submariners and were very informative.

 After our visit to the museum, we decided to wander around Spice Island, the older part of Portsmouth.

 There is so much to see.

 I love the mix of buildings across here.

 I bet if walls could talk they would have a tale or two to tell.

 We sailed just after 8pm.  After a lovely evening sailing past the Isle of Wight with a drink on the deck, we retired to our cabin for a sleep....

 ... and arrived bright and early in St Malo in time for breakfast.

It was lovely weather across in France too for the start of our French vacance.

With feathers all stubby and brown.......

We took a walk around the lake at Clumber Park with the walking group last week - followed by a BBQ.  It was lovely and we didn't let a bit of mizzly drizzle spoil our fun.

 But the stars of the day.....

 were these gorgeous Cygnets.

 So perfect.

 And fluffy.

We all loved them

Streets in the sky

Hubby and I have been regular visitors at Sheffield's Peddlar  night markets since they started last Autumn.  The markets are predominately street food carts (totally delicious and so spoilt for choice), some art, a bar and a dj.  They are aimed at the young "hipster" crowd, but the food is too tasty to stay away!  They are always held in very obscure urban area's, but that adds to the interest! 

 We were excited to hear that the one last weekend was to be held at the Urban Splash development at Park Hill Flats - something that I've written about many times on my blog.

 We decided to walk up from town and had to keep stopping to photograph the view on the way up!  It's a tad steep!  Although the skies were grey on Saturday, the rain held off.

 You may remember I wrote about this fabulous place/eyesore (opinion has always been split!) when they lit up the graffiti on the bridge between the flats.  The "I love you, will you marry me " bridge is quite famous now!  (and research showed that she sadly did not marry him!).

 The DJ was rocking out banging tunes, and the "design" people were exhibiting their fantastic ware's in the old on site pub "The Scottish Queen".  Hubby regaled me with tales of police raids he had done here when the place had "gone to the dogs".  The "Streets in the Sky" were built in the late 1950's to re house people that were being moved from slum clearances across the city.  The clever planners at that time moved neighbours to be next door to existing neighbours and for a long time the place was considered OK to live in.  Many of the ex occupants still talk about the great community spirit and the feeling of safety living here.  Then in the mid 1970's, the council decided to move all the "problem" citizens in, and that heralded it's demise.

 Urban Splash are doing a great job making the 900+ apartments current and funky and they are situated in a great spot with one of the best views of the city and immediately  behind the railway station.  If they were in London, they would be fetching far more than their current £100K price tag.

 We enjoyed a good look around the sales office and one of the show flats.

 I love the way they have kept their old street names.

 And of course we finished off with a tasty treat!  It was well worth the climb up the hill!