Shrewsbury

The summer holidays will soon be at an end and already there is a hint of autumn in the air, especially in the mornings, yesterday was quite misty until the sun burnt through. Hopefully we will have an Indian Summer through September, I think we need one after the wet summer.

Finding time to blog is difficult ~ and I often find that I have forgotten to take the camera with me on our days out! On Thursday I went with daughter number 2 to Shrewsbury for a day out. We let the train take the strain - only a 1/2 hour journey - and spent a really enjoyable time together. She is getting serious one to one at the moment with daughter number one on holiday in Paris.

As you can see, Shrewsbury is well worth a visit, although too much to see in one day with a wonderful Abbey (do any of you remember the Cadfael series on TV?), Castle, Museums, a gorgeous park and some smashing shops.

The photo above is of Castle Street, the walk up into town from the station, it's only a couple of minutes.

This is Grope Lane (I think were the Butchers used to trade), there's a Fish Street as well - one can't imagine how smelly these places would have been in medieval days!

Above photos from http://www.pbase.com/
One of the main shopping areas. Just along from here was the cafe we went to for lunch. It was very 'Victorian' with flowery wallpaper, a dresser full of china knick knacks, lacy table cloths and pretty pictures. The food was not so dainty - a chicken tikka baguette for daughter and a BLT for me, together with a pint of coke each!!

On our way to lunch I suggested I showed her the oldest building known as Bear Steps (1300's). It is now a little gallery and tea rooms. I was very pleased to discover that they had an exhibition taking place by the Shrewsbury Spinners and Weavers. Lunch was slightly delayed whilst I had a brief chat with the ladies, and purchased a drop spindle from them for £2.50.

Above is the Bear Steps front and back.

One place we did not have time to visit was the Dingle. The Dingle. set in the park is a 'quarry' which many years ago was turned into a spectacular floral garden. This is a picture taken in Spring but it is an amazing place year round

Alas on our way back to the train station I noticed a shop that stocks Cath Kidston, I think a return visit is necessary.

So anyway, today I got the drop spindle out and had a go, amazingly I managed to produce a passable yarn - finer than I can on my Ashford for sure! Daughter 2 took this 'action' shot.

O Dear, back to work today after a wonderful week off. We didn't go away, just days out, but what beautiful days they were. After Aberdovey we went to the Stiperstones to pick Whinberries.



Now you may have gathered that I do not like my photo being taken, but Ian managed to catch me with my bottom in the air! Click on the photo for a lovely view = ha! ha!



Whinberries (Bilberries) quite simply make the most delicious pie. They are small, fiddly and take an age to pick, but in this sort of surrounding that is ok.





Back home I sorted out all the little bits of twig and dried leaf, and found I had enough for 2 pies and one crumble. As a kiddie I loved to stick my tongue out after eating pie as it turns purple for a while!





I am soooo pleased to have been given this award by Gill at Lucy Locket.

Started by Bella-Enchanted, the award is to be "awarded to those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world". Thank you so much Gill for thinking of me, and I agree with you in that I am also in awe of many blogs I have found in recent months, there really are some inspirational, kind and lovely ladies out there.

The following 7 blogs are being awarded the 'Nice Matters Award' by me. I only wish I could choose more!

Deb

Rhonda

Kelly

Ruth

Rowan

Rosevintage

and Rubyred

These ladies all have lovely blogs for different reasons, be they gardening, craft, thrift or interesting hobbies, but as well as this they are all nice people, I visit frequently!

Aberdovey Lovely

Our annual day on the beach. Aberdovey has a nice beach, some nice shops and some very nice Bora Brith!



Glorious views of the hills across the Dovey estuary



My girl is 15 on Sunday, but one is never too old to dig holes!



And her mum will never be too old to fly a kite!

I like to shop as locally as possible. This has not been as a result of the new trend in sustainable living, traceability, air miles, carbon footprints etc, it's just how I have always done it, as did my mother and hers before her.

My fruit and veg come from a small farmshop, Richard there stocks produce as locally as possible. Milk comes from our nearest farm (which is wonderful enough to do a whole post on!). Any groceries come from a small independent grocery store in Tenbury. I try to stay out of supermarkets as I do not generally like the way they operate (~of course I do understand that others do use them, each to their own).

Today I did my meat shopping and Clive kindly let me take some photos.......

Here is Heath Farm Meats in Bagginswood (sounds like something out of 'The Shire'!) . Clive and Clare own it, they produce all the beef, lamb and pork themselves, the chickens come from another local producer, and their dad provides the eggs. The 'shop' is in the farmyard and opens 4 days a week. Nothing is too much trouble for these lovely people and their meat is superb. They take their animals to the abbatoir one or two at a time and send them off with as little stress as possible, this improves the texture of the meat.

It's nice to pull up a chair and have a natter while they are preparing your meat, it makes an occasion out of shopping.

This is the rebatched soap (well some of it, I couldn't wait!) mentioned in my last post. It is very, very easy to make. I got the recipe from Rhonda at Down to Earth. I have been really impressed with this lady's blog, lots of sensible thinking going on over there! Anyway here is the post soap

They look a little 'rough' but I like them. I used lavender oil and next time I shall use more because the scent is not that strong. The hearts were cut using a biscuit cutter. I have some nice cellophane bags and ribbon so later in the year I will be making Christmas presents!

Another blog I have discovered recently is bean-sprouts, I like this girls attitude! One day I shall keep bees and her accounts of bee keeping have had me in stitches.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Well the floods have gone and poor old Tenbury is looking very drear. When the floods first happened it was all very surreal, and then when they went everyone seemed upbeat and energised about getting back to normal as quickly as possible. Two weeks later and more than 50% of the offices and shops are gutted, part of Market Street pavement has collapsed into the brook and people are looking fed up and a bit worn out. I shall be showing my support by doing as much shopping as I can in the town. This must be the scenario played out in several towns across the country.

On my way to and from work I often thank my lucky stars that my commute is so scenic. I thought I would share a few shots with you. The journey is 9 miles through agricultural countryside.



We went down my road this evening and Ian took these photos. This fine weather the last two days has caused the farmers to work madly trying to get hay and haylige cut. Ian loves taking photos of bales (?).





Most of the way the road is very narrow, and very bendy, with three narrow bridges, two woods, one hamlet and...



This gorgeous little church.



The road wends along its way, you can just see it on the right of this photo. At this point I am usually looking out for a large school bus coming down the hill in the morning.



On the crafting front very little has been done recently. Mum sent me loads of wool odds and ends so I have been knitting beanies for the Christmas Box appeal.

One thing I have discovered over the last week or so has been the number of 'green' blogs in blogland. This really interests me and I am looking at ways to 'simplify' my life so I shall post about them next I think. I used a rebatching soap recipe I found on one of them yesterday to make 8 bars of soap, they are on the drying rack now and they smell lovely - I used lavender oil.