ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 44TH OF 2020

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So as you will know from last week's post we were away last week, so this week you get the enjoyment of seeing what we got up to (as this week has been wall to wall work and trying to get back into the grove) 

So first up a trip to Brinkburn Priory, it surprised us as the church was intact despite Henry VIII dissolution of the monasteries, reading up afterwards it appears it was repaired in the Victorian era as it wasn't completely ruinous unlike some of the abbeys and monasteries around the country

The inside was beautiful and the stained glass absolutely gorgeous

The rear of the church and you can see the church on the left and the manor house built with some of the outbuildings on the left, although they used the original monastery footprint for the cellars.  The house is in ruins inside as they had a significant dry rot problem and I'll be honest, the church building and the half remaining cloisters were far prettier. 

then we toddled off to Newbiggin by the sea, to see their sea sculpture

The maquette to the statue is on the sea front, so we found that too

And managed to get a photo of the maquette and the statue in the shot, the artist is Sean Henry who did the man on the hill at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The following day we went to Belsay Hall Castle and gardens, it was a lovely day, very peaceful walking through the quarry garden and we loved the smell of the candyfloss tree that is grown quite prolifically here and smells at this time of year of burnt sugar

The hall and castle are always a beautiful sight I love the warmth of the stone.  We couldn't climb the tower due to the times we live in, but we did enjoy the solace, the fresh air and time with each other. 

Tuesday saw us visiting Alnwick Castle, always a favourite as it was used for filming Harry Potter in the first two films.  This particular wall is the one the Ford Anglia flies over in the second film for anyone interested. 

We also went in search of Professor McGonagall's room as we wandered, not sure which one it is.  

Alnwick has also been used in the last transformers film as well as a key filming location for Downton Abbey and it is still lived in by the family that own it. 

Wednesday and we headed to Bamburgh Castle, despite the fact that it is one of the most iconic castles in the country we didn't actually get a photo of the exterior.  Again still lived in by its current owner, I must admit to admiring this amazing ceiling inside. 

We also were due to visit Dunstanburgh castle but as you can see the rain was pouring, we got half way along the path to it (as that's the only way to get there) and had to admit defeat and turn back, so this is as close as we got! 

Thursday was our penultimate trip out and we'd opted for the beautiful National Trust house of Cragside with its surrounding gardens, built during the Victorian era by an Industrialist, it is always such a delight, originally this was moorland which he planted out its hard to believe that it hasn't always been woods. 

Final day back to Alnwick but this time the gardens, designed and built in the year 2000 they really are amazing, we spotted this lego sculpture of the gardens on our way in

And here is the grand cascade in all its glory

Absolutely beautiful day just missing some blue skies but we managed to dodge the raindrops

So as you can see we had a lovely holiday away, thankfully it was last week and not this week, because had it been this week we'd have had to cancel as our local area is now in a local tier 3 lockdown, which means no moving in and out of the area amongst other things. 

We arrived home bright and early on Saturday, said 20 year old had been home alone all week working on his university stuff, so he was grateful for some company and it was fabulous to catch up. 

The rest of the week has been washing, drying, work etc but I'm definitely grateful for the break last week, it was very much needed! 

I hope you've had a good week too, if you fancy joining in, pop a post together, come back and link up and we can come and visit. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 43RD OF 2020

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So this is going to be a brief post as I'm preparing it in advance, hopefully fingers crossed and everything else, we should be away this week.  As we stand at the moment travelling between tier 2 on the covid chart is still permitted provided you don't mix households which we won't because it is me and hubby only.  As I stand on Thursday 15 October we should still be good to go, but this is still in the balance, keep your fingers and toes crossed we manage it because I really need a break away and time to relax my brain for a bit. 

I hope you've had an awesome week, it will be late when I return so thought I'd post this, so you can link and join if you fancy. 

Much love

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 42ND OF 2020

 Good morning lovely people I hope I find you well, tis Friday time for 

So first up last Friday we were once again over at my sisters, this time with hubby.  He was busy repairing two laminate floors for her, no mean feat when you realise that he was working backwards with the laminate - rather than click and drop he had to drop and click if that makes sense.  At one point we really didn't think he would manage to repair it, but he persevered and managed it which was brilliant as it looks so much better now. 

In the meantime me, my Mum and my sister all set to painting her bedroom, she'd taken the time in the week to replace the couple of damaged pieces of paper, so we were able to get straight on.  By late Friday afternoon the room was fully painted and glossed and everything was pushed back as well as we were able to. 

It looks sooooooooo much better. 

Saturday was our day off and we intended on doing, well not a lot if I'm honest.  As it turned out however, my sister (who'd managed to find a wardrobe on marketplace on Facebook), needed a hand to get the new wardrobe up her stairs.  We headed straight over, hubby, sister and the van man moved the wardrobe, then hubby re-attached the doors and I put the shelves back before pushing into its final space.  I emptied the original wardrobe and then hubby set to dismantling it and within the hour we were all done and back home. 

I had an afternoon moving crafty items around my desk (does anyone else get that when they have such a huge amount to do and manage none of it) before we settled down for the evening.  I was grateful for the down time even if I didn't get done what I set to get done. 

On the Sunday we had a quiet day, said 20 year old was working, so me and hubby kicked back and had the slower day that we'd intended on the Saturday and I managed some crafting which was brilliant. 

I enjoyed my first mince pie of the season 

and hubby made his Christmas cake 

I also made a chorizo and butterbean stew to have for lunch and it was lovely 

Monday arrived all too quickly and back into work mode for both of us.  However, we enjoyed watching Stranger Things on Netflix in the evenings, my sister had said it was a good watch on the run up to Halloween and not scary, I think I'll dispute the second statement on the not scary bit but I did enjoy it and it was a compelling watch.  No doubt we will get around to watching the second series moving forward.  

As a result of the binge watching we had a very late night on a school night (not like us at all) and so it took a couple of days to pull back on the sleep I'd missed out on (I need an awful lot of sleep if I'm honest).  

My one day in the office made me notice the autumn colours 

and my autumn window display that I mentioned last week is feeling more appropriate as we move towards the middle of October

We've enjoyed a couple of walks and I've managed to tick a few things off my to do list this week, but overall its been a relatively quiet affair.  Unfortunately, the new tiered lockdown means we are on the mid-tier which means we can no longer blend households which means decorating currently has to go on hold at my sisters.  Unless I'm there on my own when she's working, so for now I'll down tools for a few weeks and hope they can get things back on an even keel where I can be inside in the same room as my Mum and sister once again. 

I took this photo this week I was putting my make up on the other morning and noticed how beautiful the sky was so opened the window to get this shot.  How beautiful is that! 

If you fancy joining in pop a post together, come back and link up so we can come and visit. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 41ST OF 2020

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well last Friday I headed over to my sister's house once again as it was operation paint that front room, once again I was so busy painting and sorting that I forgot to take photos, but I'm sure you can imagine her delight when by the end of the day we had managed to paint the entire room, paint the chimney breast a new colour (she's gone for a pewter grey), gloss all the woodwork including the door and window bottom and return all of the furniture items to their rightful place. 

My Mum then went around on Saturday morning with her newly taken up curtains, so the room is looking sooooooooooo much better. 

We have operation - let's paint that bedroom going on today so wish us luck as there is an awful lot more to do in there than the front room (we thought we'd ease ourselves in). 

Saturday and the weather was exactly as forecast which was really really wet all day, although we certainly haven't had it anywhere near as bad as some places so we have to taken that as a silver lining. 

We had a jaunt out to a few places on Saturday and I picked up a few autumnal bits to decorate the front window cabinet, however my front window now resembles more of a Halloween display than an autumn one - whoops.

Hubby brought me home these beautiful flowers as well on Saturday which are beautiful.

My hip is still playing up, Lisca you asked what the issue was I've had it for a while they think I've got bone spurs on my hips which cause them to ache, I've had a steroid injection in one side but the other side is giving me grief.  Nonetheless I enjoy getting out and getting some fresh air, so despite the niggly pain we did manage a walk out on Sunday. 

Sunday was a much quieter affair, I realised with the painting Friday and busy Saturday that I probably needed to slow Sunday down.  So we had a leisurely breakfast I prepared the goodies for our Sunday roast dinner, put a hair dye on and had a shower, then had a walk out, dropped some birthday cards in the post and then picked a couple of bits up from the shop before heading home. 

I then spent a few leisurely hours scrapbooking whilst hubby watched the Three Musketeers film, the evening was spent scrolling Netflix and Prime looking for the next series to watch before finishing the evening watching a Greg Davies standup show, which was very funny.  So laughter and a slower Sunday were definitely something to feel positive about. 

We enjoyed our first log fire of the season during the week, which was lovely and toastie as you can see. 

I managed a bit of scrapbooking (but not nearly as much as I'd hoped)

The days have been busy busy busy with work and after family chat at night there isn't a lot left of the evening, I definitely feel I'm in hibernation mode, I might need to see if I can mix things up a little bit, as it is far too early for that. 

And for those that enjoy the funnies that Lisca and sometimes Kate share with us, I thought I'd show you Baby Geck's yoga pose this week, we had to laugh when we saw him chilling in such a way, he is my son's pet and usually clings upside down to his glass, but this day hanging out in the vegetation seemed to have been the order of the day

I hope you've had a good week if you fancy joining in pop a post together, come back and link up and we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 40th of 2020

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Oh new blogger on my tablet is proving fun this morning, if truth be told I really don't have any photos this week it has been a busy one but not one where I grabbed for my camera unfortunately - so I'll apologise in advance for that, promise to try harder this week.

Last Friday I spent the day at my sisters cleaning, as a full time nurse who lives on her own it is hard sometimes to motivate herself so me and my Mum agreed to head around to give her a hand (still abiding by the social distancing rules that are currently allowed) and 9 hours later we were done, I was a little broken but we were done and it has made such a big difference, so today's plan (after my pre-booked flu jab) is to paint her living room and yes I know I must  be mad, but I'm trying to motivate her to get things sorted and we all know if the job is shared out we can get so much more done. 

The weekend tripped along at a merry old pace, just me and hubby, I was still a little bit broken from all the cleaning but I'm grateful for the dry weather we had as we managed to trim some shrubs and the hedge between our house and next doors which looks much better and we painted the last two decks, so really productive weekend. 

I also managed to finish the canvas for the stairs, it has been on my 'to do' list forever so it was nice to just get on with it, if you know what I mean, we painted the background one day and put the writing and two celtic knots on it and hung it on the second day, so I think that is fairly good going, a big grateful moment was hubby giving me a hand to get it done, two definitely made it easier work. 

Monday and I'd been battlng with a funding bid for work, literally tearing my hair out, hubby advised I walk away and do you know what he was completely right.  I came back to it Tuesday with fresh eyes and sorted it in less than 2 hours, so big happy moment for hubby helping me on that front.

Hubby encouraging us for an evening walk, despite the fact I'm strugging with my hip (and I am struggling with my hip), we both agreed that getting out of the four walls was critical for our mental health and last night we went so late it was really dark, but we both felt better for it, so note to self - more walking to keep everything balanced. 

And finally the Harvest moon last night was absolutely stunning and stayed with us for our whole walk, a huge red moon at first, mellowing as we neared home, simply spectacular. 

So they are my grateful happy moments from the week that was, if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up and we can come and visit.