ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 30TH OF 2022

 Afternoon all apologies for my tardiness today, it is Friday time for 

well last weekend I had a long weekend taking both Thursday and Monday as additional days off giving me a nice 5 day weekend. 

The first couple of days were pretty slow if I'm honest and we did just the normal house type jobs, hubby made a start on a planter but the weather scuppered us somewhat. 

These two decided to do some baking 

Blogger is playing silly with my photos, so I'll show you the trip out on Monday which was to see the Burning Man sculptures at Chatsworth, some of them we had seen before but quite a few we hadn't. 

Pegasus is in front of the stables, unfortunately having mechanical issues so it wasn't operating the day we went. 

The murder of crows in front of the house is part of the exhibition, which we hadn't realised. 

The sculpture we spotted the other week on the way in

The face in front of the house

The wings one we've also seen before, but now there are instructions to stand within it and move it around. 

Although hubby enjoyed capturing Chatsworth in the distance through it again

The bottle sculpture is new and has been created on site. 

The aeroplace is now minus its scaffolding and security fencing which were in place last time we saw it. 

This sculpture with huge flying creatures on top was amazing

Our favourite had been created with an artist in conjunction with a local school, the mermaid next to the pond. 

I think this probably looks more impressive from above if I'm honest. 

The bear was cute and up close it was actually coins that had created the texture set into concrete like substance. 

Sunday had been a trip to YSP, they have an exhibition called 'on queer ground' at the moment

Apparently this particularly sculpture which was like a blow up bouncy castle was expected to be stood up, it definitely made us giggle. 

I loved how bright this was

Tuesday arrived and as always busy busy busy at work, Wednesday was the same but longer as I tried to find the bottom of my in tray.  

Thursday we booked to see the Three Inch Fools at Wentworth Woodhouse and the Gunpowder plot, it was genuinely excellent to watch and I caught up with my Mum and sister. 

Monday we went to see the last Jurassic, despite the reviews we thoroughly enjoyed it having been something of a fan of the whole series. 

Overall it has been a good week albeit very busy at work, I hope you've had a great week. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 29TH OF 2022

 Good Morning lovely people tis Friday time for

Well Friday was a busy day, our neighbours have been updating their garden which has resulted in them removing a hedge and replacing with fencing, which certainly reduces the amount of time that hubby will have to spend trimming it during the year particularly beneficial given that he is very much allergic to it.  What we weren't expecting was to inherit about an extra foot of garden, which means we now have some work to do to try and tie it in.  So we spent some of the day planning and some of the day digging, needless to say in these excessively high temperatures we didn't get much done, but we did make a start. 

On Saturday we had a slow start to the day, well I did, hubby went to finish off some boat training that he has been doing, thankfully he passed with flying colours which is awesome and he is most pleased as you can imagine. 

In the afternoon we travelled to my cousins new home not far from Chatsworth to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary come house warming.  There was lots of family there to catch up with which is brilliant, including some that live in London, we had a really lovely afternoon chatting and headed home early evening, a photo of the happy couple giving a speech for their get together. 

and this was as we were leaving, my cousin whose house it is in the green dress in front of me, next to her is her sister and then her Mum, back row is my cousin's eldest children and in front is my lovely Mum

Sunday we decided that we were overdue a lie in and with the temperatures forecast for the early 40's this week (I mean what on earth is happening, we live in Yorkshire we don't do melting temperatures) we made the most of our day off pretty much doing very little.  A cooked breakfast, some comfy cool clothes, fan on, a bit of reading, scrapbooking and film watching, said 21 year old and his fiancee fancied watching a bit of Harry Potter, so we binge watched the first two films in the series, although I may have dosed a little in the second one.  

The rest of the week has tripped along as normal, other silver linings and positives is that we survived the stupid temperatures, I'm not a woman who can easily tolerate 40 degrees if I'm honest and it genuinely hit those temperatures on our way home on Tuesday, it was a relief to have mid-20's appear on the car barometer on Wednesday. 

I'm also grateful for a fairly prompt appointment at the hospital, I've got an issue that needs resolving but as part of the initial consultation it was agreed that they will also investigate my fibroids and see if anything can be done to make life a little easier on that front.  If I get both issues resolved I will be immensely grateful. 

I've also had a little bit of indulgence this week in that I finished reading a new book of a childhood favourite, I was astounded to see that Jacqueline Wilson had brought out a book based on Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway tree, I absolutely did a double take in Morrisons, I bought it the weekend we went to Stafford and it has been absolutely pure indulgence to read if I'm honest, such fun and such a blast from the past, I've finished it now and I'm hoping she might write a few more! 

Finally, my dear hubby, I've been mighty stressed awaiting the hospital appointment if I'm truly honest, work has been fraught and then the temperatures on top, but despite my snappy grumpy nature he has been an absolute rock as always. 

I hope you've all had an excellent week 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 28TH OF 2022

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for

well let's see what we did over the last 7 days that provided some positive moments and silver linings

First up we went to see the Dukes theatre company at NT Nostell Priory, inadvertently I'd ended up booking the Wednesday night instead of the intended Thursday night which meant we had a bit of a rush getting to it that evening, but we got there nonetheless with a rather foreboding sky, despite our apprehension at the weather, it held off for the evening and we had a fabulous evening watching them perform A Midsummer Night's Dream, they are a new theatre company with their first show being last year. 

Next up on Friday we headed off to Trentham gardens as we had a weekend away booked in Stafford.  I asked hubby how we hadn't managed to visit Trentham when we lived in Stafford and he said he read that they didn't lay the turf until 2005 which was a year after we left. 

I specifically wanted to do the fairy trail, but I wasn't offered a map which was unfortunate so we had to find out own way around despite the site being relatively extensive.  

This fairy greeted us on the bridge over from the ticket office

I have a feeling this is a new installation, the fairies look like they are learning to climb and I love the way the dandelion clock is leant over. 

This sculpture made me smile as he has such an indignant look to his face. 

This fairy on the bridge was really impressive, I loved her body armour and glass globe

One of my favourite shots of the day, it was on the room of one of the original garden structures and was impossible to photograph from the other side, but hubby went under it and got this amazing shot!

The original Trentham hall has long since been demolished, the only remaining parts of the structure being this area on the far right of the building

and this the original entrance to the hall, both currently derelict but I understand there is an intention to get them renovated and utilised for weddings in the future. 

I loved this fairy, she was so very beautiful and shiny

I loved how the branches grew out of her fingers and how the leaves were a different colour

Hubby grabbed a seat on the giant garden chair

We did the lakeside walk and found this little cutie by the boat house

there was a stunning wild flower bed as well

Selfie with a fairy in the background

Outside of the garden is a shopping village, made up of pedestrianised walkways and wooden huts filled predominantly with independent shops and eateries.  We spotted Titania on the sign post for the gardens as we left

Then on to our hotel stay in Stafford, we go to the first place hubby ever took me for a date which is the Swan hotel, we had a spacious room with comfortable bed which was relatively cool as it was towards the back of the building. 

We were so tired on the first day after Trentham that we had a couple of hours in our room before heading down for our evening meal. 

Thankfully we had a little more energy on the Saturday, we had a wander around the town looking for things we used to remember before walking up to Stafford Castle for the matinee performance of Romeo and Juliet

The set was amazing, the actors were fantastic and the costumes out of this world.  Unfortunately for the two rows in front of us the sun was shining down on them for the duration and a great number either left, had to be seen by first aid or found a shaded seat with extremely restricted view in the hospitality area. 

We walked back into town and stopped off at the Picture House, which was a cinema when we were in Stafford, now a Wetherspoons pub. 

Then we took a few photos of the older part of town.  We went back to Heavenly Helen's to take a photo of Mr Finch's door installation.  We had stopped off and met Helen and her partner earlier in the day, she has an awesome little shop and above the shop has healing rooms which were absolutely amazing with a workshop at the end.  She told me that Mister Finch has been creating in that room and will be doing workshops in the near future in town, why oh why he couldn't be doing that when we lived in Stafford I will never know lol.

The building she is in is apparently the oldest in Stafford dating back to 1420

Mill Street in which the shop resides has always been such a pretty place to stop and take a photo, the Soup Kitchen always being so pretty. 

We went out on the Saturday night for a meal in the restaurant which was once again absolutely stunning, with great service. 

We left on Sunday morning and were booked into Chatsworth, to be honest it was so hot we took one photo of one of the Burning Man sculptures that we hadn't seen, grabbed an expensive ice cream and then headed into the house which was much cooler. 

As you can see I hadn't a stitch of make up on my face, but I didn't care I was having such a fantastic weekend with hubby. 

We got to see a guess bed that normally resides in a different part of the house, created by an artist that the Duke and Duchess admire, they have a lot of his work around the house from sculptural artwork to dining chairs, but this piece was breath taking at 6 metres tall, I'm still intrigued as to how they got it moved around the house. 

I also loved this light fitting as it reminds me of paper, so very pretty. 

We were back home by tea time on Sunday night and were very naughty and had a pizza tea which said 21 year old and his fiancee went and collected as we didn't have the motivation to cook. 

Monday I had taken an extra day off work and we had tickets to see The Play that Goes Wrong with my Mum, Sister, said 21 year old and his fiancee as well as me and hubby, we've seen it once before and it has to be said that seeing it live is something else, literally laughed so much our cheeks ached. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were hellishly long days at work as was Thursday although I managed to leave at a more sensible time, I met up with my best friend from school on thursday evening for a catch up and a meal, she lives in the very far north of Scotland so we rarely get the chance to get together, we grabbed this selfie on our way out. 

I hope you've all had a lovely week too.

TTFN