ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 30TH OF 2025

 Morning all tis Friday time for

Well as promised I'm going to cover the other half of our week away to Herefordshire.  

On the Tuesday we went to Hay on Wye, it was the only day where rain had been forecast and it was correct, but diving in and out of bookshops all day was great fun and so the weather didn't spoil it for us.

I took a photo of this amazing book sculpture in one of the shops.  

Wednesday and we decided to head to Tintern Abbey, what we didn't know before we arrived was that there is a lot of restoration work being undertaken so it can be enjoyed by future generations. 

This is the size of the scaffold

Thankfully with some careful angling of the camera it didn't really spoil the trip

and so we both enjoyed exploring 

taking photos

and soaking up this majestic place

enjoying the different vistas. 

Which really do show how grand it is

Even from the car park it looks impressive!

Then unusually for us we popped to the pub next door (not something we normally do when out and about on holiday), hubby got me a 0% Thatcher's cider which was lovely and he had a shandy and then we shared a sandwich and had a bowl of chips each, naughty but very nice. 

Then we had spotted a sculpture garden on our way and down and believe it or not it was open on the Wednesday afternoon that we were visiting the area and as we'd just had lunch we timed it perfectly to arrive as it opened and we were not disappointed most of the pieces were for sale and the garden was  a spectacle in its own right. 

This looked like a similar piece we'd seen at Clearwell Caves but was a different artist when we checked it out later. 

This was made from recycled parts and I love that it is on an upturned spade

The owl was made from wire, utterly stunning

The hare gazing at the moon

This amazing ceramic frog

and these head sculptures which I loved because they were loud and different. 

A seriously cute hare

and then hubby's favourite piece

I mean look at the anger on the worms face. 

The sculpture itself was a good size as you can see

The gardens were stunning

and this was my favourite piece, both pieces that were our favourites were made by the same artist. 

Then on our last full day we went back to Hay on Wye.  It had a market on which we enjoyed, but books were our main reason to be there. 

I loved the miniature Murder and Mayhem bookshop in the window

of the larger shop

I also loved the knitwear on the gold post box. 

The books outside the cinema bookshop

And the tower of books I bought and brought home

And hubby's pile.

Plenty of reading material for the coming months. 

This is a shot inside the shepherd's hut the kitchenette (which looked spic and span on Friday morning as we were leaving)

But the reality of the hut was sitting on the bed reading when it rained on one day (thank goodness the rest of the week was dry)

and the chaos of breakfast when there were too many wasps about to enjoy it outside.

We had a fabulous week, but honestly it will need to be some time before I do another as basic.  

Friday we arrived home and set too washing (as you can imagine). 

Saturday we had an invitation to my niece's for her birthday the weather was lousy but it was great to have a catch up. 

Sunday was our day of rest and despite having had a holiday we genuinely needed to down tools and have a PJ day, we sat drinking tea and reading for the majority of it, I had a facetime with my sister which was lovely and overall it was the day I needed before my crazy work week. 

Monday was a 13 hour work day and I didn't come up for air, I did however start to see the end of the emails, Tuesday I worked from home again because I wanted to sort the financial procedures and trustees report and finally see the end of my emails which I managed so a productive and worthwhile day. 

Said 24 year old popped over at tea time, he'd been and bought us some food items from Costco because it is a lot more cost effective and he dropped them off with us, it was lovely to have a catch up albeit brief and he gives the most awesome hugs (he always has). 

Wednesday and my day in the office, made more headway with work and started preparing some items for the month end so definitely a win win, also managed to catch up with some work colleagues which was lovely and that was my working week done. 

Thursday and I'm having a tootling day doing little jobs, I've just labelled up some of my spice jars that needed sorting and I've cleaned two kitchen drawers out up to now, cleared out the dishwasher etc.  So I'm having a productive day. 

I hope you've had a beautiful and blessed week too. 

Hugs