So last Saturday we enjoyed a trip to Kelham Island for their Victorian Christmas Market
My daughter in law enjoyed a Biscoff pancake, hubby enjoyed a Belgian Blue beer
whilst me and said 24 year old enjoyed a hot chocolate
It was a lovely afternoon, then we headed into Sheffield and wandered their Christmas market.
On Sunday we headed around the corner for the Christmas tree festival with a theme of peace and unity which was lovely.
I've put together the cookie jars for this year, you can't tell but these jars are huge! I make them each year for family and use old coffee jars which I've sterilised, a great re-use of the jars if I'm honest, then I design labels (this year's on Canva) and glue them to the jar with instructions for how to convert them into cookies (adding butter and egg and cooking them)
A busy busy working week, but did a few tasks after work to keep things on an even keel and then on Thursday we went to Wentworth Woodhouse to enjoy
more mice, the theme seems to be following us about this year
this corridor was stunning
and one of the volunteers wanted to know if we wanted a photo together which was so lovely of him.
I really loved the dining room.
and the bed positioned on the stairs.
Then we had a cuppa in the tea room and shared a cheese scone and a cronut (which are still very strange).
and that my lovely people was the week that was, busy in the run up to Christmas and I'm still finding it hard without Mum, but I'm trying to remain focused on enjoying fun times and reminiscing about the good.
Well despite having a plan for the weekend last weekend we went decidedly off plan but I thought I'd just let Lisca know a couple of answers to her question
The Moor in Sheffield is a shopping area of the city, it has always been predominantly pedestrianised (in my lifetime) and was part of the 1980's film Threads about nuclear war hitting Sheffield if you've ever seen it. It had become run down and dilapidated before recent investments which, see it moving into a hive of activity again. The Sheffield Castle market (built on the remains of the Sheffield castle) has been relocated to its new premises at the bottom of the Moor.
The pandas that I showed are actually part of the new Chinese quarter in Sheffield actually relatively close to the bottom of the Moor but across the dual carriageway (we were close enough to visit them, so we did).
Now onto this week, we decided because we'd enjoyed the bears so much last week we'd do it again this week, but with ones we hadn't yet found, which were further afield, all I can say is thank goodness for the tram system in Sheffield it was an absolute blessing and we definitely put our £3.80 each tickets (reduced for the summer holidays) through its paces, we headed from Meadowhall all the way to Kelham Island, famous in its history for the industrial side of Sheffield it now has a museum on site and the surrounding areas are being reinvigorated with new housing and old architecture working hand in hand. When we first past this probably 10 years ago there were no buildings behind and it was under scaffold due to fear of collapse.
This is another new building in the area, I loved the studs on the side of the building
We found the only bear at Kelham, next to a bessemer converter part of the steel industry heritage.
Out of Kelham we went past a Jo Peel wall, I love her work and colour ways
Jumped back on the tram and walked up to Weston Park museum opposite the Children's hospital, inside there was a lovely cafe, so we stopped for a cuppa and some of the little bears decorated by local schools.
There is also a wall of Joe Scarborough's work, a famous Sheffield artist, capturing elements of the city, some past some present
I spotted this rather brightly coloured creation known as Rita and produced I think by a local college
Then on to see Spike, glad to see Spike and Rita are playing it safe with facemasks, despite them no longer being compulsory (we are still wearing ours)
Outside Weston Park two bears this is the first
and this one known as the Owls is the second
I liked the back of this one
Back on the tram to The Cathedral we headed into Orchard Square a shopping precinct to capture this one
Then back to the Winter Gardens, whilst we had seen Theo last week we hadn't realised he was part of the trail.
This one known as Barker I think was an absolute swine to find, I blame all the building works, he was hidden just outside the entrance to a hotal
Bertie was our next find off a main roundabout, obviously named after the famous liquorice allsort sweets.
One of my favourite bears by Pete McKee outside of the Sheffield Hallam University
And this was the back of himwhich definitely made us giggle
Heading down towards the train station was this bear in front of the Howard pub, known for being allegedly haunted.
Across a main road to the train station
We also stopped to admire the shiny fish in the same locality
You can see the bear in the background
Along a main road we found peace and a chilli pepper
Before heading up to the landmark known as Park Hill flats, where there was a Jo Peel bear
Isn't it stunning
a chap told us there were more to see under the archway, so we headed through and came across this permanent sculpture
Before finding the flower crowned bear
Overlooking this famous landmark
There were other sculptures dotted about
Then retracing our steps we headed down to the canal basin
And then on towards the where the castle markets once were, I loved the colour of this one against the old brickwork in the background
Back up the hill and then down to Ponds Forge leisure centre
Fitzalan square in front of the main building said 20 year old goes to for Uni
And then the final one for the day this one at Castle Square with a tram in the background for good measure
Before walking back up to the Cathedral and hopping on a tram with a sum total of 17,000 steps on our Fitbit, tired doesn't come close, but it was a really brilliant day out (again) and we got to see parts of Sheffield we simply wouldn't visit normally. We've now managed to tick off 42 of the 61 bears which isn't bad going, most of the remaining are single bears in remote areas of the city, but we are hopeful we might manage the last 'batch' of bears, down near the Arena.
Saturday (yes the above was just the one day), we had a tootling around the house morning sorting little things out (as you do).
In the afternoon we headed to Wentworth Woodhouse which isn't far from where we live as they still have some of the Barnsley woven creatures in that we hadn't seen.
The unicorn on the picnic plains
Looking rather majestic I think you will agree
My favourite was the very smiley whale
Which is a fair size as you can see
This piece wasn't actually part of these sculptures but think it had been created as part of the WE Wonder festival that they had recently.
The other side you can see it is actually a seat
The normal Wentworth Bear
The mermaid in the sunken garden
And the lion up by the camellia house
Sunday we had a boat trip booked with our friends on the close we live on, hubby and another neighbour who volunteers at our place were the skipper and crew and we had a leisurely 2 hour trip down the canal catching up and chatting which was really lovely.
Then we headed home and as promised I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day other than chill out on the sofa because I was quite frankly shattered after the mighty busy weekend.
The rest of the week has been a blur and whilst I have every intention on doing loads in an evening, it simply doesn't materialise after very very busy days at work.
I did however, get a teary call from my Mum on Wednesday, she had gone for her normal scan results which has resulted in her needing a biopsy next week. So why on earth would my Mum crying make this post you might add, well the first is that I was able to have a chat with her and remain calm and tell her, we don't know anything yet so lets not stress etc. The second was a work colleague who did the only thing she could do for me when I got upset after the call made me a cuppa (and checked in on me on Whatsapp in the evening), then my boss for allowing me to leave early (even though she was off on leave herself and I needed to contact her), said 20 year old for working every hour he has at the moment, still dropping everything and ringing me and hubby coming and picking me up as I was a bit stressed, taking me to get a big bunch of flowers for my Mum and having a cuppa and a natter with her, which I think did us both the world of good. If you can send some prayers, positive vibes etc to my Mum over the next few weeks that would be lovely, for a woman who has lived with breast cancer for almost 20 years now I really could do with her having some positive news.
I hope you've all had a lovely week, I'm hoping blogger behaves this week, it didn't give me Kate's comments at all last week, until today (Thursday) when I got two, it makes absolutely no sense, but I've got another friend whose been having fun and games, so we will just put it down to a one off.
If you fancy joining in then pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit.
