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

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 29TH OF 2025

 Evening all tis Friday time for 

So the reason for the missing post last Friday was because we set off for a week's holiday to Herefordshire. 

We stayed in a Shepherd's hut which was lovely, very basic, but lovely nonetheless.  It had a hot tub, the shed next to it had an extra fridge, clothes rails, recycling etc and the hut itself had a kitchenette, a very large comfortable bed and bathroom.  Here I am enjoying the outdoor space.

And this was our view (I loved the tree)

On the Saturday we headed to Canwood gallery to have a mooch around, we've been once before and really enjoyed it and it wasn't too far from where we were. 

This art piece is actually charcoal, which I thought was amazing. 

There was also this giant piece of artwork and underneath

were these ducks

Outside, there were plenty of sculptures to enjoy including this rather grumpy looking stag. 

And the original working art piece from Chatsworth house, still working incredibly well after all the repairs they carried out. 

Hubby made me pose with the giant tennis racket, I'm not actually touching it believe it or not. 

Inside the barn was this painting which irritated hubby as he felt they had hung it upside down (until I pointed out there were painty drip marks going in both directions). 

When we got back we enjoyed the golden hour, we had neighbours of horses two fields across and sheep next to us and three fields away. 

And we were treated to this beautiful sunset. 

On the Sunday we had a day of rest and genuinely stayed put which was bliss, we drank tea, used the hot tub, enjoyed the beautiful views and read all day and with no wi-fi enjoyed a digital detox. 

On Monday we headed to Clearwell caves who have a summer art exhibition on. 

This one was called light and was around the artist suffering with migraines exacerbated by light. 

This was our favourite of the day, it looked so fabulous against the ochres in the cave. 

These were great too. 

This was Stik painted on the cave walls using the natural ochres that occur at Clearwell

And these were strange disney-esque sculptures, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald. 

We also loved this one which was really atmospheric. 

After Clearwell we headed two minutes down the road to Puzzlewood, which was fabulous but also very very dry. 

Hubby got this photo of me

The tree canopy provided a reprieve from the weather. 

And when we got back we had new neighbours for the night. 

I'm going to leave the rest of the week we had away until next week, because what normally happens is that we have a very quiet weekend whilst catching up on jobs so if I save part of our week away until next week it will at least have some photos to enjoy.  

I hope you've had a great week. 

Hugs