I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blinking eck I turned up and it was on HTML and I was thinking - what on earth have blogger changed now - good job I fathomed it LOL - this is a photo heavy post so you can see my Rocking week last week and yes I do need another holiday now!

Penrith Castle and the first of many silly faces he pulled during the week!

 I liked this graffiti

 And this wishing well that rang a bell with every coin we dropped in - all for a good cause!

 Brougham Castle and this, I know many of my followers aren't religious but the greenery running through the scene with sculpture gave this a humbling feel

 Up close

 A photo I can cope with - from on high - no chins LOL

 Door knockers!

 High Head Sculpture Park - how cool is this play area for the kids! 

 The glass snake in the tree - one of the sculptures!

 Flying along through this sculpture - we kept hearing the Dam-busters music whilst we were there as the older generations got to 'enjoy' this sculpture!

 My favourite sculpture

 Up close

 And peering through!

 the funky dragon and one of those faces (again).

 I guess this artist maybe liked birds and women or perhaps was no good at faces or feathers - can't make my mind up!

 another sculpture

 and another

 this is the face of an 11 year old when you show him a stone circle and explain that it's recent - ie post 2000 - not impressed not impressed at all! (I was it was cool and if I had a spare field rather than the postage stamp of a garden we have - I'd do the same!).

 Hubby liked this chair!

 Now I'm not being funny but who the hell should be allowed to live here?  Boo hiss - where's that lottery win!  Honestly where is it - and I don't mean a tenner - because give me a few quid and I'd move in to this - how utterly gorgeous is this!

 The inside of the cottage we were at - said 11 year old finding the beams a great source of entertainment - all you need is a ball of string and copious soft toys to tie to the string and throw over the same!

 Lowther Castle and Gardens - this was a ha ha - a serious ha ha - really high up but you really can't tell!

 Cloud watching when we were there - utter bliss and such great fun!

 One of the summer houses they are trying to recover at Lowther!

 Swing ropes to play on!

 Up close the Lowther ruin that they are trying to recover from being completely destroyed - only built in 1805 - how gorgeous is this!

 Honestly just utterly gorgeous!!!!

 And yet more proof that posing for a scrapbook page now takes on new dimensions - strangely enough he doesn't think I'll scrapbook this - more fool him!

 Mayburgh Henge which was made up of 5 million cobblestones - found on the river beds around (I kid you not).  however what said 11 year old is stood again is not one of the cobblestones to which I refer!

 the back of the cottage - honestly it was!

 And again (I kid you not)

 chillaxing!

 Look at that sky!

 Chilling with hubby!

 What the world looked like upside down

 And what the sun looked like through filters!

 And what said 11 year old looked like up close - in case you were wondering!

 Chilling!

 Hubby!

 and the evening perfectly summed up - boots off and wine!

 And said 11 year old practising his long jump!

 Tea not a weight watcher point in sight - literally!

 And the sunset!

 The cottage from the front - you can see the 'folly top' - you see I wasn't kidding!

 A labyrinth maze in Whitehaven - it was very very very wet!

 William Wordsworth's House in Cockermouth!   Absolutely fantastic, the girls in the kitchen cooking literally saved the day, chatting to us about herbs and what you could and couldn't cook with - absolutely brilliant!

 gorgeous dress

 and gardens (now recovered from the 2009 flooding)

 Just to show how high the water came in Cockermouth - I'm 5 foot 6 inch in case you wondered.

 Carlisle Market Square

 funky chairs

 Carlisle Cathedral

 and the ceiling was gorgeous!

 Even up close!

 This is the hand - it's used when he's bored of photos - apparently!

 Hutton in the Forest - looked OK from the outside!

 Loved the gate

 And the cornflowers

 and the poppies

 The view from the covered arbour

 Before we met the tour guide (boo hiss - another story)

 Clifton Tower

 The Greenhouse at Larch Cottage Nurseries - a little gem!

 Wisteria still in bloom!

 and this little fellow with the most gorgeous song

 the view from outside!

 Rheged - the last day - playing out in the rain as you do!

 Hubby looking bemused

There you go a the life of the crazy people squeezing in a six week holiday into a half term - fabulous week - completely wrecked now but hey - great fun!

Expect to see these photos again - in scrapbook format of course!

PREPLANNED ROCKING YOUR WORLD

Oh eck - trying to write this before it happens is always 'interesting'

First up let's establish what this is - well of course it's

but you knew that didn't you - a weekly post to sit and reflect, now if you've not had time to sit and reflect grab yourself a cuppa, sit back and have a think type it up as you go or jot some notes down so you can pop yourself a post together, the reason - because it's all too easy to complain about life but we don't naturally thank the universe for the silver linings and positives that we get each week.  Now I'm doing this in advance, but how can I be grateful in advance, well that's quite easy - I can think about what I'm hoping this week will bring and by doing that I make the first step towards a positive.

First positive will have to be my beautiful Rockettes we are a small band of people and we are all individual with different lives, but through these posts each of us have grown to know the others and each of your posts make me smile.  I love that our lives are so different and diverse, I love that we live all over and I love that you share your positives with us each week - so you are my first big grateful.

Time off with hubby on a Friday before collecting little man from school after we'd dropped the blood pressure monitor off - sheer bliss

Next up is the Wednesday Facebook group that I'm in contact with - it's awesome to have a band of brilliant people to have a chat with when things get tough.

A break away - to relax and breath and enjoy.

Time to read.

Time to chat.

Time to be me

Time not to stress about my blood pressure

Time not to listen to that blinking clock chiming on the hour every 17 minutes

Time to explore

Strangely enough time away from technology, strange but fun

Time away from the TV (fingers crossed if I can prize the remote control out of said 11 year old's hands)

Just being with my hubby and son

Time to take photos to scrapbook!

Fingers crossed I'll manage the above - I hope your week has been truly beautiful and blessed I'll catch up with you when I'm back!

Before I go - I must have some scrapbooking pages to share. My best friends in life

my hubby

 close ups of the stitching

 and my son

both of whom Rock my World every single week!

Mr Linky for you to add your link to your own Rocking post

ROCKING MY WORLD FRIDAY

Good Morning to you all - how fair thee this morning?  How's the week been is it full of positives and things that allow you to write a lengthy grateful post - or has it been hard work, where the silver linings don't immediately come to mind - fear not a cuppa and a sit and think and you'll soon find those positives that have made the week more bearable.

My week - well let's see because obviously it's

Donna for sending me the most gorgeous watercolour painting of a nude - honestly I was utterly gobsmacked, it's utterly beautiful and I can't wait to get it framed!

A chilled weekend, with no pressure to 'do' anything, just to meander around the house, do a bit of gardening, enjoy the warmth and sunshine - overall a good weekend - much fun.

A fan to use whilst it was so hot (not that we need it now)

Homemade banana yogurt and honey ice cream - yum and filling.

A six pound weight loss, only my first week but a good start.

Andy Skinner's Book of Secret course - love it!

Charity shop buys that have resulted in me 'steampunking' the world

Pairs journals - so exciting to work on them and brilliant fun receiving them, oohing and aahing over them.

Gorgeous mail art from Pat landing on the doorstep

Finding a clock for cogs - only for hubby to mend it - not sure if that's a grateful or not now.

Craig finding a gears website so we could 'make our own' (although they aren't the easiest of things to cut).

Rediscovering tasty fruit - yum

Red roses on Thursday from hubby whilst I'm attached to a blood pressure monitor

Finding the surgery where I needed to collect the blood pressure monitor from with relative ease - I hate trying to find 'new' places don't you?

My sister lending me the last Black Dagger Brotherhood book for my hols - mwah - love you!

Charlaine Harris book actually having a plot - hurray!

A brief cuppa with my sister on Thursday morning before the Docs

Our Wednesday Whine group - fabulous fun getting to know everyone better and now the potential of trying to work out how we might meet up at some point in the future - how awesome would that be.

Alcohol free week - so lovely

Primark for having plenty of shorts for said 11 year old when the temperatures were through the roof.

And I think that will conclude this weeks list of gratefuls, it's been a good week and we've got a break away next week - so I'll have to pre-post ready for next Friday - but don't worry I'll catch up with you once I've arrived back.

Hope you all have a beautiful and blessed week ahead

Before I leave you a double page layout from when we went to Fountains Abbey

Up close

And finally Mr Linky for you all