ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 17TH OF 2021

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So I actually thought I'd start this one last Thursday night (after I'd finished my post for last week) when said 20 year old came back from a visit to Ikea, not only having managed to get the two spare shelves I needed for the new book cases and the nets for the windows but also bringing me a bar of chocolate treat because he knew I'd had a tough week and just knew I'd appreciate it and he absolutely wasn't wrong. 

I also enjoyed a fun evening chatting with hubby and said 20 year old just putting the world to rights, which was lovely - remembering the little things in life. 

Friday and we had beautiful blue skies albeit a little on the cool side due to it being spring, although I really can't grumble because the weather is fine and dry which is always a win.  Hubby had spent time on Thursday cleaning the bathroom and hoovering through so no major cleaning needed on Friday, so we booked and headed to Wentworth Castle, built by a 'rival' cousin to the owner of Wentworth Woodhouse and had a wander around the gardens, they still haven't managed to recover them since they were closed for a spell before National Trust reopened, hampered obviously by the pandemic nevertheless it was nice to explore somewhere a little different for a change. 

The house is actually an adult learning college, so no chance of visiting the interior even without a pandemic

The garden walk is lovely, with pretty view points and follies

The top of the estate houses Stainborough Castle, built for the children of the previous owner, containing a miniature castle which just not comprises of the main tower and the footprint of the great hall and four little towers around the perimeter, at the moment you can't go into the main tower for obvious reasons, but the four towers were open to wander and as you can see they are open to the elements. 

The conservatory and its contents seem to have flourished with no visitors inside. 

Saturday and we headed up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and did a different walk around the site, it is strange when you walk in the opposite direction you see very different vistas, we had a proper chat which was lovely and managed over 10,000 steps which is always a win before heading home.  Said 20 year old was back in his job for the first time in probably 9 or maybe 10 months, he messaged to say there was an issue with the motorway so we came back a different route, I was very grateful we didn't end up stuck in traffic on the motorway. 

We enjoyed different routes around the garden, checking out the expressionless snowman

Admiring the Night

and day mosaic

Hubby got the sun just on the pinnacle

and the buddha was glimmering in the sunlight

Once home, hubby picked a few things up and I ironed the new nets for the TV room, they are very sheer and let a lot more light in, we put them up when hubby got back and I haven't cut them yet as I'm not sure if I want to keep them long pending tie backs - we will see.  

Sunday and we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary with a trip to Brodsworth, the sun was shining and we had a lovely walk around the perimeter of the house

through the ornamental gardens

until we found a lovely place to sit and have a picnic,  it is a picture I've wanted to paint for ages and hubby has discovered that I actually stop when I paint, so he was all for a picnic and a bit of painting and I must admit I had a wonderful relaxing few hours with hubby, eternally grateful for the hours and days and years we have spent together I feel incredibly blessed. 

We headed home and my sister popped over for an hour socially distanced in the garden which was lovely, then we had a naughty takeaway from the Chinese and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. 

Monday arrived in what felt like the blink of an eye and I've had my usual busy busy week but it has been lovely weather and hubby has got a few more bits crossed off the to do list, so I'm definitely not complaining.  I hope you have all had a beautiful and blessed week, if you fancy joining in then pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 16TH OF 2021

 Good morning all, I hope I find you well, time for our weekly check in for all things positive and the silver linings in life this week. 

Last weekend was a bit of a strange one if truth be told, whilst the UK is starting to enjoy slightly easier restrictions you still have to plan and book things in advance and to be honest I'm really not mentally in that zone yet if that makes sense.  So we had nothing planned at the beginning of the weekend. I needed a few bits from Ikea (bits they are sizeable items truth be told) and decided collecting them before they reopened properly would be sensible.  I glanced on thursday night as we headed to bed and the items were in stock, so once up on Friday I headed to the website to sort, alas, Edinburgh and Norwich were my only options, so I was grumpy to say the least (as you can probably imagine and kicked myself for not sorting the night before).  Nevertheless, we had a day busying ourselves around the house.  You can imagine my surprise when early Saturday morning hubby gets on the website and orders the items to be collected with ease, but this then scuppered chances of going out on Sunday. 

We decided that we would make some more progress with the TV room, we'd already painted it Egyptian Cotton which is a darker colour than we had previously, but I wanted a focal wall, we toyed with a few ideas before settling on a hand painted foliage wall which was looking grand by the end of Saturday.  We were just heading to get some food when a text telling us our Ikea order was available for collection so slight detour and we got the items picked up a day early, then leaving us Sunday free, but I'd then psyched myself up for another housey day.  So Sunday was spent finding the right quote and finishing off the aforementioned wall. 

So here is the before 

and here is the after 

The quote is from a Midsummer Night's Dream.

It isn't fully finished as I've ordered some fake gold leaf to pick out a few accents on the wall, I'm just hoping I don't go over the top. 

So overall a productive weekend, but just not in the way I'd thought at the beginning.  You'll be pleased to know I've booked for things this weekend, so we hopefully won't get a repeat. 

Monday was a hectic day at work in the office, we were expecting young people back in but have been informed they aren't back until next Monday so whilst we've had a few, the bulk of our students haven't been in this week. 

Tuesday was a busy and very long workday resolving a global budget for my year end file, I hardly moved from my 8am start to 6pm finish, but I was really pleased with what I got done. 

I've come home to finished tasks at home as well, hubby built two Ikea Kallax units yesterday and today I've come home to extra book cases which I still need to fill but they are now at least in position. 

Hubby also made a delicious soup this week 

I've also enjoyed getting cosy in front of the fire this week on the cold evenings

So there have definitely been positives in the week, I hope yours has been grand too, if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 15TH OF 2021

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So I have a few photos to share on three counts, the first is that it was a bank holiday weekend, the second is that the 'stay home' restriction had been lifted and the third is that we had nice weather on a bank holiday weekend - I mean let me just put that one there as the first happy positive grateful for this week. 

So Friday was the first day off and to be honest we stayed put, I had a good fettle of the house, started to catch up on washing (there was so much but that's what happens when you strip the bedding off, get an extra duvet set thrown in for good measure and have a massive towel wash to do not to mention the normal clothes wash), but with the sun shining I only had to air in the tumbler for a short period of time, so definitely another win! 

Saturday we had booked to go to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, how I've missed it, it was overcast when we got there but I didn't care.  We found this Henry Moore sculpture in the park with the giant cockerel behind

It wasn't raining but my hood was keeping my ears warm as it was still chilly

We did the long walk which is up the 72 David Nash steps  into the woodland at the top of the hill, where it then turns into open space where the old man sits.  Done by the same artist as the sea sculpture we saw at Newbiggin by the Sea last year. 

And just for scale, from a distance he looks 'normal' sized until you get up close. 

We passed the Highland cows, the baby now indistinguishable from his/her parents

When we got to the bottom of the field we turned left towards the Victorian shell grotto and then around to the boat house, as we headed back towards the bridge we came across a new sculpture, hubby thinks this one was 'poured' as there were little circles that gave it away on the top, nevertheless I liked it! 

We came across these stunning double daffodils

and hubby got this lovely perspective shot

and a final sculpture we hadn't seen, this one of what we understand was a very 'in' handbag at the time, apparently representing women's battle armour.  It was made of steel and genuinely looked like leather

I loved the silver lock on the front

and how they creased the steel to look like leather from the side

Easter Sunday dawned and we'd booked tickets for Chatsworth the sun was shining and we had blue skies.  

We started at the top looking back towards the stables and wound our way up 

The topiaries are coming along on the entrance the fruit and vegetable garden

From there we walked along the top and dropped down into the top of the Cascade

And hubby ran outside to get this shot of me stood in the arch at the top of the cascade, I hadn't realised how long my hair has got. 

The rhododendrons were in the full flower and utterly stunning

I loved the view when we looked up

And the carpet of flowers on the floor

We wound our way almost around the perimeter wall, seeing the sculpture in the wooded glade.

The view of the maze looked stunning and still devoid of people due to the pandemic

We got to the main pool at the bottom with the Emperor fountain

and got the classic Chatsworth shot

as well as one slightly closely

We stopped for a bite to eat and a cuppa sat on a picnic blanket that we'd taken and whilst there seemed a good few people about it still wasn't as busy as I'd thought. 

We left mid-afternoon and had a reasonable journey home before I settled down to some more mini book making whilst hubby put a film on. 

After tea (which we'd cooked the day before making everything super easy), we binge watched the first four episodes of Bridgerton which I thoroughly enjoyed, hoping to finish it off in the next couple of days. 

I can confirm we did indeed complete the series over the week, the rest of the week was busy at work as usual particularly busy due to year end, but I managed to get everything done yesterday and close the year end off, that is literally unheard of, I have been known to still be fighting with it in May but with the time I've dedicated to it pre-year end it made the task much simpler.  I've a few things to copy and then a back up document for the accountant and it can go on its merry way.  So overall a brill week. 

We did also start painting the TV room to spruce it up, I'd forgotten two things, firstly how big the room is and secondly how much stuff we have in there.  I will save information about that one until next week, but lets say we are definitely getting there. 

if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 14TH OF 2021

Good Morning lovely people I hope I find you all well and having had a positive week, mine has been a bit of a mix but this is about focusing on the silver linings and positive moments.

Friday night we enjoyed watching The Handlebards do a version of Romeo and Juliet live on stage with only 3 actors, it was genuinely amazing to watch we really enjoyed the show, another bit of live theatre to keep us focused. 

The rest of the weekend was rather quiet, said 20 year old came down and told me he was bored - first time ever, I always kept him busy during school holidays when he was younger so I was a little agog at this statement, I think it was because he'd stopped for the Easter break and having time on his hands had definitely thrown him. You'll be pleased to know it didn't last long and he decided just to enjoy a lazy day as booked to go to Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the Tuesday now the stay local restrictions have been lifted and had other things planned for the rest of the week.   

I took to my craft table again and without any scrapbooking to do found myself making mini books again, I am seriously going to have to consider what I'm doing with all these minibooks that I'm making. 

We are considering painting our TV room so we spent some time collecting some samples to help us in our quest, we came back and put some paint on the walls and chose our preferred one, we just need to get some paint picked up and work out when we can get started on it. 

Hubby has worked really hard this week getting some old documentation shredded and sitting in a fair sized queue to get rid at the local recycling centre. 

Speaking of hubby he also came into my workplace and volunteered for a day when we needed to rework where we were storing our foodbank food, he worked all day with other volunteers and staff and they did an amazing job!  He also enjoyed a day on the boat refreshing his boat skippering skills so he can volunteer for boat trips in the near future, we are really hoping things may start to resume some degree of normality. 

The rest of the week has been hardwork and tough for various reasons including the fact year end has occurred and now I've got an awful lot of work to do in the finance department to bring everything together but I achieved to clear down a fair few grant returns which leaves me free to get on with the internal documentation I need to do next week so I'm definitely taking that as a win. 

I had to smile on one of the morning as a lovely work colleague left this to raise a smile on my desk, the picture is what we have been using to notify everyone if the table is clean to sit at, we turn it over when it has been used and there is a sad red face on the other side, but as the table was clean we got the happy first and a lovely coffee break treat, which was incredibly sweet of her! 

One of the night's we came home to find a bird having a merry old time pulling out some nesting material from the front of the house and absolutely not bothered by us at all. 

The close up is a little blurry but you can see the photo above she has a full mouth of the material!

We had a couple of walks around the village and enjoyed some blue skies

And that my lovely people was the week that was, I hope you've had a grand week, if you fancy joining in then pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit.