ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 48TH OF 2021

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for

So last Friday we had booked to go to Chatsworth both the Christmas market and the house, just me and hubby, tickets were in short supply but we were really looking forward to it, little did we know how difficult it would be to get there as the motorway junction less than a mile from home was shut and had gridlocked the roads, thankfully with a bit of careful sat-nav-ery we managed to make our way there, although I genuinely don't think we could ever repeat the trip again as it was somewhat diverse, we did however, have some spectacular views on our way. 

I'll apologise for the lack of order with these photos. 

The painted hall was stunning

The theme this year is a mix of previous years, so the first room where we checked in was a nod to Alice from 2014. 

Narnia in the central part (it really did look like real snow). 

The chapel was utterly stunning

The pretty arches were stunning

I loved the mirror cross section of the amethyst slice

I also adored the little army of cork reindeers on the floor

A close up of the cork reindeer

Jack and the beanstalk 

The garden outside was so pretty

A selfie near the grotto garden

The ornamental garden looking pretty 

Weeping willow in the garden

The flaming hillside

Digital tree

Giant bauble

The pretty lights on the outside

The market outside

Saturday was a busy housey day doing lots of cleaning

Sunday was stir it up Sunday

And we all stirred it up and made wishes

Then I decorated the cookie jars I've made for Christmas

The rest of the week has been busy with work (as always), including the AGM and doing funding bids, but I've enjoyed the week overall and find myself at thursday night having completed my working week and heading up to see some Christmas lights, so hopefully it will be a nice evening. 

I hope you've all had a grand week, I will catch up with you over the weekend. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD - 47TH OF 2021

 Good morning lovely people I hope I find you well time for

So what positive moments and silver linings have I had over the last 7 days, well last Friday me and hubby headed to Ikea to meet up with my sister for a breakfast date and a good old catch up.  It was lovely to put the world to rights and have a chat, it seems to be a while since we've managed to do just that.  We then had a wander around the market hall and helped her pick up a new curtain pole, we just need to get hubby to pop over and sort it out for her, but we've decided it needs a batten first.   I didn't take any photos of us, but I did take a photo of a dinosaur on a bicycle, which raised a smile 

Afterwards we popped to see my Mum, she is struggling at the moment bless her with excess fluid around her middle, she's been into the hospital twice to sort it, but it returns within a few days, which is making her feel thoroughly miserable and rather breathless.  So I'm praying the targeted treatment starts to make a difference for her, if you can keep her in your thoughts that would be lovely. 

I received a message from my niece who received a parcel I'd sent her, it was lovely to hear from her and she said it was very unexpected so that definitely made me smile. 

 

When I got home I had to finish off a funding bid that I'd not managed to finish in my normal working week and whilst I did that hubby put up a tree.  Now I know you will be saying 'too soon, too soon' but with the amount of decorations that go up in this house I have to say the idea of attempting to put them all up on one day is almost impossible, so I've learnt over recent years that the best way is to slow time them over a few weeks, so they aren't stressful.   This is the one he finished, the blue baubles are new ones this year, I felt the tree needed a 'pop' of colour and we managed to track these down and they seem to match in with the cushions. 

Saturday was a bit of a tootling around the house day, which was fine for us as we'd had a busy out and about Friday. 

Sunday we headed out to Yorkshire Sculpture Park,  I was aware of a new Mark Hearld exhibition that opened on Friday and there is also an exhibition at the Weston that we haven't seen previously. 

 

This is part of his exhibition, he specialises in collage and lino cut, but there was also a few pottery pieces and some tapestry where he has collaborated with other artists. 

The exhibition at the Weston was also fabulous, I loved the vividness of the sculptures. 

We had another look at Hazmat Love and noticed the autumn leaves reflecting the face made it look like it was on fire from a distance. 

We also walked past the Sophie Ryder piece near the Camelia house. 

It was good to blow the cobwebs off and we hit over 10,000 steps again. 

When we got home we had some bananas that desperately needed using up, so the trusty Bero book came out and we made a banana loaf. 

The rest of Sunday was spent kicking back and watching some international rugby, the Wales versus Fiji game was really fun to watch. 

Soon enough the working week started and as usual the days trip along at a merry old pace and here I find myself back at Thursday night, I hope you've had a fabulous week and will catch up with your posts over the weekend. 

Much love

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY (A BIT LATE WHOOPS) - 46TH OF 2021

 Morning lovely people let us pretend it is in fact Friday and I'm not actually 24 hours late

Well last Friday I ended up in work for the majority of the day, it is unusual for me to work a Friday but sometimes work needs it, so that is what I did, it was actually a really good day of interviews for a post we were advertising.

We decided to walk up to a community bonfire in the locality which was about a 20 minutes walk and what turned out to be a 15 minute wait to get in, the bonfire had already been lit which was huge, there were also lots of fairground type rides for the kids and places to get food and drink, although the queues weren't great.  The fireworks were a little bit of a mismatch and whilst we were there weren't the ones you'd expect at such a large event, but then we grew hungry (tea was at home in the oven), so we decided to make our way back, however on our way home it was obvious they'd saved the best til last and so the bigger more dramatic fireworks didn't come until later.  According to the local forum the firework display lasted over an hour, which would have made tea incredibly late but we enjoyed it nonetheless, although early in the fireworks display we could hear people laughing after each firework, I don't think I've ever been to a display where that has happened before, which made us giggle. 

Saturday was a bit of a sorting day I also popped to see my Mum for a couple of hours before coming home to start wrapping and packing parcels that will need to be sent soon and my annual newsletter that I include in Christmas cards was delivered early, so I set too putting together cards in the aftenoon whilst hubby had a watch of the England rugby match, it was nice to kick back. 

 

Sunday and we headed to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we haven't been in an absolute age so it was nice to just go and blow the cobwebs off.  We parked at the main car park and decided to grab a breakfast sandwich first. 

This was my breakfast date

And this was our 'shared' sandwiches with a pot of tea. 

Before we set off on a walk, we saw a few of the new Mark Hearld pieces that they'd already hung, but I'll share them with you when we see the full exhibition, we also saw a  couple of new pieces we hadn't seen before, this is of Captain Sir Thomas Moore, that I stopped and reflected at, obviously he became incredibly famous for the 100 laps he did around his garden every day in the run up to his 100th birthday raising millions for NHS charities.

He also saw this new sculpture known as Hazmat Love, when we read the information about the statue it stated the original piece, which it was cast from had been made from the foil trays you can buy to cook a roast in your oven, when we went and looked up close, you could still see the embossed usage instructions and sometimes the make of these foil tins that formed part of the statue.  

We walked down the park along the path and enjoyed the autumnal view

We then grabbed a quick selfie as the light was lovely 

Then we headed down towards the boat house, which has a sculpture in it normally knee deep in mud, so the water flow underneath it meant that it was spinning quite happily on its own for a change.

We headed down towards the Jaume Plensa statue 

before heading off along the bridge and seeing (and hearing) the cascading water.   We headed back up through the park passing the fabulous mosaic octopus that has been in the park for an absolute age. 

Back along the lake but at the other side, we eventally made our way back, it was definitely a longer route than normal as we hit well over 11,000 steps on the walk where we normally hit around 9,000, but it was definitely good to blow the cobwebs off. 

The rest of the week has been busy with work as alway, however we did manage a couple of evening jaunts out where I sorted a couple of gifts I was struggling to get online and it made a change for us to go out at night and hubby took me to work one morning so I was able to capture this beautiful sky in all its glory. 

That my lovely people was the week that was, I hope you had a good week too, I will catch up on your post over the weekend

Much love

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 45TH OF 2021

 Good Evening lovely people tis Friday time for

First up my crazy soulmate, I've been struggling with a few health issues recently so I'm running on virtually empty all the time, but he always makes me smile, he dragged me out to Ikea for a wander and  a bite to eat which was lovely

Then said hubby and said 21 year old sorting out the pumpkin, it got turned into pumpkin tray bake which was delicious although not very good for my waist line whilst said 21 year old set too on carving the same. 

He did an awesome job

Which looked even better at night, 

I popped to see my sister who showed off her inflatable bat wings which had us in hysterics.

We put the colourful pictures up again although only for the weekend, as we had them up for a whole week last year and whilst they look amazing the lack of light is something I genuinely struggled with. 

Hubby was in work again this week for various reasons, but the boss's dog had other ideas of the work that was required, which definitely raised a smile. 

Said 21 year old is knee deep in uni work at the moment and due to some of this he has had to resort to using his glasses, he came down wearing them the other night and I  grabbed this photo of him. 

I've managed to get a few bits wrapped up and hubby has got the decorations out of the loft which means any plans of deep cleaning before Christmas has definitely gone out of the window but maybe that's a good thing.  

I also sorted a few pots out at the weekend moving out the remnants of summer bedding and putting some winter bedding plants in which is a good job as last night we had our first hard frost of the season and woke to a much whiter world this morning. 

I hope you've had a good week

Biggest hugs