Shrewsbury - a gem in our county

Hi everyone

Spring is struggling to arrive & stay & our weather has been unsettled to put it mildly.

This morning a friend & I decided to visit our nearby Shropshire county town of Shrewsbury which is always a welcome change of scenery.

The River Severn - the longest river in England, loops around the town with 2 main bridges spanning the Severn River. We parked & walked across the English Bridge. The Welsh bridge is higher up in town & looks the same. The two bridge names hints at the town's interesting past ...

What a gorgeous, but cool morning. The River is deceptively deep & is a hazard at places with late night revellers taking a dip & getting in to trouble in the river. However, today it was calm & smooth with beautiful reflections. The little island usually has nesting birds or swans on it ...

Coffee in a new place after our early start; it was an interesting cafe with lots of vegetarian food ... 

Then a browse in a lovely shop with goods from all over the world. Hibiscus was full of lovely items. The owner was very interesting & she chatted to us about where she sources stock from as well as showing us many of her lovely items ...

The square in Shrewsbury is always full of activities & events; it has this lovely Town Hall building with more references to the towns long history ...

We both opted for a healthy salad lunch - Chicken Caeser salad was my choice ( I am carb free so didn't eat the bread) & it was nutritious & delicious, a good choice while we people watched & caught up on each others news.

The best thing about towns with a long history is that the back streets are interesting so we took a walk .... 

A lovely old entrance with interesting paint colours peeking through , glimpses of lovely gardens  & life behind the gates - fascinating ...

St Chad's Church looms large with its brilliant cross on the top. Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' was filmed in Shrewsbury in 1984 & there is a tombstone to 'Ebenezer Scrooge' in the church yard -  I have yet to find it! You can view the movie here ...

A town of many spires - looking back down towards the town from The Quarry

The entrance to The Quarry, a large 29 acre public park, has these stunning gates ...

Green spaces are so important, with beautiful views & space for people to enjoy.  This is a very important part of our county, our green spaces.

I love how different the various streets are - the gentle curve of old buildings with the modern clock tower from the Market punctuating the scene ...

Solid red brick buildings look just right ...

The Crescent 1793 - it speaks of many stories & happenings over the centuries - who else would love to peek behind some of the doors ?

More church spires from another church yard in the centre of the town.

Many of the tombstones have gone or been repositioned against the wall, now it is a peaceful space in the centre of town which is used by family & office workers - that is how it should be.

 I love this beautiful front courtyard with its lovely topiary spires & the cheerful tulips in pots. 

A mixtures of small town houses & larger ones line this back street - hinting at the past with their old lights & tiny windows upstairs. It was also a time when people didn't have cars so parking was not an issue. This whole street is narrow, so is a one way with no parking which must be a bit of a nightmare on shopping days ...

What a fab day just browsing, lunching, taking photos & catching up - that is a good morning in my book!

Thank you for stopping by & taking the time to read, comment & hopefully follow my blog.
Dee ~♥~

Repotting the conservatory succulents

Hi everyone

Garden jobs are taking a lot of time but they are needed.  We have some low maintenance pots of succulents in our observatory where they love the summer heat & tolerate the cold winter temperatures.

However, they have outgrown their pots & attention was urgently needed.  I recently had them out but had bought the wrong potting soil which expanded & I didn't pot them on enough ...

This was my previous effort but in vain as I didn't repot all the little ones from the bases of the plants.

 This morning, I took advantage of the bright but crisp weather to do the job again by mixing the two kinds of potting soil & by thinning them out a lot more by removing the little ones or the 'pups' as they are called. The little gnomes were a gift from little visitors & they look right in the succulent pots.

This is an additional pot - I still need to find another shallow ceramic planter that will fit in the IKEA ones so the red container is just a temporary home for all these little ones ...

Another that is repotted from a small pot & it now has a bit of space, surrounded by little plants ..

This one takes up a whole planter on its own ...

Six of the previous ones are repotted individually in to pots that are contained in the 2 favourite IKEA planter troughs with their pretty metal work ...

The succulents are repotted properly this time - they look less cramped now in their individual pots & the round containers ...

My Aloe Vera was a gift from my friend Kathy some years back when she split hers - it has a temporary space in a terracotta pot until I can find a glazed pot for it. The medicinal properties of it are alluring though I confess to not using it as much as I should.

These succulents seem to be thriving & multiplying all the time, however, our Midlands weather is too cold for them to be outdoors. They are taking up a lot of space but with the air cleaning properties of the Aloe Vera, our conservatory is the place to go to have clean air ...

Have a lovely week everyone & thank you for stopping by & taking time to read & comment.
Dee ~♥~

Easter table settings at home

Hi everyone,

I hope your Easter has been peaceful & blessed.

I shared my Easter Sideboard with you. It always sets the tone for our meals as we love to eat in the conservatory which overlooks our garden.

Easter weekend aways starts off with toasted hot cross buns & coffee ...

Our Good Friday supper was a fish one. Do you stick to conventions by having fish on Good Friday? It is one occasion that I always have fish. My late Grandmother like tradition & I have grown up with such observances so think it is an important one to pass on ...

We inherited this set of fish cutlery from a bachelor uncle & it is not used often however, I decided it needed to be brought out for a change.  The fish bowl is vintage glass, the glass salt container holds tartar sauce along with silver plated & bone vintage fish servers ...

I love white plates & some cheerful Easter napkins ...

 I picked some daffodils & branches from the garden which looked cheerful ...

Simple & inviting - that is how meals should be ...

On Easter Monday, we had all the family home & A Wondering Star  daughter & her hubby, popped out to get some pastries for breakfast ...

She took out grandma Olive's blue jug from the cupboard & that suddenly decided the colour for breakfast - I am fortunate enough to have some lovely blue & white crockery which was gifted to me from Olive's attic years ago - that was coming out for breakfast as it has the various plates, bowls & platters needed.

Hot filter coffee with an assortment of pastries look tempting. Strawberries & blueberries with greek yoghurt for those of us who like it for breakfast ...

Don't the pastries look good? Olive's jug holds orange juice (it was always her custard jug)

I love the cobalt blue of the Blue Danish plates ...

Ready for everyone to just pull up a chair at the table - set in a few minutes by everyone ...

A lazy, catch up sort of family breakfast which is what the spirit of Easter is about ...

Our garden flowers are still doing well, though they should have gone in to a blue jug ...

A wondering stars gorgeous Vizslas joined up - Apollo getting comfortably on the sofa ..

Aura & Apollo watching activities in the kitchen ...

I hope you have had a blessed & peaceful Easter, thank you for stopping by 

Dee ~♥~

Happy Easter everyone ...

Hi everyone

My Easter Sideboard has been ready for a little while due to work & family commitments. It is a lovely calming sight which reminds us of time for family & friends.

Our dining-room sideboard hosts the modern Easter tree with bunnies - a memory of our own bunnies 

However,  my collection of Ethiopian coptic crosses collected on our many trips to Ethiopia, symbolise the religious side of Easter for me.

A wooden cross with handprinted images ...

Along with an inherited / gifted painting of a Cardinal, this corner of our home holds our special collection of crosses - a sign of our faith.

However you celebrate the Easter holidays, have a blessed long weekend & pause amongst it all to just give thanks for blessings asked for & received.

Dee ~♥~