'What I did this summer' Part 2

You've seen my the pictures of my trip with my daughter to

Blackwell, the Arts & Crafts House

here are few more

It was a sublime house, with all its original features, which is very rare.

The only house of its kind in such complete in the UK.

My son and I took two trains and a tube down to Kent. Yes my friend,

Mr BS5 it was a Pendolino and only 3hrs 23 mins, Carlisle to London Euston

We stopped off and went on a must do visit to the Oxford Street Apple shop and Borders Books, but with my Mary Poppins' handbag and a large carpet bag full of travel 'must haves', I got very hot and bothered and didn;t venture any further.

We managed, just down through Regent Street to

Leicester Square,

through to Trafalgar Sqaure.

The National Gallery- one of my favourite places to visit

Tall boy had not done Londons touristy scene before

so this whistle stop tour, took in a few of the London sights for sore eyes!

a humungus pidgeon on the People's Plinth

a view through Corinthian pillars

.. a few hours later, we continued down to the Kent coast and to the Bay.

We spent a few days with my parents and were then collected

by Larry who took us to Bluewater to SHOP!!

It is the best shopping centre by far in the UK I've ever been to.

Of course I look for photo opportunities wherever I am

and completely, well almost, forgot about the shops!

the ceiling at Bluewater

I have also been pampered in the spa,

all fluffed up with a Birthday gift of a facial,

pedicured & manicured. Thank you Larry.

I have been to the cinema to see, The Ugly Truth & also The Proposal which were both funny & shallow & easy chillout entertainment. I also saw The Time Traveller's Wife, all by myself, because no one else was free and I wanted to go, so I just did! True to the book's plot line, but rejigged to best explain the premise or chance people walking out before it making any sense. In the book I was confused to the half way point until it caught up with itself. Like the adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement it lacks the length of a book and so lacks anticipation, excitement and so empathy with the characters wasn't entirely there for me. Although I admit it still 'got to me' twice. Read the books for the full experience!

I have managed only to read three books and I am only sorry I have not painted nor sketched. But I have taken lots of photographs and so a few are here

more at my redBubble page.

I met up with two blog pals who were passing through Cumbria on their way home from Scotland and we spent a delightful few hours in a local pub The Kings Head (the oldest pub in Carlisle) chatting and laughing a whole lot.

I can tell you a little about them; they both live in the same 'greenist' uk city, one is a keen cook, bird?watcher and train spotter/traveller who must have a head for heights and who enjoys sharing pizza and a glass of wine whilst perched upon his wall with friends or family. The other blogger I met is a brave suburban super mum by day who morphs into spiderman's gal on her rare child free days out. Her blog is raw, real, intelligent and she is often hilariously funny! Do you think you know these bloggers?

Back to the old work/school routine tomorrow.....

and here's the first part.

'What I did this summer' Part 1

North & South

I'm sorry if you were expecting a review of the wonderful Elizabeth Gaskell novel or the also wonderful bbc adaptation - with the gorgeous Richard Armitage- this post is not about either. But here is an image to salve the torrent of disappointment.

But I have to get this off my chest. What is it about some bloggers, admittedly a tiny minority of those that have relocated. Mostly southerners that have moved up north. I mean specifically the blogs that people start up when they move to a new place. Willingly or no. They move lock, stock and several smoking barrels. 400 miles north. I find that some of them just moan and moan and moan.

Instead of getting out there into the community, they seemingly spend time, sitting in a darkened room huddled over a laptop. Not an ideal way to meet people. To ingratiate oneself with the locals. By southerners I also mean some Londoners or the counties in the general catchment area. To boot they also make the move not only from down south to oop north. They also make the change from career concrete high street designer label urbanity, to a far northern rural, remote, unsophisticated, in the main, (nought wrong with this, to me it is an added bonus) and probably a farming locale.

And l'm sorry but their blogs drive me mad. Taking the piss out of ooh aarhh farmers, mixing it with the shock horror- stay at home mother and toddlers; and oomm paa paaing their previous celeb' style sycophantic driven career existences, over the baa lambing moment of wonder.

Occasionally I read these and think well bugger off back to urban smogland then and take your blog, your designer wellies and Bodenite dressed toddlers with you.

Now as some of you know I'm from down south too and Larry (though Scottish) and I moved here cos we LIKE it, we LIKE the people, we LIKE the county, the climate? -ah well mostly, we like the ability to go out to the corner shop, yeah they have a few still oop here eh? I can go out without my eyebrows and lippy, well sometimes I can. I often wear a luminescent cagoule and elasticated trousers by day and I not feel the fashion police would be falling about as I went about my business.

I like buying from the town and farm markets From local producers. Supporting local business. I like this. I LIKE the county, the countryside, the city that really isn't a city by southern standards. I mean I can drive 3 miles in 3 minutes, unlike my former southern world which my 3 miles drive would take 50 minutes! I like the ease of life, the integrity, the shirt off your back friends, that are friends whatever. And so I don't feel the need to work on having handfuls of them. I find these bloggers to be disingenuous. I don't often see them commenting on other blogs, in fact rarely and in one case never, so consumed with I, me, myself, is she. I have even read some posts that are rants because one now 'famous' published blogger was dissed on the net. Oh dear what will happen to me now? Well if you will go looking. I have removed these bloggers from my reading list. I cannot heartily recommend them.

No doubt someone will come to their defense. But I am only speaking the truth as I read it.

It is just like the double decker bus syndrome!

... and you can stand there on the pavement for ages in the rain,

getting wetter and wearier, waiting impatiently for that damn bus...

it never arrives ... nor does the next one due .... and then ....

several come all at once ....

In the past few days I've received  two awards

Thank you...

Having recently posted that 'My cup runneth over...'

and writing about my reflection upon how blessed l'm feeling

with my friends and family all around me,

just like a warm blanket

fresh out of the tumble drier,

(oh dear that analogy wasn't in keeping with the mood l was trying to recreate! )

Thanks to Suburbia

for passing this torch to me and as with the last one

I feel happy to pass this on in the spirit of those recieved,

 to more of my favourite bloggers .

YOU ALL ROCK!!

A mask to hide behind

Blogbs5

Finding life hard?

Stuck in a book

Random jottings of a book lover