Making use of poor photos

Whilst in New York, Hannah and Chris borrowed an Instax camera to take additional snaps.

Although the photos are immediate, the quality isn't great, so I just added them all to one page, good, bad and indifferent to make a feature of them.

 The title and embellishments are about the camera too.

The Ivy

I had a busy half term break, during the middle of it I went on a girls day shopping to Birmingham looking for wedding clothes and shoes.

Just three of us went along, my sister, daughter and I.

We started at The Ivy next to the cathedral for a lovely breakfast.

The food and service were both fabulous...well worth the price.

Although little was bought in the way of clothes, we did enjoy the day...

and even had cocktails back in Coventry before heading for home.

Northern Trip Part 2

This post follows the one from earlier in the week about our trip to the North Yorkshire coast earlier in the week.

I ended that one with us leaving Whitby to return to Scarborough,  I read in my local paper that the Abbey illuminations for Halloween were switched on Thursday night, pity we missed them as they look amazing!

Our first visit was to the grave of Anne Bronte, my favourite of the sisters (read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall if you want a good book) on our way to the castle.

The last time we went to Scarborough castle was when Harry was in the pushchair, this time he made it himself.  The castle was decorated in Halloween style,

even the cafe had Halloween biscuits!

On our final day we decided to visit York on the way home.

Sadly, it tipped it down, we did get a great view of the city from Clifford's Tower before the rain began.

The Shambles was packed (as ever) so after a quick lunch near the market we headed for home.  A lovely couple of days away!

A Few Days Up North Part 1

We booked a last minute trip to the North Yorkshire coast at the weekend, staying in Scarborough and visiting various places on our way there and back.

We stayed at The Grand Hotel, very much faded grandeur, but we enjoyed our stay nonetheless.  We booked one of the better rooms and ended up with two sea views as the room was on the corner of the hotel up on the third floor.  On the seaward side of the hotel we were seven floors up, so our view was incredible!

Not only was it great to see and hear the waves as we slept, but as we faced east, the sunrise on our second day (viewed from our bed) was incredible.  A cup of coffee, relaxing first thing and watching the sun come up over the horizon, what could be more lovely?

On the way up we stopped at two English Heritage properties just outside Doncaster; Conisborough Castle

and Brodsworth Hall, a property which has a roof (unusually for English Heritage!)

We settled in once arriving at the coast and planned the rest of our trip. Next morning we set off for Whitby.

The Abbey was spookily quiet as we were some of the first to arrive, great as it meant I could take some lovely photos of the Abbey in the sun,

some of the details of the building,

and I even got a photo (taken by Harry) of the two of us outside the Abbots house.

We then went down into the town and had an obligatory Whitby photo under the Whale bones.

I loved the steep steps in the town,

 ...leading down to the harbour from its time as a fishing village.

And with the link to the story of Dracula to Whitby, there were lots of signs of Halloween.

Later, we headed back to Scarborough for and ice-cream sundae and to explore the town.  More about this in the next post.

Apple Day 2017

Castle Bromwich Hall hosts a day to show the harvest of the gardens every year, we didn't make it last year as the weather was so bad, but this year it was a lovely autumnal afternoon.

There were pumpkins galore;

a pumpkin patch;

trees with apples still on them;

(and the kids relieved them of their harvest with a bit of cheeky scrumping!);

 a traditional Green Man;

and you could take along your own apple harvest to have the juice pressed.

A lovely day out for us all.

Holiday Photos

You probably guessed that I have been away for a couple of weeks as blogging has been very thin on the ground.  We headed south to Dorset (as usual) and although the weather was mixed, we did get to spend a few days on the beach.

Although all the kids are now grown up, they still came along with us, along with my sister and her family and my Mum and Dad. They may be adults, but are never too old to make sandcastles!

The summer clouds in the skies did make for lovely pictures of the beach.

Mum and Dad had bought an inflatable canoe, so the lads made full use of it.

...and although the sea looks deep here, it was only about waist height (just shallow enough for me to get near and grab a shot).

My sister's son had a birthday while we were away.

It was a dull day so all twelve of us went ten pin bowling.

My Dad (who is 78) was the winner!

We had fun at the amusements...

...on the bumper cars,

and my favourite, the carousel.

We had two boyfriends along this year, Matthew with Katie, and Hannah and Chris (so grown up now) rented a beautiful flat for themselves with a glorious view over an SSSI salt wetland to the sea. 

On another poor day we headed to Portland with Chis (our friendly geologists!) along to help us.

One of the huge flat slabs at the Bill had slipped down last winter due to it being undermined by the waves, strange to think we had been walking on that for the past 40 years visiting the Isle.

 Hannah and Harry under the lighthouse.

Hannah and Daddy looking out to sea.

Hannah and Chris at Pulpit Rock.

Not all the days were dull, these final photos show the blue skies we are more used to in Weymouth.  The Tudor House;

Katie and I spent a sunny morning in the Nothe Gardens

On the way back to the beach we chose to take the ferry as a shortcut across the harbour.  Now, this ferry sounds a fancy affair, but it is just a pair of rowing boats that cross the water for £1 a head.

On a lovely day, the trip does give a lovely view of the harbour.

 While away I did make a couple of scrapbook pages, so will share them later in the week.