Petals of a Rose - Pages of a Book

If there is one flower combination that shouts summer to me, it is the perfect combination of roses and English lavender.  Roses with so many layers of sheer perfection that look like the pages of a well loved book, their many petals ready to unfurl and lure in the bees and noses to experience its scent.

Geoff Hamilton Rose

Compared to the soft spikes of lavender with its gentle lilac blue waving to the passing bees and willing people to brush against the grey stalks to release this calming scent.  Well, it would be that way if the wonderful English summer stepped up a gear.  Instead, the spikes are teasing me by still being encased by its grey/green outer shell.

This week's weather has been a mixture of sunshine and showers, but my roses still look so beautiful with the added glass looking beads of rain decorating the petals.

However they soon turn to vapour when the sun decided to peep through.

My roses are mainly pink in the garden but this one has peeped through, not sure where it came from but I love the antique looking colour.

Our herb garden has been patiently waiting for us to start collecting its delicious bounty for some culinary masterpieces.  How could we resist.  For now, some ribbon and carefully placed bamboo in my greenhouse will have to do and the drying process can begin so that some dried herbs will be ready for pounding for winter use.

The potato sacks are overflowing with greenery.  I am so tempted to open the velcro door to see how things are progressing!

The front entrance is now suitably colour co-ordinated.  I am loving the raspberry colour of my new door mat (probably why my icons for the blog are now this shade - take a look at Heather B Designs, they are also very helpful in creating extra icons if you need them).

The climbing hydrangea was full of bees even though the lacy flowers were few and far between.

The pond iris's were also attracting the bees.  I am so glad that these miraculous furry bundles of summer are visiting us once more.

You may have now gathered that I am having a 'stay at home' weekend.  My post is reflective this week as it has been incredibly hectic at work, Saturday has been a 'clearing up' day, or as the teenagers call it 'Bad Mood Mum Day', so to sit in the garden at the end of it was an absolute joy.  Have you ever worked yourself so much that your legs start pounding and the pain rushes through your body, to the point you can't walk anymore?  Well, that's me right now!  So, a long slow breath exhaled and calm restored.  Sitting in the garden amongst the ever growing plants with a lovely strong cup of tea (no wine being poured this week - my headaches have been horrendous!), some neglected hooky, my Coco dog close by and Mr Teenager who is enjoying a rest after his first week of work experience.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and your transfer from Google Reader is as painless as possible!  Time for me to have another strong cup of tea and a foot spa I think!  I'm really going to feel this in the morning!

Take care.

♥Chel♥

This week I am sharing with:

Share Your Cup Thursday

Open House

Simple and Sweet Fridays

Cottage Style Party

Weekly Top Shot

Weekend Flowers

Saturday Show Off
Seasonal Sundays
I Heart Macro
Cottage Garden Party

Returning to Where I Began - Blog Year 2

So, on with year number 2! As my title says "returning to where I began", well it was in fact my second post!  Back in June 2012 I went to the Peterborough Heritage Weekend and was blown away by absolutely everything to do with this event.    If you are a regular reader you will know that I work within the precincts and enjoy capturing shots of the architecture that surrounds the Cathedral, but this event really makes you look at the environment in a different light.  To think that this Cathedral has seen most of the costumes in the correct century is mind blowing.  I'm going to keep the words to a minimum and just take you around.  Some areas are private but the Bishop and the Dean open their gardens for this event, so it is a bit of a blog garden party thrown in.  However you will probably agree that this is a Dr Who adventure and we will be travelling in the tardis back through the centuries.

So where to start?  Let's start with the grand building itself.  Beautiful, splendid and constant.

Now, see the archway to the right?  This is the Knights Chamber and also the entrance to the Palace which is private but for this event the walkway and gardens are opened to the public.

Once through the leafy driveway you enter the Palace gardens.

Here, in the perfect Medieval surroundings, camps were set up where lunch was being cooked.

Further round the walk you end up at the Monks Kitchen, the oldest part of the Cathedral grounds.  To think how old these walls are, probably 900 years old, is staggering!

The vaulted ceilings are so simple, no embellishments, but have stood the test of time.

Then we go round to the orchard.  The wall is the other side to the cloister wall that I took you around a little while ago (post here).  

The walk takes us full circle and we are back beneath Knights Chamber.

Before we went around the rest of the grounds, we headed for the Cathedral Square where there were re-enactments.  These actors were depicting the arrest of King Charles I.  The muskets were fired...

...and the protesters were shot...safely!

 Now, apparently when King Charles was about to be sent to London to his execution, he spent one night in the room above the Norman Arch as you go towards the Cathedral.  This is the window to the left.

So now we go under this archway and start looking at the living villages.  I would love to tell you what this contraption is but didn't get a chance. I would love to think it was a medieval flying machine!

The Roman village was busy with soldiers getting ready for their turn in the re-enactments.

I think they were glad to make their way back for some refreshment.

Along with the next village which consisted of more characters chopping wood and preparing lunch in the authentic way.

The smell of smoke was thick in the air.

We then entered a little gate in a walled garden which took us to the Dean's garden, which had been taken over by the Vikings.  

Now this Viking was magnificent and I am so glad I managed to capture him up close.

There were crafts being demonstrated.

And the patience of this dog was a sight to behold!

After me and Hubby had a go at the archery, we then went back through the little gate and into World War II.  Here was Churchill with friends...

...and some soldiers recruiting for World War I.

Around we continued going through all the different centuries, sometimes they were jumbled up.  Here's Churchill again skipping through the centuries.

Not as bright and sunny as last year's day, but still a lot to learn and see.

Now you may have noticed some changes to my blog.  I fancied a bit of a change of colour and with the demise of Google Reader, I have changed a few things around.  So if you would like to follow me there are some icons at the top of my blog with all the different ways.  My particular favourite out of all of them is Bloglovin and it is so easy to transfer your reading list to this.  I have also added my Twitter box, I'm only just really getting into this.  I have had 'fun' all day changing things so I hope you like them.

Have a wonderful week.

♥ Chel ♥

This week I am sharing with:

Weekly Top Shot
Our World Tuesday

My First Bloganniversary ♥

It has been a year of discovery.  A year of discovering wonderful, inspiring, like minded, humorous people.  A year of discovering more of who I am and not being afraid to put my photos and words out into Blogland.  A year of discovering that people are really kind in actually reading my posts and taking time out of their busy lives to leave comments.  Each comment has warmed my heart, smiles appear and occasional laughter.  It's been an amazing journey, never thinking that my little blog would be read by people in places that I will never see, let alone being followed by so many talented people.  It's been a journey of expanding my knowledge on how Blogland works, perseverance (remember Google Reader is about to stop - my Bloglovin button is on the left), and really enjoying myself.  So thank you all, thank you from the bottom of my very humble heart for sticking with me and reading about my ramblings.  And as a further thank you, Miss Teenager has chosen the winners of my blog anniversary giveaway.  So...drum roll....

The winners are:

The Boy - Reuben Firefly (Sarah Louise at Looking as u are)

The Girl - Ember (Vicky at Life on Willie Mae Lane)

...and an extra one as Miss Teenager liked this name for the pet:

Squidgee (Bronwyn's youngest at Queen B - Creative Me)

Thank you all for the names, it was a hard decision for Miss Teenager but I think she did well as I wrote a list and left her in a room to look through (no I didn't lock her in!)  So, congratulations to the winners - could you please email me your details (email box is at the bottom of the left column).  You will each receive a little box of goodies very soon.

So now to prepare for a little trip down memory lane this weekend and on with Blog Year 2!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Tick Tock Goes The Dandelion Clock

I don't know about you, but where has the time flown this week?  In fact this year is really flying by and the nights will start drawing in again soon!  (I love dark evenings so personally can't wait).

This evening after work I decided that it was time to have a mum/son catch up, and suggested we went for a little walk down to Four Mile Bar Fish and Wildlife Refuge.  This is only a few miles from us and is out in open countryside and very quiet.  When we left my car and walked down the pathway I kept singing 'Fields of Gold' in my head.

I love this bridge, it has no sides, just planks of wood above the flowing water.  Such a tranquil place and completely different to a few months ago in the snowy winter months.

The wind was blowing quite strongly across the fens, but it was a lovely warm wind not cold like the last time we were here (post here).  We could see for miles and the only decision we had to make was whether we had hooves or feet!  So onto the public footpath we went!

The walk was easier this time and instead of red welly boots crunching through fresh deep snow, I had trainers on being careful not to crush the daisies.

In the distance you could see the nearest hamlet but it was still a fair distance.

Not too far into our walk we came to Four Mile Bar Bridge which crosses the Welland river.  As we were above the river and the wind had nothing stopping its force for miles, it certainly was whipping up around us.  This was a reminder that I should always have a hair tie with me at all times!

The river was flowing beautifully with the sun catching it's ripples.

All around us we could hear the wildlife as this is a wonderful fish and wildlife refuge.

Mr Teenager carried on walking and was now ahead of me.  We were surrounded by so many wild flowers such as the beautiful cow parsley.

This sign made me smile as there was absolutely nothing using this tiny road at the other side of the bridge.  Maybe it was for groups of walkers?  Or were we just passing a place?

Mr Teenager was now in his element wanting to show me something.  A field full of calves!  There were so many, and in the distance a bull and his harem!  I'm afraid that the shiny red colour of 'Val' my camera must have spooked them because they got up from their rest, and then rumbled down the field with older cows in pursuit.  However, two stayed, one mum and one approaching bull! (The mosaic below should be looked at clockwise).

And so, excitement over, we headed back to the car.  Mr Teenager walking on ahead in his own little world.

 And me dreaming of getting back home to look at all my roses.  The ones in the main garden,

The ones enveloping my greenhouse giving it natural shade (not that it needs it at the moment!),

The scent of these climbers is truly magical.

And my yellow roses on the fence, my piece of sunshine.

 New life continues to appear in the garden such as this magnificent moth that was out in the day time and seemed to be sunbathing for a while.

So, the week went quickly but I just hope that the weekend goes very slowly.   Tick tock goes the dandelion clock, let's hope the wind doesn't blow all the time away!

 I would like to also say a HUGE thank you for all the wonderful comments you sent me last week (and being featured on  The Homeacre Hop and Simple and Sweet Fridays) and a very happy and warm welcome to my new followers.  I have tried to answer as many comments as I can.  Thank you also for the wonderful names you have put forward for my giveaway (please see the end of last week's post if you missed this).  Miss Teenager is going to choose a couple of names next week.  As to what the giveaway is, we are still deciding on this, but it will be something local to us and thoughtful.

I will post the winners before our visit to Peterborough Heritage Weekend.  If you are in the area this is a 'must see' (my post from last year is here to give you a taster - this was my second ever post!).

Have a wonderful week.

Take care.

This week I am sharing with:

Open House

Oh the Places I've Been

Time Travel Thursday

Simple and Sweet Fridays