From the top of our town

The Market Place in our town is at the highest point. It isn't really a square, more a sort of squashed polygon. On one side is the Parish Church of St. Michael's and all Angels, next door is the Town Hall, the Police Station, then the Library, and the other sides are shops. Much has been altered, the older shops gone, taken over or just flattened when they built the Indoor shopping Mall.



The Parish Church has a rather ornate arch over the steps leading to the churchyard. On the top is a cute angel, holding her skirt up!





I walked around the side of the church, and found these fallen angels! They were neatly arranged by the side, but there was no indication that I could see where they had come from. One seems to be playing a small harp, and the other a trumpet. I thought they were rather sweet, but sad.



You can generally see the hills beyond from any part of the town which opens to the east. Church Street leads from the Market place down a steep hill.




At right angles to this road, down the side of the churchyard, from a road originally called Churchwallgate, steep steps lead down to the bottom of the hill.




In the Library, which used to be a Bank, when Banks were ornate places, I found a bit of the original floor. It was beautifully tessalated (is that the word) with lovely curlicues.......



......in the corners. The library had kept just a square of this gorgeous floor, the rest, presumably damaged, was carpeted and the whole place had been opened out and refurbished.

It was good to think that they had kept this reminder of the older days, when Banks were staffed by people, not computers, and you could go and see the Bank Manager to ask for a loan!!

A walk round my garden now Summer is nearly here!

This weekend I have been working hard on planting out my pots for summer. I haven't ditched the pansies yet, there is a lot of colour left there, and I love them! I have planted Busy Lizzies, some small chrysanthemums and some geraniums. Hopefully they will all make a summery show soon.



Down the steps from the patio and on the right is a little path to Mr. G's shed, and also



what we call the Gravel Garden. It started out very well, but we are bedevilled by a HUGE laurel bush next door which casts shadow over it all day.. Our elderly neighbour has not been able to do anything, in fact she probably doesn't even know it is there. We think the house might be up for sale, as she is going into a Nursing Home. Maybe the new neighbours will do something!




On the left is the sunny border underneath the patio. My alliums are doing very well this year, and we have Aquilegias all over the place. Some are a pretty red and white, the others the usual purple and white.








Steppping along the path we meet our very big rhododendron, which is just beginning to come into flower. Down the end of the lawn is another rhododendron, this time a coral pink. Further on, through another arch, on which we are trying to grow another honeysuckle, there is the gate into the Park.




From the summerhouse, with the red rhododendron on the right, looking through the arch, which is covered with honeysuckle. That comes out in July.




Lastly, a little blue flower, the name of which I have forgotten, but which comes up regardless of dogs walking across, shade from the Golden Elder and general neglect!

Glassy

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week is "Glassy" so I have made a collage of photos of my favourite glass ball I found on a Scottish beach nearly 50 years ago!



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Indoor Shopping

We have a small indoor shopping Mall in town here, and when I have a scooter from Shopmobility, it is a very handy place to shop. The floors are nice and smooth and it is easy to get around. Outside, while it is in the fresh air, and there are lots of bigger shops, the pavements can be treacherous, being the original old York stone slabs, and although there is a pedestrianised area, some the the kerbs can be tricky!



Boots is one of the big names in the Mall - it occurred to me as I was winding my way round the aisles that things have got much brighter all of a sudden. Bright, primary colours for shampoos and lotions - or have I been missing something all this time!





In the Indoor market (one of my favourite haunts) there is great greengocery stall. I love the look of everything piled up together.




There is also a cheese and cold meats, pies and other interesting things to eat. Mr. G, always buys some speciality cheese there every week. I don't know if clicking on the photo and using an enlargement gizmo would enable you to see all the varieties of cheese there are there.




Lastly, a cheesy photo! The cheese at the back left is Edam, the white cheese is Cheshire and the one on the right is Shropshire Blue, which I think is my all-time favourite!



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Edible

Carmi's Thematic challenge this week is "Edible"

I love summer fruit, especially nectarines and plums. This photo, taken a couple of summers ago, makes me look forward to the time when fruit like that is really ripe, and dripping with juice!

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Spring in the Park

The blossom in the Park is really beautiful at this time of the year. Cherry blossom against the blue sky is one of my favourite Spring icons, the pink-blossomed trees form a tunnel over one of the main paths (some sort of prunus I think, the horse chestnut trees are in bloom, and the bright leaves of the two little maple trees are as colourful as any flowers!




I know Mallards are very ordinary ducks, but the colours on the heads of the drakes are gorgeous when the sun shines.



I managed a longer walk this morning, and this is the view down the lake from what I think of as "the other end".



The Chain-saw sculptor has been busy again. The owl still stands sentinel over the gates......



........ but the kingfisher has been joined by a heron......



......like this.



There is another heron in the childrens' playground, which I think, as herons go, is much better. This one is not at the top of a tree trunk, but stands about 3 or 4 feet high, with four mosaic plates around him.



He is a rather nice heron......



.......and has been provided with some fish to eat!!



The rumour of a frog appearing turned out to be true, though I don't like it much, rather a fat and ugly frog! It was very difficult to take a photo of it as the tree was on a sloping bit of ground, and I was against the sun. He is in the same area as the Kingfisher and big Heron, between the lake and the skateboard park!

I like our Park, and just hope you won't get too fed up with pictures of it. Mr. G and I really must get out more, but it has been rather COLD just lately.......!




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Spring has Sprung

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this month is "Spring has Sprung"

I love the 'coiled springs' of the opening ferns at the bottom of our garden, so that is my entry!

Of course, Spring has sprung is lots of other ways as well. Hopefully I'll be posting some of them on my next blog.

Including the first ducklings on the lake - 13 of them - but they seem to have disappeared for now. Hope all is well!

Things in the garden that gave me pleasure

It was a nice day on Saturday - sunny, and quite warm in the sun, but with a cool breeze. I wandered in the garden, and there were little things that gave me pleasure, so I made a short blog from them!



The pansies I planted last autumn suffered all the snow and ice in the winter, but are blooming madly now!



There is one stray pink tulip that seems to have come from nowhere in a large pot of tulips I left in from last year. Its very pretty, and taller and earlier than the other tulkps, which aren't doing very well anyway!



I don't know what the name of these flowers is, but I call them Star Flowers. They come up every year in the little channel along the top of our patio wall.




Again, these tulips come up every year, can't remember when I planted them, but they both appear in May. They are such a lovely deep red.



I love the young leaves of my hosta. Its been in that pot for ages, but still appears. I try to keep the slugs off, but don't usually succeed!



The Decentra against the grey wall always looks lovely. It comes out early, and looks so delicate. Later on, when it dies away, a rampant geranium takes over there!





The Pieris has been growing in a big tub in the corner of our patio for a long time. I love the new red leaves against the white flowers.




And lastly, I love the smell of new mown grass! Mr. G wields a mean mower over our lawns, and probably doesn't appreciate the smell! But it is rather good!

Sorry I can't show you any more - nothing much is out yet. Hopefully high summer will bring a completely new look to the garden!