Last Blog of the Year

Beijing zoo – I nearly fell in the pond…..!!

I love doing this blog, it gives me the chance to look back over the year through my photos, it is surprising how many things get forgotten over the course of 12 months, places I have been to and things I have seen. 2011 has been a rollercoaster of a year for me, the ‘ups’ have been fantastic, and I am just going to ignore the ‘downs’!

I planned to do 2 photos for each month, but I have cheated on a couple of months…the photos here all mean something to me, they may not be the best photos and there are probably some you have already seen, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

January

Not a good month at all, but I was surprised to find that I had taken this in January.

February

Iris blooming in February.

A touch of colour in February.

March

Sign of spring.

The little garden next to the church was open, this blackbird was happy to share my lunch

April – how could I possibly pick only 2 photos???

Beihai Park

My favourite photo of the holiday

The Great Wall just had to be included

Just because….

Terracotta Chariot and those wonderful horses.

May

Wisteria – so beautiful

How could anyone resist this face?

June

Roses in the rain.

Bushey Ruff (Russell Gardens) Dover, so peaceful walking by the water.

July

Wonderful Ely Cathedral

Walmer Castle grounds.

August

Horse and foal, Salutation Gardens, Sandwich.

September

He posed for me!!

The Crypt, St Peter’s Church, Sandwich

October

Sunset over the rooftops

Bath Abbey

November

The last poppy in my garden this year.

Autumn berries

December

On the way home from work

Outside looking in – our house, our home ….but I really shouldn’t leave my laptop in front of the fire…!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

HOPING 2012 IS A WONDERFUL YEAR FOR EVERYONE XXXXX

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree…..

 

Now that the excitement of last weekend is wearing off, I thought you might enjoy seeing the Christmas Tree Festival held in St Peter’s Church, Sandwich.

I missed the festival last year, so I had to go and have a look this year. They are trying hard to raise money for improvements to the church, and I think this is a lovely way to raise some much needed cash. St. Peters is a redundant church that is used for art exhibitions etc. but is well worth a visit at any time. I went down into the crypt on an open day in September, another blog waiting in the wings. I wonder if I will ever catch up with myself???

The trees had been dressed by various sections of the community, there were sections from businesses, families and groups, all were just lovely to see, from the trees dressed by children from the local nursery through to the ‘whole room’ display, done by a local business. There was one done by the local bell ringers group which was great, sadly I don’t appear to have a photo of it.

My daughter came home on Saturday, last year she was still in China, so we are all looking forward to a really good Christmas this year. Our tree this year looks lovely, it is crammed with lots of special ornaments on it, below is a close up so you can see what I mean! Oh and a photo of my friend and I pretending to be reindeer, at least I was brave enough to show my face..

Thank you Pat and Shaun for the little Christmas Party, it was great, and Pat you make the best Christmas cake ever!!!!

As this is my last blog before Christmas I would like to wish every one of you a truly special Christmas. Take care all xxx

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★*˚°。°*。°*。★ MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Canterbury Rocks at Christmas

On Saturday my best friend and I went to the ‘Canterbury Rocks at Christmas’ in Canterbury Cathedral, wow did we have a great time!! The main performer was Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull with Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) and Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) as guests.

I have been a Moody Blues fan since 1967 and had never had the chance to see any of the group live, so I just had to go to this concert, I think I would have walked if the weather had been bad! lol

We had pretty good seats in the centre aisle, of course in front of me was the largest man there could be but I could still see pretty well! Ian Anderson is just amazing on the flute, Bruce Dickinson has a really great voice, and sang a totally amazing version of ‘Jerusalem’ and Justin Hayward sang ‘Forever Autumn’ and ‘Nights in White Satin’, his voice is just awesome, there were parts of Nights in White Satin where his voice just totally filled the whole cathedral. To see such a concert in this amazing venue was just something else!

At the break I went outside through a side door, for a quick ciggie,  and came back in the same door – right in front of me was Justin Hayward signing autographs, and amazingly enough there were only a few people who had found him!!!!! I fished out my programme and a pen, waited patiently and managed not only to get his autograph but have a few words with him…..I have been on cloud 9 ever since!! He seems a genuinely lovely man, and although I have waited a very long time to see him live, the wait was more than worth it! I never dreamt I would get to talk to him or get his autograph! I also took a photo of him and a young man who was there, sadly I didn’t get any photos myself as the tickets stated no cameras, phones or video recorders allowed, so I left my camera at home. In fact they did allow non flash photography, but meeting Justin made up for the fact I have no photos. The end number of the concert was Locomotive Breath, a very well known Jethro Tull song, performed by all whom took part, a fantastic end to an amazing evening, all in all a truly fantastic start to Christmas for me

Bath

There were lots of amazing statues round the city, I loved this one!

Back in October my best friend and I had a mini break in Bath. My friend had never been there before and my last visit was over 40 years ago, so we were both looking forward to the trip very much.

Fountain House, the building on the left, our flat was on the 2nd floor.

To the right is the Abbey and the entrance to the Roman Baths.

We had rented a flat on the Lansdowne Road, which was just beautiful. We were about 2 minutes walk from Milsom Street, the Assembly rooms, and The Circle, about 5 minutes walk away from the The Royal Crescent and about a 10 minute walk away from the The Roman Baths and the Abbey, so you can see we chose our spot very well!!

The entrance to the Kings and Queens Baths, when I last visited there was a water fountain in front of the building. The water was the famous Bath Water, and attached to the fountain was a metal cup for tasting the water. The fountain has now gone, probably due to the fact that everyone used the same cup!!!

The Lansdowne Road.

Bath is a beautiful, vibrant city, with wonderful individual shops, interesting shop lined alley ways mingling with the Georgian buildings. The first afternoon we just had a gentle walk to get our bearings, we did go into the Abbey, and then ate Fish and Chips in the Queens Square, it was a lovely evening. The weather throughout our visit was wonderful, with wall to wall sunshine, a real treat in October!

Abbey Green.

We started our sight seeing with the Roman Baths, we arrived at opening time on Friday morning, and spent an amazing couple of hours wandering round and chatting to the ‘Roman wife’ who was waiting patiently for her slave to return. This lady was just hilarious, she certainly made our visit to the baths a memorable one!

The Roman Baths

That lady probably has a photo of me taking a photo of her….lol

The water entering the baths from underground.

The overflow

The mask of Minerva.

The wonderful ‘Roman Wife’

Exhausted by all the laughing we had coffee in the Pump Rooms, which was very nice, then we wandered down to a local garden, took one of the bus tours round the city and finally went back to the Abbey for a good look round, and, for me, a climb up the tower…. More about the Abbey in the next blog as it deserves a blog to itself.

One of the chandeliers in the Pump Room.

One of the display cases in the Jane Austen Centre.

I just had to include this photo!!! lol

The following day we visited The Jane Austen Centre, The Circle and the Royal Crescent, had some retail therapy and checked out the local tea shops, and the modern shopping centre, I think you can tell we had a busy but lovely time, and certainly saw the sights!!

Pulteney Bridge.

In the Park

I loved this

Looking down the Lansdowne Road

The Royal Crescent

 

Our short but very enjoyable visit ended the next day, after a final visit to the Royal Crescent in glorious sunshine. We travelled home, tired but very happy, and we both want to go back again soon

My daughter would just love shoes like these!!!