Our Weekend

I am having issues with this new Blogger set up and all my photos have loaded in reverse order, so we begin with the end of Sunday's trip to our local park when T and S were stick fighting whilst I was busy snapping some of the flowers.

We ended up spending 4 hours at the park, we atee our picnic, the children made up their own ball games, they played basketball, we had egg and spoon races,

played with the racquets and balls

and generally lazed in the sun

making the most of that cloudless blue sky which was sadly missing on Saturday when we went down to Boscombe. G's brother and his partner have recently moved into the area and we went down to visit. We were planning a wander down to the sea front but as it was overcast we decided to save that until the weather was warmer and we might be able to have a paddle and an ice cream too.

Down a side street G and I spotted the house we would like to live in, lots of windows, a higgledy piggledy roof  and a turret!

I have never been to Boscombe before and was really taken by the faded grandeur of the old buildings in the centre of town although the Royal Arcade is very well maintained internally, love the glass lights made to look like flames.

Apparently they hold a vintage fair here on the first Saturday of every month, may have to time our next visit to coincide  with one of those.

Last year when we went to Bournemouth we saw a couple of these lions, this one quite colourfully sums up Bournemouth.

Even it's rear end!

A couple of things which caught our eye on the wander into town, a huge Dalek

 and these decorative tiles outside an antique shop. Just along from the train station there are quite a few antique and vintage shops which we didn't go into this time, will definitely make sure they are perused next time though.

And so we end with the start of our trip to Boscombe. The photo taking started as soon as we were off the train, much to T's annoyance. The station is really very dismal but is cheered up by some fab art work on one of the walls.

White Rabbits

  It's traditional to say White Rabbits three times on the first day of everything month so I thought today would be the appropriate day to share three photos of our new white rabbit. He's a little night light.Here he is in the box he arrived in.

Now just look at that face, how cute is he?!

And the last photos is him all aglow. If you want to own one too I purchased him for £4.95 from dotcomgift. How can you resist?

March Scavenger Hunt

We are off out for the day tomorrow so I thought I would do my March Scavenger Hunt finds tonight. So in no particular order we have.....

A Landmark- a t-shirt with the Eiffel tower on it, found in the children's section of BHS.

Half a face- One of a selection of photos in Boots

Square- the Guildhall Square in the City centre, photo of me and S taken by T.

City- another photo taken by T. Our City's logo as seen on the window of one of the council offices.

Words- Advertising board outside Waterstones.

Kitchen- one of my favourite room sets from Ikea.

Fashion- fashion ideas inside my recent 1980 Pink annual purchase. Sequins stuck down the back of tights, top tip for your next night out!

Fancy- used twice in a sentence in a paragraph from my latest book club read. The Confessions of Katherine Howard, wouldn't recommend it.

Morning- on my work day mornings these are the 3 bags which need to be packed and ready.

Road name- very close to where we live, this road is named after Lord Leighton, painter of that very beautiful work of art, Flaming June.

Theatre- We keep the tickets from shows we've been to see and this is one of the first T saw. A friend at school had won tickets to the show and asked T if he wanted to go along.

Buttons- one of my most favourite necklaces.

Many thanks to Kathy for another interesting list. I wonder what April's will bring.

Pink

I am beside myself with excitement.
A recent conversation led me to visit the treasure trove that is ebay.
And it came up trumps.
I can't explain how happy owning a copy of this annual again makes me.

Receiving a copy of Pink at Christmas was one of the highlights for me. I read each one cover to cover many, many times.

When this annual arrived in the post the other day and I opened it up see this first page I was instantly transported back to being 12 again.

Now that's what I call a centrefold pin up!

This may sound a bit daft, but this is almost like sharing pages from my diary here on the blog. I knew these games

tips

quizzes and stories so well. Seeing them again after so long is just so special and it doesn't feel like it's been 30 years! It's like meeting up with a group of friends and talking about the good old days.

North Stoneham Park

Wasn't the weather at the weekend just glorious.

We were able to spend so much time outside, a lot of it in the back garden. On Saturday afternoon we decided a sort out of the shed was needed so everything came out and not everything went back in, there is now a huge pile of rubbish in our front garden awaiting a trip to the tip.

Saturday morning we went for a walk, selecting from the information leaflet stash a fairly local one, North Stoneham park. Now I have to say that although it was great being outdoors in the sun (and the pub across the road where we had lunch was really very nice indeed) it's not a place I would recommend making a special trip too for a family walk destination. There just wasn't much there, not that we need constant entertainment when we are out and about! The leaflet about the park is extremely informative and from a local history point it makes fascinating reading, but the points of interest at the park were very thin on the ground in comparison. Having said that the park is under threat of being developed by the council into housing which would be a huge shame. The fields were buzzing with butterflies and some pretty huge bees and the birdsong was loud and plentiful too. If I were a local resident I would be campaigning not to lose such a site.

On parking the car and walking up into the park the first thing you see is this beautifully manitained war shrine. It was built in 1917-18 by the then landowner John Willis Fleming in memory of his son Richard and 36 other men of North Stoneham who died in WW1. Over the years this fell into disrepair and has been restored in the last couple of years.

The great house which once stood within the estate was demolished decades ago along with summerhouses and lodges. One surviving building is the former coach house. It has been converted into residential housing and it wasn't the nicest conversion either so no picture.

From there it was on to the church. I was hoping for a peek inside to see a tomb detailed in the information leaflet but there was a wedding party gathering so I thought it best to stay outside!

The one hand clock dates from the early 17th century.



In my minds eye I could picture a Victorian country wedding scene here, the lych gate being festooned with flowers and lots of well wishes waving off the newly married couple.

Instead I saw these 3 having a five minute rest. Maybe that should be four as S wanted to bring her new bear Snowflake along too.


This little white earthenware jug caught my eye just as we were leaving the churchyard.



As we retraced our steps we walked past what is shown on the map as Avenue Pond, but there is no access to it as it's owned by the district angling club.

We did notice some of the trees had mistletoe growing on them.


Towards the end of the walk we spotted these plants growing in the next field. I'm not sure if it's because we were getting hungry by then but we did notice how they looked just like sticks of candyfloss, minus the pinkness!

I hope everyone has been enjoying the good weather whatever you've been up to.