Weekending

I feel asleep very close to midnight on Friday, much, much later than my normal bedtime but I just had to finish the book I was reading. It was Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris and was a cracking good read it was too. Definitely recommend this one.

 We had a parcel to collect from the local sorting office and as we did Nearly one year ago we parked the car and went on a bit of a wander.
First off we popped into a carpet shop as we need some new flooring for our bathroom. We saw this mosaic effect vinyl which we both liked, although we are probably going to go for it in a beige or cream colour way.

Near the park are two churches on opposite sides of the road. This one is where we used to go each December with the senior school for our carol service. We would always sing the same carols each year but we still had to practise them for ages beforehand in our music lessons. I loved this annual event and have very fond memories of it.
The other good memory I have about this church is taking T to a summer fete there one year where he entered the fancy dress competition as a dalmatian dog and was awarded the second prize (a cricket set) by wild life presenter Chris Packham.

As we were walking on the same side of the road as the other church I didn't get a full view of it but did snap the beautiful stained glass in the windows.

After popping into the bakers to buy hot sausage rolls and pick up a stale wholemeal loaf from the 'free bread for the ducks shelf' we made our way to the park.
There were lots of rowers out on the water taking part in a competition. Some of the spectators were wearing Bournemouth university sweaters so we guessed it must have been some kind of local inter university event.

The ducks and swans crowded around for the bread which G and S threw for them

and this flock of birds made a huge racket as they swooped down on to the crumbs emptied out by these two people from their bag of bread.

Of course we had to stop off at the playground for S to have a play and I can assure you she was having fun in this swing thing although it may not look like it! 

It was then a short wander back to where we parked the car in this road. I do like to know the reason why roads are given a particular name, is that starnge? Anyway this one was named after Sir Steuart Macnaghten, a lawyer and one time chairman of the Southampton Docks Board, who came to own Bitterne Manor (which you can see photos of in last year's post) and is situated very close by.

Plans for Sunday went slightly awry as we were all due to go to meet up with the rest of G's family down in Bournemouth. It would have been his dad's 83rd birthday and so they wanted to mark the occasion.
Unfortunately T was full of cold so I had to stay at home with him, but S and G took the train together and kept busy on the way drawing cats and butterflies.

They all went down to the sea front and let go of a balloon each in memory of Grandad B and then went to Harry Ramsden's for a much needed warming lunch of fish and chips.