Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 32

I am back though I have very little news, but what I do have is making me smile, and that's what matters. This week we have been busy at home, dealing with more admin. and as a result we have fixed a date for completing on the house purchase and collecting the keys and it is Thursday August 21st. We won't be living in it immediately as we have no furniture etc, but all our boxes are arriving from the storage unit on Tuesday 27th. (The Monday is a bank holiday so they can't bring it then). So the first few days will be spent buying some essentials like curtains, fridge, kettle and paint! But it is all very exciting.

Last week some of you commented on my 'nice little bit of garden' at the front of the house, which I am sure I will be able to tidy up in no time, so today I thought I would share what is at the back of the property.

As you can see it is quite long, but not too wide. Mostly it is laid to stone slabs and gravel and there is quite a good patio just under the kitchen window with enough space for a small table and chairs. There is a usable, pedestal bird bath just by it which will be cleaned up and give me pleasure watching for visitors.

The rest is very overgrown, because the house has been empty for six months or so, but once it is cleared I will be able to decide what I want to do with it. One thing for sure, there will be a small area for a rose garden with my mum's favourite rose (Peace) as one of the plants. I promised her I would plant one when I could, and it will be a nice little memorial to her. She loved all the flowers in the garden, just like I do.

There is a long path running the length of the garden with a nice long washing line above it, and at the end there is a locked gate leading into a short alley to the road at the side. This will be the way to take out our refuse bins for collection, and will probably be our usual way out, to avoid the front steps, and the road with no pavement outside the gate.

And just to make you smile, here is one wall in what will probably be my craft room. It was previously a boy's bedroom, (from the name plate on the door), which may explain the wall. It is one of the reasons why Paint is on our first shopping list!

My other happy news involves some forward planning. Today I managed to book tickets for Chris and I, my son and daughter-in-law, and our grandson to all visit the Tower of London a fortnight tomorrow. Spaces are selling out fast so I am glad I did it today. I especially want to see the 'sea of poppies' that will be there until November.

Also we will be returning here for a weekend on the day after my birthday in October. Some friends of ours are getting married and their celebration party is on Saturday 18th October. It will be an opportunity to meet up with several of our friends from Spain who will also be there.

Then on the Monday Jo and I have tickets to see the stage version of Les Miserables. I have only seen the film version and loved it, but I have been told the stage show is much better. I am familiar with all the music as we sang a long medley from it with our choir in Spain, that made up almost half of the programme. Chris didn't want to see it but he bought me my ticket for my birthday, and Jo is happy to come with me although she has seen it before.

So that's lots to keep me smiling and plenty to look forward to. and now I will get this ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 31

I did miss posting last week although I was not anywhere that it was possible to do so. However we had a good visit back to Oswestry where we were able to take our time going around the house, measuring spaces and marking all the sockets on our floor plan etc, so we can start planning what we want to do.  The surveyor has given us a verbal report which was positive, though we won't have the official one until the middle of next week. Here is a photo of the front of the house that I took from the park across the road. It is a mid-terrace house which has the advantage of keeping it warmer in the winter. As you can see, the garden is in need of a little TLC but I will get it sorted by next spring.

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So what else have we been up to in the past couple of weeks. Well we had a visit to Greenwich market which is one of my favourite haunts in London. It was busy of course, as the tourist season is now in full swing, but I bought some lovely water glasses, and strong fabric shoulder bag. 

I love the way much of London is full of flowers. So many bars and shops have hanging baskets and troughs just spilling over with flowers.

We returned home via the water taxi down the Thames, and then the underground train.

I was even brave enough to return there on my own to pick up a few more things. I haven't done much travelling on my own since we got here and the underground is quite different from when we left with new lines, and changed names, but there are still some of the old trains running too. I am not a fan of the long downwards escalators, (I don't mind the ones going up), but the different lines are all on different levels, so sometimes the escalators are a better option to long flights of stone steps!

Another night our son and DIL took us to ABBA Voyage, and it was an amazing show. It took place in a purpose built arena by Stratford, which was mostly made of wood bolted together so that it can be taken down and moved to a new location next year. But of now it is still attracting huge crowds every night. 

I loved the ceiling of the foyer with all its coloured lights. 

This is where there was a selection of bars, cloakrooms, and merchandise shops. Jo and I couldn't resist the capes, so she she bought the blue one and I the red one, and we had a picture taken under the ABBA sign.

Then someone in the queue offered to take one of our 'other halves' as well, and for once we are all smiling.

The ranks of seats soon filled up as did the triangle in the centre for dancers, and I managed a quick photo before we were all asked to put out phones away.

There was a small band and four backing singers, but the main screens were taken up by avatars of Abba back in the day, and they were so realistic it was hard to convince ourselves that they weren't really there on the stage. They sang all their most well-known songs as well as a couple I didn't recognise, and throughout the whole show, there were moving lights coming down from above, and chasing round the outer wall. It was a lot to take in, and all in all it was a fantastic show. And you didn't need to be a huge ABBA fan to enjoy it.

This week Chris and I went back to the Outernet at Tottenham Court Road, and although the display I wanted to see wasn't showing that day, there were still some fantastic light displays to enjoy. Here are a couple of the photos I took though I couldn't catch all the sparkle. These were on the roof above us.

I took this one to show my daughter-in-law as all her family love pink flamingos!

This one was an animated under-water scene and little shoals of fish swam in and out of the reeds. I caught two little 'Nemos' I thought were cute.

We sat on a sunny plaza outside for a while and I indulged on a treat I find it hard to resisit - a frozen yoghurt bought from this bright red bus!

Here's someone else cute. This little fellow regularly visits the garden, and is not a bit shy. If we are sitting quietly he will come almost up to us.

This afternoon, for something different, I did some baking. So I made a batch of sweet potato, oats and almond flour cookies, and some Welsh cakes. In wasn't sure how well these would work as I always cook them on a heavy cast-iron griddle. But today I used Jo's skillet because it was nice and flat, and they came out just fine. So now I will go and butter a few for our tea and I will publish this in the morning and link it to Annie's Friday Smiles.