Rocking Your World 2019: Week 46

Hi everyone. I am starting this post with the rest of my photos from U.K., as I thought I had done enough last week.

Ben and I returned from our visit to Sydenham for Jim's licensing service, to Ben's house in Birmingham. I was staying with him for a couple of extra days, mainly because there was a flight on the Tuesday that was £200 less than for the same journey at the weekend! He had to go to work but there is plenty for me to see in the city so on the first day I went to the Botanical gardens which are just a short walk from Ben's house. It is lovely there, but last time we went together it rained, so we only saw a small part of it, and I wanted to explore further.

You start by walking through a series of rooms where the climate is controlled so they can grow exotic plants. The first room has a pond with huge koi carp in it. They are very used to people and swim to the surface if you stop to see them. I love all the strange flowers. The curled up purple one was called a Snail flower, for obvious reasons. All the waist high surrounds had deep green moss on them, and several pea-hens were enjoying a dust bath by the warm glass. The pea-cocks were strutting around on the grass outside.

There are several areas with natural pools and streams, and the ferns and grasses around them make them look so pretty. The big fountain was also running, and the moss grew thick on its stone bowl and base.

Of course the trees were all wearing their Autumn coats so I had to make another small collage to show off their glory.

Everywhere you walked the leaves made a carpet of gold and brown, with sometimes a few spots of red too.

In the centre of the gardens is a sheltered aviary for these pretty love birds, and I stood watching them interact with one another. There were so many different colours in their plumage, and they are so sweet.

I finished off my visit with a trip to the café for a cup of tea and delicious scone with jam and clotted cream.

The next day I decided to visit the cathedral in Birmingham city. I walk through its grounds to get the bus back to Ben's house, but I have never been inside. But I get off the bus on the other side of New Street station and have to walk through it and out again to get to the cathedral. On my way I found myself in Broad Street which was a hive of activity as they were preparing the chalets and stalls for the Christmas market which was opening the following weekend.
So I had a wander round that, feeling sad that I was going home just too soon to enjoy spending time there. I was at my son Jonathan's house in Manchester last year and loved the time we spent browsing the stalls and tasting all the special food and drinks. Birmingham's market is not as grand and most of the stalls did seem to be food and drink only, but I am sure there would be other items when it was all set up. They had put up a beautiful Christmas tree outside the Town hall, up on stilts so it provided an area of shade and shelter underneath for the visitors. It was decorated with big red candles. Another tree further down the street had more traditional decorations and an angel at the top. Some stalls were just covered in lights and others had elaborate characters climbing over them, and there were still quite a few waiting on the ground to be installed.

Eventually I made it to the cathedral, and the main thing that left an impression on me was the two large stained-glass windows at either end of the main section. There were also two smaller ones on either side of the one at the front. What made them different from others I have seen was their vibrant colours, and even on a rather damp and grey day, they really shone out.

If you can click on this and read the script below them, you will see that the artist was Bourne-Jones and his close friend and co-worker was William Morris. In this close up of part of the clothing in the second window, you can just see faintly William Morris' influence in the floral decoration of the fabric.

While I was looking around, a young woman was playing the organ beautifully, so I sat and listened to her until it was time to go for my bus.

So now it is time to look at what I have been up to this week. We started on Sunday with our Service of Remembrance. There is a strong British Legion group in this area, and several of their members came to join us. Our leaders had made the church look lovely. As well as the poppies on the altar and around the walls, posters had been made telling the stories of friends and relatives of our congregation who had been involved in the services during the two world wars, and other conflicts since.

The green board on a table at the front, was a place where we could write the name of anyone we wanted to remember, on a white cross, and pin it up.

Darren played the Last Post on his trumpet to start our 2mins silence, and we all sang some rousing hymns. It was a lovely, thought provoking service.

On Monday we had an appointment with Arwen at the groomers. Normally I have her anesthetised twice a year so the groomer can shave her, but she is 12 years old and getting too old to cope with the anesthetic. Also the groomer at the vets is a 'dog person' and I was not very happy with the way she did Arwen last time so I wanted to try someone different. A lady who does grooming at a local kennels said she would have a go, but we knew Arwen needed some sedation as she is a feisty lady even in her old age. So I got up early and gave her some tablets that the vet provided, which needed at least an hour to take effect. It was a bit of a struggle, and she still put up a good fight, but between us we managed to shave most her, and still preserve her face, tail and boots. So she is now a little white lion, albeit a grumpy one. But I am sure she is feeling a lot more comfortable, and at least she won't be throwing up any more hair balls for a while.

Most of my time this week has been taken up making angels and designing the card to go with them. I gave them to a friend to check my Spanish translation as they needed all the writing to be in both English and Spanish, and I was pleased that he only found very minor mistakes for me to correct. On Sunday the last of the angels made by members of our congregations will be brought to church, and on Tuesday some friends are coming here to help me get them all put in bags with a card, ready to be distributed the following weekend. 

But yesterday I took a day off from angels to make my first batch of mince pies. I have promised some for the Autumn Fayre in Mojacar tomorrow, so here are the first five and a half dozen, along with some plain, spiced biscuits. No doubt I'll be making more very soon.

We have enjoyed some warm, sunny days though with much colder nights, but the latter part of this week has seen more banks of clouds gathering. So last night I was just closing the shutters in my craft room when I spotted a few streaks of pink in the sky. Seeing as we haven't had a decent sunset for a while, I grabbed my camera and hurried out side in time to see the streaks joining forces to make this pretty scene.

Within minutes the whole sky was ablaze and it was stunning. Then just as suddenly it was gone. I am so glad I didn't miss it.

Here is a smile and a half on the face of my little great-grandson Alfie. He was going for his 10m swimming badge but he "just kept going", and ended up with 25m as well. Not bad for little lad who won't be five until the week after Christmas. His mum says it is all the practising he did in our pool last summer!

Now I am going to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World, and I will leave you with a picture a friend of mine posted on her Facebook page. I don't know where she saw it, but it made me smile.