This And That

My friends and I have just returned from a 4 night mini holiday at Warner's Nidd Hall and I have a cold! not a bad one, just a bit meh. I will post about Nidd Hall when I have sorted through the (far too many) photos.

The grounds of Hylands House were still looking good when I was there the week before last. Chelmsford Bee Keepers was formed in 1918 and have been maintaining a Honey Bee Observation Hive in the museum for over 50 years.
The sculptures were funded by the beekeepers and crafted by local willow artist Deb Hart. When I was a volunteer gardener at Hylands we enjoyed many interesting talks about the history of the house and grounds. One of them was a visit to the bee hives tucked away behind high brick walls in a far corner of the grounds well away from any interference from visitors. The keeper removed one of the combs and we got to taste it back at the house. It was the most delicious honey I have ever tasted. We agreed it was mainly lavender and mint. They don't harvest it for sale, they leave it for the darling little workers who produced it.

A few weeks ago Tesco were handing out free flowers which had passed their best.

I got these lovely sunflowers. They looked fine to me and lasted a long time.

Beautiful birthday flowers also lasted a long time.

Kudos to Marks & Spencer for displaying mannequinns of buxum women, and to advertisers who now use women of all shapes and sizes to model clothes.

Look at these beauties I spotted in Oliver Bonas. I would have loved a pair like these. When I was a teenager I was mad about roller skating. I had a pair with metal adjustable frames and red leather straps that fitted over shoes and round the ankles. We skated up and down the streets, to the chippy for a bag of chips and scraps, sometimes sit on the wall and eat them, or eat them skating back. I lived in Peterborough and I think it was the Corn Exchange that held roller skating sessions on a Friday (wearing proper hired boots), and dances on a Saturday, both of which my friends and I attended regularly. Happy days.

The lounge cushions have been put away.

The brown patches on the lawn are slowly greening up.

You can just about see a small group of deer. I think there were two adults and three youngsters. I heard them calling, I think they had become seperated from the main group. They ran off to the woods on the right and hopefully found the rest of their herd. 

Beautiful Autumn is here, and with it chillier weather. 

The central heating will be going on soon, and the winter duvet.

∼ Be safe and well∼

    Polly x