March Scavenger Hunt - New Link!!!!

I've been enjoying your collections for March ... not many real live lions around!
I love everyone's ingenuity at getting round problems! There's photo collections appearing all over Blogland right now .... but I know some people would like to have them all in one place. There's still Flickr (Click the link on my side bar) ...... but .....

I've stumbled across another way to link our photos for the Scavenger Hunt!

 If you want to add your photos to the collection click on the Scavenger Page at the top of my blog. It will be open for a week!
Good Luck!

Happy Birthday to You!

It's my lovely girl's birthday today.
Another special day away from home .... I've sent off a parcel all nicely wrapped like we do on our 'swaps', and we'll be able to celebrate together at the weekend.
Meanwhile she's been celebrating for a week now ...  with different groups of friends.
She always manages to stretch her birthday's longer than anyone else I know!

Photo Scavenger Hunt ~ March

I've found this month's challenge a bit of  a struggle this month, but  I eventually settled for things mostly around the house and local area!

Peeling Paint on a bench on Orrest Head, above Windermere in the Lake District.

A shadow caught on our living room wall as the sun was setting. 

The little statue comes from the South of France.

Something as old as me ...it's the only thing I've got.

A ring ~ sadly, my engagement ring no longer fits

A rainbow ... well, not a real rainbow but a feast of rainbow colours in my classroom.

Cheating I know, but I haven't seen any real live lambs bouncing around yet!

A lion .... I chanced across this fellow in our local garden centre. We don't get many real live lions roaming the 'paradise peninsula'. 

These fancy gates are just around the corner from our house. We've always wondered what sort of person would choose to have gates like this on their driveway.

My small collection of china cupcakes .... less calories than the real thing!

Something sentimental .... this is the very first thing my husband gave me when we were first seeing each other in 1975. I think it was a tag off his new woollen cardigan. I kept it in my purse for years until the legs snapped off. Now it's in my jewellery box.

An empty chair ... this little chair was bought when my daughter was about three and she used to play the story of Goldilocks with it. Of course this was the 'just right' chair. We keep it under the eaves in our loft bedroom. This could have been my 'something sentimental' too, I suppose.

Something green .... ivy growing across the window in our coat cupboard.  I love the greenness every time I need to go in there!

Don't forget to have a peep over on the Flickr link on my side bar. Lots of bloggers are putting their Scavenger Hunt photos on there now.

April's list coming very soon!

Project 365 ~ Week 12

Welcome to Week 12 .... that's almost three months. 
I'm delighted and somewhat amazed that I'm still keeping up. The weather has been so lovely here this week it almost feels like Summer. Whatever happened to Spring?

78/365

We chance upon a wonderful seaside shop in Southport ... full of ice cream, rock and fun things to add to your sandcastle! It reminded me of childhood holidays in Llandudno.

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An unusually high tide on the River Dee this lunchtime. We can normally walk our dog on the marshes here at the bottom of our road ... a bit wet today!

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Making 'Add 10' caterpillars with my maths group. The trickiest part was asking them to cut out circles ... not the easiest thing on a Monday morning.

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Enjoying the blossom on our cherry tree ... this usually gets blown off after a few days but this year it's been glorious.

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Meet the new additions to our classroom, christened Ruby, Blacktail and Bubbles by the children.

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Pretty pink tulips for my mum, who has had a bad fall.

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A box of little treats on the way to Newcastle for my lovely girl's birthday next week. It still seems strange that she's away from us  on special days like this, but she will get home for the following weekend. It makes the celebrations last so much longer! 

Worth Waiting For!

Last summer, when I was in the middle of all my treatments, a friend gave me a voucher for an afternoon tea to be taken at a choice of hotels. I just never got round to using it then, as life was so hectic at the time, and I sort of forgot all about it. Recently I noticed that the expiry date was April, and as I am rather partial to an afternoon tea, I made plans! I couldn't really imagine the lovely Mr. B. sipping tea from dainty china cups and nibbling tiny sandwiches, so I waited until my lovely girl could come along instead.

We chose to go to a cosy little hotel in Southport, which is a bit of a trek for us, but we were so glad we did! The service was second to none, and everything was so beautifully presented. The Victorians certainly knew what they were doing when the started this lovely tradition, although we were told that they used to eat it straight after lunch, and then have a very large meal in the evening too.

If I did that every day I'd end up looking like this .... thankfully this is only an image in the House of Mirrors which was near Southport Pier

I much preferred this mirror, which made us very tall and super skinny! Oh to have legs like this!

I haven't been to Southport for years, and had forgotten just what a pleasant little seaside town it is! Here's some things that caught my eye ...

A traditional bucket and spade shop

A new road bridge over the marine lake. It wasn't here last time I came.

The entrance to the pier was very busy ... everyone making the most of the first warm day of the year.

Every seaside town I know has covered shelters to protect you from the elements!

Art Deco lanterns on Lord Street

It also has some lovely shopping areas like this covered arcade

Favourite shop? Had to be this one which did indeed sell books and shells and much more!

We could have spent all day in there .... three floors like this.Wonderful!

So, a big thank you to Alex, without her gift I wouldn't have dreamt of going across to Southport for a grand day out!

Project 365 ~ Week 11

This week has been a real struggle ... I exhausted myself sorting the classroom out on Monday, and I haven't really recovered. Plus, the lovely Mr B. is away on the school ski trip too. I hate it when he is away! Moan! Moan!
71/365

A blue sky day and blossom at last

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Lunch in Chester with my lovely girl ... we were staggered at the enormous portions of our Meze Platter to share!

73/365

The saga of the classroom continues ... not one thing (apart from the desks) is in its proper place this morning.... an exhausting day trying to sort it all out. The thing is, nobody can even help... I need to put things away myself, so I know where everything is. It's going to take weeks to get it the way I want it!

74/365

A bargain bucket of hyacinths .... hopefully they'll be blue.

75/365

Our fundraising for the Marie Curie Foundation finishes with a huge 'yellow' raffle. The children have raised over £700 since the middle of February!

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The moorings on Heswall Shore
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Inca welcomes my lovely girl home for the weekend ... I thinks she considers her to be her 'pack sister'.
She's going to go mental when her 'pack dad' gets home on Sunday!

A Postcard from Chester

I live halfway between Chester and Liverpool ... but if I want to do some High Street shopping, I will always choose Chester. 

Here's a few photographs to show you why!

All the major shops are here, but they are dotted around this beautiful city, which just oozes history from every corner.... and you walk along streets which date from medieval times.

We love this little lane, which is lit with fairy lights, and houses many bridal shops.

The shops are on two levels with the wooden 'Rows' above street level.... giving you a good vantage point when street theatre is being performed.

There are flights of stairs every so often so you can change levels.

Of course every ancient town has its cathedral, and Chester is no exception. It's not very grand but it is very old .... and needs a post of its own one day!

It is one of the few cities that still has its Roman Walls intact, and on a sunny day it's lovely to park down by the river and walk to the shops along the walls. W.H. Smith's, Next and Clarke's are right underneath this famous clock, and M&S is only a few steps away.

And if you tire of shopping there are some Roman remains, an ampitheatre and two really good museums ... this Dewa Experience is a great place to bring the children when they're 'doing the Romans!'

Oh, and there's lots of great places to eat too ... which we can never resist!

You must come to visit one day!