Licensing at Leics Cathedral

We went to Leicester Cathedral to support two friends who were being Licensed

 One as a Lay Reader

 and one as a Pastoral Assistant

 The Cathedral is next to the GuildHall a building of historic interest and some character

 Afterwards we went to Rothley and had fish & chips at the famous Time & Plaice Restaurant

IOW, more ...

Our companions on the holiday showed us their photos

and here are a couple from their collection to show what we got up to...

"All aboard" on the steam railway

Handling the birds of prey

Nana likes to "buy us an ice-cream" on our holiday. This time it took the form of a meal after the holiday at the local Harvester. After the main course mum remembered that we had been sent an offer by email of a free dessert but we had forgotten to print out the voucher. We spent some time fiddling about with phones trying to track down the email to no avail. However we still persuaded the waitress to let us all have a free Sundae :-)

IOW Holiday

We booked a morning ferry...

...so we arranged to stay the night in Southampton

On arrival at Benbridge IOW, one of the local attractions is the last remaining tower mill on the island

 This was the view from our third floor bedroom window. A few metres of grass, then beach and the Solent

 Possibly the most famous tourist attraction in the IOW is The Needles

We had a day out on the island railways - one is a steam railway and the other is electric using old London underground stock

 We travelled third class in a compartment carriage with no corridor and leather straps to hold the window at different heights

We found a Sunday afternoon service in the open air on the grass next to the beach

This is Osborne House, Cowes, the retreat of Queen Victoria

Certified again?

Not sure how this came about but, in retirement, another certificate has been awarded

Olympic Torch carried across LU Campus

It was asking a bit much to get very excited at 9.00am in the morning

but at least it was dry...

And that was it - all done!

Its a flower - isn't it?

Despite the amateur photography with the mobile phone, 

you would say that this was a flower wouldn't you -

- until you were told that a few minutes previous to the photo being taken ...

 ... it was a vegetable

All in a night's entertainment for the WI!

Look who's on the bill!

In case you are struggling - I meant Keystone Acoustic

Middle Eastern Meal

Well, this was a first for us - eating in a Middle Eastern restaurant

 While we enjoyed the experience as a whole - we did not enjoy all the foods

The restaurant is called Tarboush - which apparently is another word for Fez - and so at the end of the meal we were each handed a fez to try on for a few minutes.

Jubilee Memorabilia

Well, we have come to the end of the Jubilee extended holiday weekend and this is our collection of 'official' memorabilia.

Battlefield Railway

On the way home from the tea party we passed signs for the Battle of Bosworth historic site and also the Battlefield Railway

 Jane seemed to take us on a SatNav special down country lanes all over the countryside, but we eventually arrived at Shackerstone station via half a mile of un-made-up road

Not much sign of life or engines - but a tranquil spot.

Jubilee tea party

Against all the odds, the bank holiday Monday weather was OK. An effort was made in the morning to tame part of our garden and catch up with some planting. In the afternoon we rested from our labours.

As a member of the Gardening Club, Mum had vouchers for BOGOF tea at the Woodlands Garden Centre so off we went for a tea party.

Southwell Minster

We decided to make our way to Southwell Minster because we heard about the exhibition of paintings loaned by HM the Queen

As it was our first visit to Southwell we were just happy to explore

Is it an optical illusion - or is one of these towers leaning?

A proper sweet shop selling sweets by weight!

There was a Folk Festival going on in the town.

Because it was the Diamond Jubilee weekend there was a lot of bunting - but we thought this was very inventive and amusing.

The main part of the minster was occupied by a craft fair and someone spotted a vase and decided that her Mum would give it to her as a birthday present.

The craft fair was cleared out and the exhibition of paintings closed and then a visiting choir from Leicester sang evensong - we stayed for a bit and heard some of the chanting - you can listen to the Doxology from the end of the Magnificat.

More Patriotic(?) Damsels

Here is my collection of Damsels so far thus summer - red, white & blue!

Rutland Water

We finally got to Rutland water and decided to do the grand tour of all the visitor points

 Here we are inspecting an Osprey's nest at Lyndon

 This was labelled a bug palace with an encouragement to add one to your garden

 There was lots of excited talk from people peering into a pond, so I went to investigate.
I'd like to think that this was  a great crested newt

 And this is some kind of Damsel Fly

 But the real star of the pond was this grass snake who entertained the little crowd and kept the cameras clicking

 This is my attempt at an arty shot - I could see the moon through the gap
(click on the photo and you might just see it!)

 The bizarre sculpture stands on the edge of the lake

The Rutland Belle featured in an earlier blog - here she is passing Normanton Church