This year is the 40th anniversary of Snugburys. To celebrate, in addition to the main willow sculpture there some smaller sculptures featuring artworks from previous.

It would have been rude not to make the effort to visit so we met with a friend of Mr C and made a day of it, stopping for lunch at Chestnut Meats farm shop and café. I chose a brie and cranberry toasty whilst Mr C and his friend both chose a steak sandwich. Two steaks were selected from the meat counter and the sandwiches when they arrived were enormous!

On arrival at Snugburys we followed the wild flower walk where the smaller sculptures are dotted along the pathway leading to the main sculpture which is currently Paddington Bear. After the walk it was time for ice cream. I chose lavender and honey which was delicious.

Last week when I was volunteering at Attingham Park Mr C visited Shrewsbury and whilst he was there he noticed the ‘Knife Angel’ in the square. This reminded me that I had been meaning to visit the Angel in Shrewsbury, but with other things going on I had forgotten about it.

The following day Mr C suggested that after lunch we visited Shrewsbury so that I could see it. We drove through the town to get to our car park of choice. As we passed the square we saw that the ‘Angel’ had flown and was no longer there. I later found out that earlier in the day it had returned home to the British Ironwork Centre.

We quickly formulated ‘Plan B’, a visit to Shrewsbury Abbey. We had been in the Abbey on two previous occasions, one for the inauguration of the Cadfael window and then a few years later for the Easter Sunday service.

We enjoyed our visit, learning about the current architecture and the original extent of the abbey before parts of it were destroyed. There are several interesting tombs including one for Richard Onslow, former speaker of the house of commons who died in 1571.

When we had finished exploring the Abbey it was too early to go home so we dropped by the Riverside Inn at Cound where we enjoyed a glass of something cool and refreshing sitting on the terrace overlooking the river and the Wrekin beyond.

Paddington Bear (Michael Bond)

Today I was one of the walk leaders at Attingham Park. We only had one walker so we were able to adapt the walk route to show her additional points of interest. It was the hottest day of the year so far so the cool breezes from the river and shade from the woodland were quite welcome.

Later, after visiting mum in the care home we enjoying ‘fine dining’ on the patio before watching the sun set and the moon rise.

My first walk of the day was with a friend at Dudmaston Hall. It was our second attempt at a walk there, our first attempt was a failure when to our surprise Dudmaston is not open on a Friday! Our walk was followed by lunch.

The weather was so lovely that when I returned home I decided to go on a local walk in and around Apley Woods.

The weather was looking favourable so Mr C decided today was the day to visit Harlech Castle which had been on his ‘To Do’ list for some time. Before set off he prepared some brisket and vegetables and put them in the slow cooker to bubble away whilst we were on our travels.

Along the way we stopped for lunch at the Bluebell Park Café where our choice of food was freshly prepared for us. We arrived in Harlech to glorious sunshine, perfect weather for exploring a castle.

Before heading home we had cake looking over the spectacular view of the Snowdonia peaks. We were accompanied by sparrows hopping on the table to pick up stray crumbs. One cheeky little Chappy thought he might do a duck and dive for my cake, even when I picked the plate off the table and held it closer to me. When I finally put the plate back on the table he returned, grabbed the largest crumb and flew off with it.

Photo taken by Mr C

Photo taken by Mr C

Photo taken by Mr C

Not many miles today but whilst we were out and about we had lunch in Ironbridge.

I ordered a croissant with scrambled egg and smoked salmon. When it arrived it turned out to be a mini meal.

One of the challenges in the Mega Miles group is to walk the rainbow. I decided to use my Thursday walk back from my school volunteering to see if I could find all the rainbow colours.

The rain had stopped but I wasn’t sure for how long. I decided to walk the direct route home having seen some suitable opportunities on my walk to the school.

As I stopped to take the first photo someone came up behind me and tapped me on the back, startling me a little.

Although I was quite a distance from the school I turned  my head to see one of the children who I help with their reading. She was shortly followed by two adults who asked me if everything was alright. I explained I was taking a photograph of the sign as part of a rainbow colour photo challenge, which must have sounded a little odd.

We parted ways but not before the pupil helpfully pointed out several rainbow opportunity photos.