Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
Photoshop Elements randomly creates collages from my photo catalogue. This collage brought back some happy memories.
I loved receiving these reversible skirts hand packed with a personal note making me feel special. When the parcel arrived I always took time to open it slowly and savour the personal touches that were added to my purchase.
I enjoyed wearing this skirt for the first time during a holiday in Norfolk.
8 Comments CherryPie on Jun 23rd 2025
Photo from the Race the Distance website
Our next holiday adventure, although still in the planning stage is coming together. We will visit Norwich for a few days where we hope to catch up with friends and also enjoy Mr C’s 60th birthday present from last year. The present is an afternoon seas rather than an afternoon tea.
Our next destination will be a short hop on the train to London where plan to visit the Tower of London and see the ceramic poppies that have been reinstalled in the moat to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day. After some consideration we have settled on Windsor where the train station is next to a hotel we have previously stayed in.
By now I am sure you are wondering where Stonehenge and my ‘Virtual Challenge’ fits in. I planned to purchase this medal and walk the virtual distance later this year but when Mr C suggested that we visit Stonehenge on the way home from Windsor it made perfect sense to start the 199 mile challenge now.
The virtual walk starts at the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales and finishes at Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The Preseli hills are where the huge Blue stone rocks are thought to have originated from.
It will be touch and go for me to reach the virtual distance to Stonehenge before I actually arrive there in person.
6 Comments CherryPie on Jun 22nd 2025
Due to shopping a day earlier than usual we hadn’t yet visited our local butcher to purchase the meat to accompany our meal options for the next few days.
This led to ‘Fish Friday’ being ‘Fish Thursday’ and our Saturday curry night become ‘Curry Friday’.
We might be back on track by Sunday 
PS: The curry was delicious
4 Comments CherryPie on Jun 21st 2025
At long last we had the opportunity for ‘Fine Dining’ on the patio.
2 Comments CherryPie on Jun 20th 2025
The weather was glorious on my recent volunteering shift at Attingham Park, perfect weather to explore Ismore Meadow afterwards. The meadow is accessible for a few weeks in summer until the grass is cut for hay by the tenant farmer around mid-July.
As I returned from the meadow some deer treated me with their presence. Such a joy to see.
2 Comments CherryPie on Jun 19th 2025
…followed by ‘Fine Dining’ at Chez Nous
2 Comments CherryPie on Jun 18th 2025
For breakfast I chose a variation on my choice of the previous day, scrambled eggs with bacon. It was delicious.
After checking out of the hotel, we drove to Quarry Bank Mill. We had been meaning to return after our previous brief visit for a cup of tea the day before we travelled to Rome in August 2024.
Once again, we started with a cup of tea in the café next to the upper garden before heading to the apprentice house for a guided tour. The tour was interesting but we both felt that our guide was placing today’s values (and her personal point of view) on that period of history. She seemed not to appreciate that the conditions in Quarry Bank Mill were superior to most other mills in the area. The mill owner and his wife took a paternalistic approach towards workers, providing medical care for all and food and limited education to child labourers.
When we left the apprentice house there was torrential rain. We walked to the lower café next to the mill where we had lunch, in my case a Danish pastry. The service in the café was not very efficient leaving Mr C and others to wait an excessive time for tea to be brought to a table next to the serving area.
We visited the mill and its exhibitions showing how the cotton spinning industry developed from hand spinning to increasingly more efficient mechanised spinning and later weaving techniques. The mill was, and still is, powered by a water wheel fed from the nearby River Bollin.
To this day the mill still produces Calico Cotton. I found the history particularly interesting as I have recently read Ken Follet’s book, The Armour of Light, which covers this period of time.
My mother and her family lived in this area and I was aware that one of our ancestors worked in the cotton industry. Looking back at my records after I returned home, I was excited to find that it is possible that he was an overlooker in this mill (I need to do more research).
When we left the mill, we had a mooch around the shop and pre-loved bookshop. It was still raining so we decided not to explore the wider estate walks, leaving them for another day.
On our way home we stopped at Fordhall Farm to pick up some pork and Morrisons to pick up the remaining ingredients for our evening meal of Lemony Pork Piccata. Not quite the same as our tasting menu of the day before but delicious all the same.
2 Comments CherryPie on Jun 16th 2025
