We had a bit of miscommunication on how we were going to get to the train station. I thought we were walking, there had been mention of Glühwein from the Christmas market…

I know how long it takes me to walk to the station and time was running short so I went on ahead and told Mr C I would meet him at the station. When I had been at the station for a few minutes there was no sign of him catching me up so I phoned to see where he was and thought there was no way he was going to get to the station on time. A few minutes later I saw him running towards the platform, arriving just as the train pulled into the station. Talk about cutting it fine. Later he mentioned that he intended that we should drive to the station!

There was standing room only on the train which meant by the time we arrived in Birmingham my left knee had become a bit stiff. This caused me to stumble on the stairs and bang my leg. Oops! The young man behind me helped me regain my balance and walked beside me for the last few steps of the stairway.

At the top of the stairway, I was impressed to see Ozzy the mechanical bull that was created for the Commonwealth Games.

This years Christmas market and Christmas lights were less impressive so I wasn’t able to take my replacement camera through its paces.

Back in Wellington we had just missed the Christmas Lights ‘Switch On’. The lights looked lovely lighting up the town. The atmosphere was lovely and uplifiting with a long queue waiting to enter the market’s late night opening event.  We visited one of the local hostelries (which was packed to the seams) for a glass of something warming before our walk home.

My first walk into Wellington, on Saturday afternoon was a mission to see a recently painted Christmas Tree window that I had noticed on a local website.  The town was buzzing as I walked through it, with people taking part in the activities leading up to ‘the turning on’ of the Christmas lights later that afternoon. The jolly atmosphere gave  me a warm glow and a lump in my throat as it brought back childhood memories of Wellington at Christmas time.

I skirted away from the busy area, making my way to the window. It is wonderful and well worth a visit. Then I, made my way to the church to see the remembrance poppies and also check out the trees in the churchyard for a 2022 photographic project I have in mind. As I was leaving the town square the Wellington Brass Band were just starting to play. I lingered a while to hear them play Christmas Carols before making my way to the nearby church lych-gate where I found a small memorial. Just beyond the lych-gate the church grounds were buzzing with people, elves and children. They were generally having fun whilst queuing to see Father Christmas, taking part in a lantern making workshop or having their faces painted. I left the festivities behind, continuing my walk, detouring via Little Apley Pool before returning home.

The following day Mr C suggested that after, we had prepared our evening meal and put it in the oven to slowly cook, we walk to Wellington to see the Christmas lights in full glow. We had a few technical hitches as we left the building; the (dratted) coat stand decided to fall over as Mr C reached for his coat, Mr C’s mobile rang (twice) leading him to set the alarm before I had unlocked the front door! We thought we had made it out of the door in time but the alarm went off anyway. We went back inside to turn it off but it set itself to walk test mode. Eventually we left the building for our walk in the crisp coolness of the evening.

We arrived in Wellington to find that neither the tree in the churchyard was lit up nor the lights in the town square. I suspect ‘The Goblins’ had tampered with them. This part of our walk was disrupted by a loud mouthed youth, incoherently shouting to his mate across the road before aggressively banging on a sandwich bar door because he wanted something to eat but the place was closed. The sandwich bar opened shortly after his outburst but by this time was in the nearby bookies.

Calm restored, we enjoyed the rest of our walk. We chose a tree lined college route back home which was lovely and relaxing. Back home, Mr C was greeted with the aromas (I have no sense of smell) of spicy lamb shanks as they slowly cooked to perfection.