12th September photo - Mark ii!

I have just had to take Liam to work so I thought I would see if I could find a better photo for this beautiful sunny day, than a dark & gloomy church and what better than bright yellow sunny sweetcorn - but - fresh growing sweetcorn is protected by some rather harsh looking husks - so these photos are not as good as I hoped - watch out we may have to have mark iii!

Just look at the colour of the sky!

12th September photo - Llangorwen church

It does not feel quite right posting a night scene on such a beautiful sunny day - but unless anything else crops up in the next few hours this church will be my photo of the day. Last night we made a flying visit to the caravan to prepare it for my sister who is going to stay for a few days from today and for Steven to be able to go out on his kayak - he has not be able to all summer due to the awful weather.

As we approached Clarach we saw this church all lit up and despite not having my tripod with me - managed to get this reasonable shot.

I suppose I should really have taken one of Steven out on the sea - as the sea was so calm & blue, but I slept in until 9.30! and by then he had long since disappeared and when he came back at 11 - I was still in my dressing gown reading the Guardian which he had kindly been and fetched for me before he went out paddling.

11th September photo - summer has returned.

Today I had to pop over to Telford and it was just like summer had returned. The sun was out, the sky was blue and all the workers were outside enjoying this lovely weather. I managed to catch a shot of these fountains in full flow before some more workers came and sat down for their lunch next to them.

10th September photo - Arenig Fawr

Today T & I joined with Rachel & Brian to do a nice 16K hike across the Arenig mountains in South Snowdonia, Mid Wales. We were so lucky with the weather - after the awful summer we have had we expected to be walking in rains and battling strong winds - but to our delight we had blue skies with just a few white wispy clouds, just a gentle breeze on the summit and sunshine all day - it was just perfect.

Brian organised and planned the walk so he has the honour of being my POTD.

From the summit with had 360 degree views all over the Welsh mountains - it was gorgeous. In the middle of this photo - though you most probably can't see it is Lake Bala.

We passed a lovely lake where we stopped for our mid morning elevenses.

We had to negotiate a ladder bridge to get over the water leading from the lake - Brian was a gallant gentleman and assisted us all over.

Close to the lake was a Bothy or Bothie. I had never come across one before but they are little huts on mountains in which you can stay for the night. They are very basic but offer preotction from the elements and a fire and saves you having to lug a tent along on your back. I thought they were a great idea - though I am not sure if I am brave enough to stay in one.

On the way there we stopped at Rhugg organic farm for a bacon butty and I took this photo of a this metal bison sculpture - I am not sure if they farm Bison here - but I liked it.

T & I were still feeling quite exhilarated after the super 6 hour walk that we stayed on and found a few geocaches around some more of the Welsh Lakes. I am sorry if I have laked you out with all my lake photos lately - but this one Llyn Celyn, was so gorgeous because the water looked so blue that I just had to include it.

This is the Arenig mountain range that we had just climbed.

9th September photo - Shrewsbury shops

For September's Shrewsbury shop watch I have chosen a very successful independent shop - Watson & Thornton - haberdashers. It is situated at the bottom of Mardol. It is another half timbered Mediaeval building.

It sells yards & yards of the most gorgeous material and even if you are not a sewer its enough to make you want to become one. It used to be just one shop, but then it took over the shop next door - so it has a large floor area and even goes up to the second floor. I used to sew a lot - I made all my maternity frocks and made clothes for the children - though they were mostly with Cloth Kits kits - but I have not made any clothes for ages.

My last purchase from there was some ribbon & half a yard of Hessian for a scrapbook layout and some material squares for the quilts I am going to make for the children - but they remain just nearly finished cut out strips with no stitching yet - perhaps this can be my project for next year - finish the children's quilts!

8th September photo - new cookbook

Jessica has bought me a new cookbook from from book sellers that turn up to her work. The Philadelphia cookbook. lots of the recipes are not surprisingly for cheesecakes, but there are also a lot of other tasty looking cakes and savoury dishes that I can't wait to try. The photo I print out will be one of these 2. Hopefully before long I will be posting a photo of some the new foods made from it.

I have scrapped again!

I was not able to go to the Scrapz crop on Saturday again - due to going to the caravan - I WILL be back soon girls - thankfully the site closes soon for the winter and I will regain my weekends to do what I want to do again - namely scrap. I thought it was time to make inroads into the huge pile of Jessica's uni photos - I have already done one uni album - but there are so many photos with stories attached to them, that I think I may have to make it a 3 album collection - one for each year at Uni.

So this week I have been working on this layout - just doing a little bit each evening such as punching out the squares (American Crafts papers), inking the squares, making the folder for the hidden photos - underneath the top photo. I quite like it and am itching to get going on my next layout now.