the birthday girl

Fabulous day in Liverpool today with Mum for her birthday - born 1920 - work it out!!

First the opening of the cards and pressies . . .

Lunch at the lovely Blackburne House cafe on Hope Street

With a quick admire of the interior, as this was the school Mum's Mum went to way back when

 The honours boards dating back to 1891

 the grand staircases

 generations of McNeil women

 the cafe gardens

and the end of a perfect day . . .

 Happy Birthday Mum

mail bag blues

A visit a couple of weeks ago to some of the wonderful exhibitions that make up the Liverpool Biennial led us to the old Royal Mail sorting office in Copperas Hill

What is it about abandoned workplaces!  This was just amazing

 

in the gloaming

Fabulous weekend with the infamous six - this time down south

Try listening to this one and as we wander through the woods

and if that one makes you too wistful, try this we sang as we tramped along with the sun disappearing and that lovely Scottish time of day, the gloaming, creeping in

before giving way to the loveliest of November sunsets;

And as if that wasn't enough, the next day dawned bright and sunny as we wandered around Ardeley and its woods, and finally took refuge in the Jolly Waggoner.

and, replete with Sunday roasts, a final walk to the lovely Cromer Windmill as yet another day sunk into a fabulous sunset.

Bliss and a perfect weekend

almost at sky's edge

Another brilliant Off the Shelf event back in October, with Sheffield Salon, discussing the housing crisis facing Britain and taking an evening walk through the listed Park Hill flats.

And after you've read more about Park Hill on this link you'd ought to try Richard Hawley's 'Standing on the Sky's Edge', because, after all, you're only a short step from the iconic Sky Edge itself.

However, try as I might, Richard Hawley's latest album is too new to find a Youtube video small enough to download here, so at the other extreme, here's one of my favourite tracks about houses ever!!

and on to the night in question . . .

 did you spot our steel drums in the sunset shots above?  Love the way they glisten.

And staying with the Sheffield theme -lovely clip here about when we saw Richard Hawley performing at Magna with the BBC Phil to finish off with