Brancepeth, leaded glass and cloud watching.

Thanks to a tip off from Stitch in Tyne we visited the fascinating Brancepeth Castle on Sunday to see the craft fair and an interesting building and surroundings. Stitch in Tyne's stall was gorgeous and her bookwarmers and prints seemed to catch many a persons eye. We are now the proud owners of one of her paper cut prints which has pride of place on our mantle piece.

Besides looking round the craft fair, were explored the castle and the surrounding area. The castle has an interesting history due to it having several owners, two of which had the castle confiscated by the crown one for planning to depose Queen Elizabeth 1 and the second for a poisoning scandal. In the 19th century it was restored  and some Victorian Gothic elements were introduced into the structure. It was also a hospital for recovering soldiers from the first world war. It also has a connection with the well known local ditty about Bobby Shafto as Bridget Belsayse who's family lived in the castle in 1701, whose heart was said to have been broken by Bobby.

Here are some photos taken from our little exploration of the grounds.

 Lovely windows set in lovely Gothic inspired stone work. Even the windows for the basement are pretty.

 I just loved the font on this no parking sign, and the fact that there was a motorised wheel chair parked underneath it!

 The delicate web adds an intriguing pattern to this old door bell surround.

 The church next to the castle had some amazing leaded windows all along one side no two were the same. For more pictures of these gorgeous windows pop over to Ballistic Owl 

 On the way home we decided to drive over the moors and go the long way rather than up the A1. The clouds were fantastic and we just had to stop and watch them for a while. 

I've quite got into cloud watching and have taken a few photos of ones that have caught my imagination, these hot summer days sometimes seem to produce the best cloud formations.

Reading at the moment: S by J J Abrams and Awakening by Sharon Bolton

See you next time thanks for stopping by :-)

The land of green beauty

I've been struck this last week at the beauty of and the many shades of green nature has to display. We've just spent a lovely week in the Southern Lake District, in a log cabin surrounded by big trees in full leaf and peace and quiet, no phone or data connections! So the mobile was switched off and the pad and time was spent enjoying a book, walking and taking lots of photos. 

 Bunnies were abundant around the site and it was lovely to take a photo of this little fella having his bedtime wash.

I was struck by the gorgeousness of the greenery and the reflections in Loughrigg Tarn that was a short walk from where we were staying. Perfectly still bar a few ducks floating around and the light was just right to create this complete reflection below.

I thought the pattern potential in this insect house was great and took pictures of the different styles of bug house within this box.

The fabulous owl sanctuary at Muncater Castle, I must say I could have stayed all day just in that one bit. This shy looking owl posing in this lovely setting will fight most things off and away from it's nest including humans, so don't get too close.

Below is a close up of the beautiful markings on the Fishing owl, he sat very patiently on his perch, casting a glance to passers by.

I'm still building up my collection of old and worn images and some day I will do something with them. I loved this old bench, reminded me of ones we used to see when we were small in parks everywhere. This one a little tired looking and covered in lush green moss was near the waterfall up the hill from Ambleside.

This sign, which I'm determined to decipher caught my eye at Muncaster, another shade of green blue against the vibrant green of the beech leaves of the ancient tree.

Everywhere we looked despite there being reports of the lack of rain in the Lake District was alive, blooming, lush and vibrantly green. The rolling hills and forests were such a refreshing change of scene and hoofing up to the top of some of those hills was definitely worth it!

Currently reading as part of our book group: Instructions for a heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell, brilliant so far.