Day Twenty-nine: Today’s photo prompt is, this year – a reflection.
On reflection 2018 has been pretty much a perfect year! There may have been the odd blip (e.g. like the burst water pipe) but otherwise there have been many more positives to glean from the year than negatives. Below find a small gallery of pictures from the year.
Day Twenty-eight: Today’s photo prompt is grateful for? I am grateful for so many things, family, pets, being healthy and able to explore the world around me, but mostly I am grateful for the love of David. Without David I would not be able to achieve any of the highlights from this year (nor any other year). Thank you David for being amazing!!
Day Twelve: For today’s photo prompt, that of comfort in a mug, I decided to twist the meaning and plumped for comfort in a glass. I opted to make mulled wine and followed the recipe from Jamie Oliver. Below find the ingredients and method for one bottle of wine.
1 whole nutmeg , for grating (1/3 tea spoon of ground)
1/2 vanilla pod
1 bottle red wine
1 star anise
Method
Peel large sections of peel from the clementines, lemon and lime using a speed-peeler.
Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice.
Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Halve the vanilla pod length ways and add to the pan, then stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine, then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.
When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into heatproof glasses and serve.
It made for a spicy warming drink, but neither David nor my mum liked it. Perhaps I should just keep to red wine in future?
Day Eleven: For today’s photo prompt of angel, I decided to post a picture of The Knife Angel. The recent installation of this eye catching, emotive sculpture by Alfie Bradley can be seen outside the West Door to the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral until 31st January 2019. The 27ft tall sculpture is composed of 100,000 knives collected from amnesties across the UK. ‘The Knife Angel shows solidarity with all affected by knife crime,’ states the cathedral’s website. The sculpture is a very striking piece, the skill is in the art of making the knife blades look like wing feathers. I was very impressed.
Do you like sculpture? What is your favourite piece?
Day Seven: Today’s photo prompt is front door. I decided a picture of my beautiful Christmas wreath adorning our front door would be perfect for this prompt.
I bought this Christmas wreath three years ago and every year get excited to put it up again. I love the soft glowing lights and the white silvery foliage.
I have seen many other doors adorned with Christmas wreaths. They seem to be growing in popularity this year.
Day Four: Today’s photo prompt is Christmas tunes. All year I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of December, so I can listen to my ever expanding playlist from over the years. During Christmas 2017 I enjoyed a wonderful adaption and recording of the popular Mariah Carey song, All I Want for Christmas Is You by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Crouch End Festival Chorus.
What Christmas music do you enjoy listening to at this time of year?
Day Three: Today’s photo prompt is snow. Since it very rarely snows in Liverpool, I decided to stretch the meaning a little and post a picture of a snow-man. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the timeless storybook, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, Manchester commissioned 12 snowman statues. The trail of about three miles traverses around Salford’s Media City.
We visited on a wet, gloomy day, but it didn’t detract for the fun we had looking for all 12 snowmen. Twelve Drummers Drumming was one of my favourite.
Have you visited Manchester? What were your impressions?
This week’s Sunday Sevens, (devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins), comes mostly from the Lake District where I’ve had a wonderful few days away with David.
B&B: Yet again we stayed at Hermiston Guesthouse in Braithwaite for our two night stay. We were given the very comfortable Latrigg double room!
Latrigg room
Birthday Treat
Birthday: This third ‘Lakes holiday’ of 2017 was a birthday treat. Phil and Helen, the proprietors of the guest house, gifted me a bottle of bucks fizz to celebrate!
Wild Swimming: Of course I planned some wild swims alongside our many walks. I spent a wonderful impromptu 20 minute swim at Buttermere! The water temperature was about 12° but in the sunshine it felt much warmer. However the shakes on shore afterwards were some of the worst I’ve experienced. It was hard to drink my hot cup of coffee!
Buttermere
#walk1000miles: Even though I have completed the walk 1000 miles challenge, I am still counting my mileage. David and I walked a good seven miles around Haweswater where there are gates made for giants!
Giant gate!
#walk1000miles Medal
On returning home, among the post was my completers medal! Yay!! 😀
Derwent Water: Of course no visit to Keswick would have been complete without visiting the shores of Derwent Water. I think this picture of the Borrowdale end of the lake is among the best I’ve taken.
Derwent Water
Tux: Unfortunately on our arrival home, we were dismayed to have had yet another death in the aviary. Poor Tux, who was our eldest owl finch, was found at the bottom of the cage. We have buried her in the yarden with her partner Troy (who died earlier this year).
Tux
Birthday Flowers
I’ll finish this post with a photo of the beautiful flowers David bought me for my birthday!
With a planned walk to Angle Tarn on the itinerary, David and I headed towards Patterdale. We parked the car opposite the Patterdale Hotel and paid the very reasonable £4 for all day. At 9.30am I was surprised at how busy the village was with walkers. With a grey leaden sky and a chilling breeze we headed down the lane and took a left turn onto Goldrill Bridge. We followed signs to the tarn and Boredale Hause.
Sign
Ullswater
I found information on getting to Angle Tarn rather sparse online, perhaps that was why we took so many wrong turns. What should have been a two to three hour walk ended up being a five and a half hour epic! Things started to go wrong when we reached the first of many forks in the path. We interpreted the walk featured on The How Cottage website wrongly and took a left turn instead of a right. After walking for half an hour, we found that we were heading out onto Place Fell overlooking Ullswater. I knew this was the wrong direction so we turned tail and retraced our route back to the fork, where we took the right-hand path.
After reaching a second fork we took the top pathway. In hindsight it would have been far easier if we had taken the lower path as this would have seen us directly to the mountain pass of Boredale Hause. Instead it was the beginning of our woes as the top path branched off before Boredale Hause and we ended up traipsing across mossy blanket bogs, soaking our tired feet in mud and water. I soon grew fearful as we seemed to be heading in the wrong direction to Angle Tarn. The sky darkened broodily causing my sense of isolation to increase. With map skills at a minimum, GPS not functioning properly, and David doggedly wanting to see what was at the end of a steep path, we walked for further than needed. Instead of heading south we headed east and ended at a cairn overlooking two valleys. However we had inadvertently bagged another Wainwright, this time Beda Fell. With my mood as morose as the weather I didn’t take a picture. Thinking back the scenery was impressive, I just wish that it didn’t look so desolate. I was not enjoying myself out on the fells!
Almost close to tears and wanting to give up, we retraced our footsteps back down the path. Some of the pathways were not clearly defined, but (luckily) we finally ended up at Boredale Hause and its cairn. There were numerous paths leading from the cairn and one that was sign posted with red flags (the coast to coast walk). We followed this path which seemed popular with other walkers. It was also aiming in the right direction for Angle Tarn. I had not given up totally of seeing it. The well defined path was gravelly underfoot with sheer drops in places. I didn’t look down! There were however stunning views of Brothers Water nestled among the Hartsop Dodd fells.
Brothers Water
Angle Tarn
We had been walking for three hours, our feet had started to blister when I saw David ahead of me jump for joy! Over a hill we spotted the dull tinge of cloud reflecting water. Angle Tarn spread out before us enticingly with its two islands and spit. We stiffly walked to the promontory and found a little cove where we set up camp and had lunch. I was too tired to be happy. I had found the whole experience underwhelming.
Even though I felt cold I decided to continue with the planned itinerary and go for a swim. It ended up more of a dip as I felt so exhausted! Terence said that the water temperature was 15°C. From our cove the main island was only a few metres away. Once in the water I decided to swim over and explore. I had always wanted to swim to an island and Angle Tarn’s island was not too far away.
Angle Tarn
‘I’m on an island!’
After my swim, we returned to Boredale Hause and thankfully our journey back to the car park was uneventful. Our descent took two hours. On the way down, David spied a huge golden ringed dragonfly at the side of the path. Out came the lenses and he managed to snap a great photo of it!
Golden Ringed Dragonfly
In calculation, we had walked for over five hours, ten miles in total and my Samsung Health clocked a whopping 26,000 steps! It was an eventful day, one I won’t forget in a hurry.
Have you walked around the fells of Patterdale? What were your impressions of the area?
This week I have been out and about a little bit more than in previous weeks. While going for a coffee with mum, doing some temporary note-taking work and meeting up with a friend for lunch, I kept one eye looking for signs of autumn.
Slowly but surely Liverpool is becoming enveloped by autumnal colours. I took a leisurely walk around the University of Liverpool campus and visited Abercromby Square. Though still looking verdant, the tree tops are slowly turning golden. I also came across a Barbara Hepworth sculpture and one by Hubert Dalwood.
square with two circles – b hepworth
three uprights Hubert Dalwood
Abercromby Square
Since I have been getting up before the sunrise this week, I have seen some lovely skies.
Sunrise
Honey bee on Salvia
Though the days (and especially the mornings) have that bitter chill to the air, there are still plenty of honey bees visiting the salvia.
On Thursday I met a friend in town. As I was standing waiting for the bus, a robin sat atop a gravestone in the nearby cemetery and sang to me sweetly. I just wish I had taken a photo of him, his presence filled my heart with gladness.
My friend and I took in a visit of the World Museum, which boasts a planetarium among its many assets. This got me thinking of the northern hemisphere’s night sky in autumn.
On a clear night looking north most people can identify the Plough, (Ursa Major), which points to the pole star, Polaris.
Looking south, the square of Pegasus is deemed the main autumn constellation. However, for me, the most autumn constellation is Orion to the east.
October is also the time of year for the Orionids, the remnants of Halley’s Comet. This meteor shower ranges between 16th – 26th of the month, peaking on the 21st.
And finally, I have found some informative resources on the Forestry Commissionwebsite. Follow the link for activity packs, mindfulness poems and an interactive map, showing the changing colours of various forests in the UK.
I’ll end this week with a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Autumn Song. Have you been following the changing seasons? What, if anything do you like about this time of year?
Day Eleven: For today’s photo prompt of angel, I decided to post a picture of The Knife Angel. The recent installation of this eye catching, emotive sculpture by 
Christine Lucas 