Shopping with Shannon

 

Towards the end of each year, Shannon and I seem to galvanise each other into action to go shopping - usually of the Christmas variety, but more likely than not just for ourselves.  And we generally always plan a shopping day around a cream tea or cake!

More often than not, we usually end up at the seaside too!

We have been known to head to Ely Christmas Fair too, but generally, again, to buy cheese in the food hall!

And just before Christmas, we'll head into Norwich - not for shopping - but to ooh and aah over the Christmas decorations, and get a coffee.   (Sometimes we'll ask Amanda too!)

Bacton Woods

 Bacton woods is so very magical at all times of year, but in the autumn (October 2018), with the light being so much lower in the sky, and the leaves starting to fall, you can't beat it.

Folksy Sale #19

 This scarf was a variation on my normal wave scarf/ shawl/ baby blanket theme.   For some reason, I decided to sew the two ends together to make an infinity scarf and it sold immediately!

Conishead Priory

 

Pretty much on every day that I was walking, we drove past Conishead Priory which looked intriguing - Finn and I had walked past it on the beach side earlier in the holiday and I had decided it would be worth a visit if I had a day off.   Because I wasn't sure how accessible it would be for dogs, I took Finn for a walk up to the Hoad monument at Ulverston first to try and wear him out, just in case I needed to leave him in the car.

Conishead Priory is home to a Buddhist centre and it was lovely to see so many people in attendance.   There are cottages within the grounds for anyone on retreat and I had a good mooch around.

In the temple, everyone was invited to have a taster meditation session and I found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing, and I even think I'd like to go on a retreat one day.   

After my mini-meditation session, I headed back to the car to collect Finn and have another walk in the grounds and on the beach.   

Definitely worth a visit and I hope to return one day, perhaps for a longer stay.

Stott's Bobbin Mill

One of the best museums I've ever been to - ever! - is Stott's Bobbin Mill in the Lake District, which makes it even more upsetting that I can't access all my photos from this wonderful day out.

Finn, by this stage, couldn't walk great distances so we tended to take every other day off from walking to have a rest/ sightseeing day, and Stott's had been recommended to me by Mum and Dad from a previous holiday, and by Amanda who had visited on one of my walking days.   

The only photo I have is of Finn having a paddle in one of the reservoirs locally which was used to power the mill when it was running.

I know for sure that I'll be back there one day and I will definitely get more photos and write it up properly!

Barrow Dock Museum

On another non walking day, I thought I'd go back and have a look at the Dock Museum.   Finn and I had already walked through Barrow and past the museum on a previous day, so I took Finn out in the morning to wear him out and I left him sleeping in the car while I had a look round.

I was really impressed with my visit - unfortunately I have no photos of any of the exhibits since my hard drive has died, but I have found the above two photos on my social media.   The museum also acts as a conference centre and the rooms (within the dry dock) can be rented out by local businesses as meeting rooms.  Genius.

Ulverston

 It's been a very long time since I've written a blog post - 2021 was a particularly horrible year and I didn't feel inclined.  My heart wasn't in it.

But now I feel ready to begin again and now have a totally different issue - IT!   My personal laptop has packed up and also my hard drive isn't recognised by my work laptop, so I'm having to be very creative in finding some of my photos.  I fear that I may have lost more than I can ever get back. Frustrating and annoying.   

This photo was taken at Ulverston on one of our non-walk days.  On our trip, Finn always got a few mini walks during the day and then flaked out in the car while I could have a mooch, this time at Ulverston which I really enjoyed.   

I guess the bonus of losing all my photos means that I now HAVE to revisit at some point in the future for more photographic opportunities.