My Urban garden

For me there are certain things I get great pleasure from, one of them is my garden.

I live on the edge of Cheltenham in a housing estate. I love my home, not so keen on being overlooked from every view by houses, but it's home.

Over the nearly 17 year's I have lived here I have always loved the garden and wanted to share just a few of the pictures I have taken of my plants over the last month.

If you have an Instagram page, then you can find me at Lovemygarden8

Until next time, have a great weekend.

Birmingham in September

This month my OH turned 50, so to celebrate we popped on the train for 45 minute journey to stay in Birmingham.

Thanks to advance planning and Booking.com we got a great deal on an amazing Hotel right in the centre called Hyatt Regency Hotel.

The Hotel has an impressive 24 floors one of which is the Presidential Suite which comprises of  140-square-metre suite—the hotel’s largest—offers a spacious lounge with baby grand piano!!, bedroom with king bed, work desk, and kitchenette with a refrigerator, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, and 10-person dining table. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer views of the city from the hotel’s top floor. Soak in the whirlpool tub or relax in the steam room; visitors can use a separate powder room. For one night the cost is over £2,000 a night!!!!

Our room was on the 15th floor and had amazing views over the very much "under construction" city, but with the floor to ceiling windows you could see for miles. 

Within the Hotel we had use of the Spa facilities and on both days enjoyed using the lovely pool and sauna.

Birmingham itself is undergoing Hugh amount of construction due to events such as the 2022 Commonwealth games being hosted here.

They are also investing billions in Project HS2 which will mean that travel between London and Birmingham will take less than an hour.

Almost opposite the Hotel is The Library of Birmingham designed by Mecanoo a team of architect's based in The Netherlands.

The Library in itself is stunning both architecturally inside and out, but also houses over 400,000 books available to the public along with Shakespeare's collective works.

So if your ever nearby and fancy a trip, I highly recommend stopping and taking a look at this city.

Deckchair sock

Back on the day of Prince Harry's and Megan Markles wedding I decided to take my knitting and head to the lovely location of Slimbridge with my knitting.

I wanted to use up some ends of sock yarn that had been used but not completely on other projects.

I combined West Green Loft Yarn with the beautifully speckled yarn of Vicki Brown the colourway is Candyfloss.

I cast on and started the first toe while sat watching the River Severn eb and flow as the tide came in and went out.

I then went to the South Lake hide for a while.

I ended up at the Flamingo house.

I took them on holiday and sat in a tea room in Ilfracombe and did a few rows.

In June the Fushias where the perfect match with them.

Then at the beginning of July when the tea Rose and Hydrangea are in full bloom they we're finished.

1st July summer day walk

I am still striving to keep up the steps, aiming for 10,000 six days a week.  As it was another great day I decided to head out around Cheltenham.

As I walked passed the racecourse I realized the annual Cheltenham 5k and 10k race for Life event was on.

 A stop off at Wyevale Garden Centre. My little routine means that I get a nice refreshing drink, buy one or two small plants for the garden and have a short rest here.

I do love to see poppies blowing in the wind, this was the pathway down to the main racecourse.

 The racecourse is also home to Cheltenham Archers who where holding a tournament.  Is quite incredible how far away the target was they had to hit and I loved the road sign.

I don't know what these flowers where in the hedgerow, but oh so pretty.

Cheltenham is also home to Gloucestershire and Warwick Steam railway. 

I have not been on the steam railway but it goes from Cheltenham through to Broadway where I went last weekend.  For a very reasonable £18 for an adult you can get a Rover's ticket which means you can get off and on the 28 mile route and see some places I have yet to visit.  

That is the wonderful thing I've discovered about not only walking, but by writing my blog I am discovering new to me adventures I can go on.

Instagram is such a lovely app in many ways and in this case it enabled me to watch the temperature rise and rise as the day went on.

This was the total distance I walked today of 9.6 miles, which considering the heat was not too bad.

The remainder of my day involved chilling in the garden with my #roadtohappinesscardi I am designing. 

What are the temperatures where you are reading this?  How are you enjoying this heatwave if you are UK based?

Day trip in the Cotswolds

This weekend I decided instead of just staying home and doing the usual dog walk around where I live and then sit in the garden I would take myself off for a day trip around a very small area of the Cotswolds.

There are so many places to visit and after this lovely day I intend to do more of it.  I used to go out alot when my son was young taking him to lots of places. But now he is a teenager and my partner is not really in to visiting a place more than once.  But I am quite happy to re visit places and I always have my knitting for company!

Thanks to the joy of social media I decided my first place to visit would be Cotswold Lavender Farm. 

The farm is only 17 miles from my home and such a lovely drive through the countryside to get there.  I have visited the farm before, but last time we only made it to the tea rooms which is well worth a visit.

But this time I decided to walk in the fields and just have a couple of hours enjoying the scenery.

It is only £4 for adults and £2 for children so I think well worth the money.

 

To start with I had a wonder around the wildflower meadow that they have created.  The amount of butterflies was amazing and the beautiful flowers.  They have also provided information boards around the site to share information which is really interesting.

This field is one that is now "redundant" as the Lavender is not flowering, but I just love the shades of green that this image shows.

 

 As the weather was so warm I decided to find a little shady spot under a tree and just sit for half an hour and knit and watch the visitors as they gathered around the main Lavender area and take many many selfies.  

People watching is such a great pass time.

My next design in the making.

The Lavender just sets the natural colour of the yarn off perfectly.

I didn't buy and chocolate as I prefer dark, but I am sure this taste lovely.

Next on my trip was Broadway.

This is a quintessential Cotswold town with a lovely village green, a main high street and hotels and tea rooms line it along with a real mixture of shops.

They had a craft shop (which I used to work at before it changed hands) so it was nice to pop in and see what was for sale.

This building houses Trinity House Art Gallery who are based in London, New York, San Fransisco and Broadway.

The current exhibition is by a local artist P J Crook. 
Her work has been exhibited international and she has an MBE for her services to art.

Before I left Broadway for my next leg of my journey I had the most delicious ice cream, will definitely have another when I visit again!

My final stop before heading home was a favourite place of mine Winchcombe.

I have been visiting this town for many many years and have enjoyed some lovely walks around Sudley Castle surrounding countryside.

 

If you like a light hearted "romantic" read like me then Katie Fforde writes books often based on the Cotswolds.

I do hope you enjoyed this little trip I took.  

With so many more places on the map I will be back.

Here's to the next time.