Breakfast

This pot of sunflower heads is the best breakfast!

The Lake District

This mini holiday was two weeks ago now! The holiday has been very busy. Two weeks of Arty Party work, followed by a three day trip to the Lake District with friends, then back, then a two day trip to Menorca. This week I am at home trying to get all the jobs done. This includes the ongoing battle to sort out a leaking house, where we are finally beginning to make a little progress. I have put lots of pictures of the Lake district because it was so beautiful. We had a minibus tour of ten lakes on the first day, which was great and took us to places we would never have found. The second day we visited Beatrix Potter's cottage, then Keswick in the afternoon and the pencil museum.

The view from my bedroom in the Inn we stayed at. Very beautiful but also very convenient for access to the motorway. 

Then, there are lots of pictures from the tour day. 

This is at a slate mine, and is a model of a house on the bridge in Ambleside, built on the bridge to avoid taxes.

Castleriggs stone circle.  When you are up there you can see hills all around. It is very atmospheric and beautiful.

Some people taking a dip with some Llamas in Derwent Water. 

Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm. 

Tiny collections and a dolls house were among my favourite things in the house. 

A Mr McGregor, in Near Sawrey, where the farm is. 

Keswick. 

The Pencil Museum. 

I liked the old building behind, and all the vintage packaging on display. Graphite was mined in the Lake District, hence the pencil manufacture. I didn't buy anything in the shop, as I already have rather a lot of Derwent products!

Paris

"The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion."
-Chris Ofili 

This quote bears no relation to the pictures below, but is a statement I like and agree with. I was recently approached by Artsy, who aim to make art accessible to all via their website. They had looked at a post I wrote ages ago about visiting a Chris Ofili exhibition, and wondered if I could add a link to their page. This is a link to their Chris Ofili page, and here is one to my original post. Their website looks good, and I need to explore it further!

Below are lots of pictures from a trip to Paris in June, for Andy's birthday. It was fun. We did lots of walking and it was boiling hot at the time, unlike now here.

Lady feeding stray cats near the Sacre-Coeur.

Opposite this mansion, is this very well disguised home in the hedge. 

A vineyard in the city. 

Extreme pest control.

Cold beer much needed at the end of our very long walk!