After a very rainy start to the week the last two days have been gorgeous, lovely warm and sunny Autumn days and a joy to be out and about.
Today we drove to Salisbury for a spot of retail therapy and then a walk through the beautiful water meadows.
It was wonderful to leave the bustling city behind and enjoy the peace and quiet of the meadows. Who would imagine this peaceful riverside location is just a stones throw from the City Centre.
After a walk and a sit in the sun we ambled back along the river into the city for a spot of lunch and then decided to walk up to the Cathedral. I have visited here a few times before but never fail to be impressed by the sheer beauty of this building and admire the skill of those masons from years ago who created this beautiful structure with none of the modern power tools that are in use today.
We walked around the green and then through the cloisters. Can you spot the steeple jacks working on the spire dangling on the ropes, what a head for heights you must have to do that job - they were an awful long way up!
The Cathedral green and Close are such tranquil places to visit and it is hard to remember that you are not far away from the busy shopping streets.
All to soon it was time to head back to the carpark but I couldn't resist taking another couple of photos as we walked back.
Salisbury has so much history with so many lovely old buildings and a thriving shopping centre so a visit is always a pleasure, especially on such a lovely day as today.
I cannot believe we were travelling home from our Yarndale weekend this time last week and it has taken me all week to get around to blogging about our fantastic time we spent in lovely Yorkshire.
The main reason for the trip was for me to visit the Yarndale exhibition on the Saturday and to meet up with my monthly craft group friends. However, as it is a 5-6 hour journey from home we decided to make the most of it and travelled up to Skipton on the Thursday so that we had a day free to explore the area on Friday.
The journey up was fairly trouble free but traffic was very heavy and we were pleased to arrive and settle in to our hotel by 3.00 pm. It was then time to start our adventures by driving into Skipton (4 miles away) to begin to explore what was a new area for us. What a delightful little country town Skipton is, we wandered down to the canal ...
... and then into the town to get our bearings and enjoy afternoon tea in one of the cafes before returning to our hotel for an evening meal.
The next day was a beautiful warm and sunny day and we ventured back into Skipton to explore some more. We walked miles around this delightful place
and then ventured to the railway station so that I could follow the route through the park that I would need next day to get myself to the auction mart where Yarndale was being held. I knew that Lucy Attic24 had begun to yarn bomb the lamp posts through the park to guide people along the route so we crossed the canal and entered the beautiful park and sure enough all the lamp posts had been yarn bombed.
Having sussed out where the auction mart was we ventured back into town for lunch at the Coffee Mill where we had enjoyed our afternoon tea the day before.
After a delicious lunch we motored out of town to Bolton Abbey. Wow! This place took our breath away. It is a very atmospheric place with stunning views and scenic walks. We spent the afternoon exploring the area round the Abbey and the river nearby and we will definitely be making a return visit as there was so much more to see but by this time we had walked several miles and our feet were aching rather a lot.
At the end of our visit we found the delightful Tea Cottage overlooking the Abbey where DH chose a Yorkshire speciality - fruit cake laced with whisky served with Wensleydale cheese. I was good and just stuck to coffee although I must admit I was sorely tempted to join him as it looked so good!
On Saturday and with great excitement (from me) we made our way into Skipton where DH dropped me off and I walked through the park to Yarndale. DH took himself off to Embsay to visit a steam railway and have his fix of steam and we arranged to meet up later.
As I joined the queue there was a sense of anticipation from everyone and once the doors had opened everyone was longing to get into the exhibition but we had to wait until 10.00 am before we could get through to where the action was. It was so worth waiting for, this is the sight that greeted us as we walked through the doors, this bunting was made for the first Yarndale three years ago by readers of Lucy's blog and is rehung every year, a very colourful sight to greet everyone.
This area also contained this stunning mural of crocheted flowers called 'Flowers for Memories' which was dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the Alzheimers Society.
Once through the entrance area I made my way to the Knit 'n' Natter lounge where I knew I would find Lucy, having been an avid and admiring reader of her blog for a long time I was so excited to meet her in person, what a lovely and talented lady she is.
Having contacted my friends by phone and finding they were still five miles away I decided on a quick cup of coffee and was delighted to find that last year's Attic24 project, the crochet mandalas, were on display in the refreshment area. They looked absolutely fantastic, what a lot of talented crocheters there are out there.
I then had a message on my phone that my friends had arrived so it was back to the Knit 'n' Natter lounge so they could meet Lucy as well - another group photo.
The last member of our gang arrived after the group photo so of course we had to return so she could have her photo taken, Lucy was so accommodating and must have had hundreds of photos taken of her during the day.
This time we also met Heather and her gorgeous little girl from Little Tin Bird blog who was chuffed that I had recognised her.
It was then time to shop! It was hard to take everything in, there were so many stands with lovely goodies on offer and so many people trying to see everything. It was a bit overwhelming and on reflection I wish I had chosen differently but I was aware that it is so easy to get carried away at these events and didn't want to spend too much money. After lunch and another quick look around I decided to walk back into Skipton and meet up with DH to spend the rest of the day with him. Having climbed up the steps opposite the yarn mart to get back to the park I looked back at this lovely view, what a great reminder of a lovely day.
DH and I enjoyed the rest of our day driving around through beautiful countryside before returning to our hotel for our evening meal and then a quick walk along the canal just as the sun was going down.
We had a wonderful weekend and will be returning to this part of Yorkshire, hopefully to visit Yarndale again next year, time to start saving the pennies!
