I am joining with Amy from Love Made My Home to bring you this week's Five On Friday.
The highlight of my week was celebrating our 36th Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday so my five this week all relate to that day.
1. First of all a comparison from our wedding day and then 36 years on (a lot more grey hairs and a lot less hair in DH's case)!!!
2. I craftily arranged to work on Monday instead of my usual Tuesday this week so that we could enjoy a day out on our anniversary. We had intended to visit the coast but the weather at the start of the day was quite dreary so we decided on the spur of the moment that we would visit Marlborough as it is somewhere we have driven through on many occasions and never really stopped to explore. Marlborough is famous for having the widest street in England and has some gorgeous shops not to mention Miss Polly's tearooms where we enjoyed coffee and cake (well cake for one of us and it wasn't me)! It is quite difficult to get decent photos of the main street because of the amount of cars parked down the middle and on the sides of the street but the following photos should give you an idea of what it is like. I ended up spending far too much treating myself to a winter coat and top from Joules, a new handbag for work which is large enough to take my iPad as well as all the other junk I carry around with me and a Susie Watson jug to replace the one I have that has mysteriously developed a crack.
3. When we had had enough retail therapy we decided to motor onto Avebury which is only a few miles from Marlborough. Famous for its stone circle it is now owned by the National Trust and is somewhere we haven't visited for quite a few years. Firstly we explored Avebury Manor Gardens which are magnificent. The gardens consist of nine separate 'rooms' which are all connected. Here are just a few of the photos.
4. You can probably see on some of the above photos several pieces of sculpture. There is currently an exhibition being hosted at Avebury and there are several interesting sculptures dotted around the gardens, some of which I really liked and some I found a bit weird and didn't really understand. Here are a few of the ones that I found pleasing to look at.
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5. By the time we had toured the gardens we were in need of some refreshments so enjoyed a light lunch before venturing out to explore the stone circle and the henge. I will start by showing you an aerial view which I have found online to give you an idea of the layout and scale of Avebury. There are several websites which detail the history of this magical place if you are interested.
We walked around the stones and around the top of the henge. I don't think anyone really knows the reason the stone circle and henge were created but it is the centre of a much larger ancient landscape with other monuments such as Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow and The Sanctuary all just a few miles away. Avebury forms part of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage site.
Although we experienced very humid and uncomfortable weather conditions we thoroughly enjoyed our special day and we will be visiting both Marlborough and Avebury again before too long.
I hope you have enjoyed my Five this week. Please do pay a visit to Amy's blog to find links to more 'Five' posts.
