Sunday 10 February 2008

Glorious Sunday!




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Did you have a glorious days' weather today? In the Midlands in the UK we woke up to a sharp frost which soon cleared away to a wonderful Springlike day with the birds practising their Spring songs. It has been a "good to be alive" day
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After a visit to the local crematorium to commemorate my DH's Mum's birthday which would have been this Tuesday (she passed away 2 years ago), we decided to do a quick supermarket shop and then pop out to the Vale of Belvoir for Sunday lunch. We went to the Rutland Arms, known locally as "The Dirty Duck" adjacent to the (currently unused) Grantham Canal. The service here is so quick you barely have time to settle at your table before the meal is in front of you! Roast beef twice (one normal, one child's portion for me!) went down very well! There must have been at least 9 vegetables including the potatoes and it was all piping hot! Lovely!
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We didn't linger too long and thought we really should make full use of the sunshine so we decided to walk along the canal in the opposite direction to the one we normally take. As you can see from the collage there was plenty to see. The reeds and rushes looked beautiful in the afternoon sunshine.




Aren't these reed seeds so delicate?



You can see from my hubby just how tall the reeds are along this stretch of the canal (he's about 5'8" tall). There are plans to open up and clear all the canal from Nottingham to Grantham so that it is navigable.




Looking across the fields you can see Belvoir Castle on the hilltop. (Excuse the pylon, DH wouldn't move it for me lol).



These gouges under the bridge arch were caused by the ropes which were harnessed to the horses which used to pull the barges along the canal. Iwould imagine you can see these on many canal bridges up and down the country.



I don't how long this sign has been painted on the bridge over the canal but it has a lovely feeling of age about it.


My DH took this photo of our drive home after the walk - yes, there are hills in Lincolnshire!



These ladies were also enjoying the sunshine. I am fascinated with the marks on the old building in the background of this photograph which seems not to be in use.


The patterns on the hardboard must have potential in mixed media or even in fabric and I like the pattern over the door.




And how about this tree trunk for texture? Click on it for a proper looksee. Wouldn't this be fun in Photoshop?!

4 comments:

sharon young said...

Hi Julie
What lovley pics, you certainly did have good day.
Love the bark.
Thanks for your comments on my blog post.
Many of the filers etc are the same on PS Elements as PS CS, so i think you could apply my tutorial , but i'll check out the gradient map effect. And sometimes the effects are in different places on the 2 apps but still there.

artisbliss said...

I'm glad to see so many of my UK friends had such a wonderful day and enjoyed the sunshine. I envy you all. While we, too have sunshine here in Kansas, it is a mere 23 F. Brrr!

Very interesting textures you've picked up on here. Will we see you do something with them soon?

Mrs Moog said...

Beautiful photos Julie! It really was a lovely day wasn't it? Your pub lunch sounds great - especially as you don't have to cook it yourself :)

Lesley xx

Pat said...

It was a glorious day and your have captured it so well. Particularly like the door.