Took myself off for a walk up the Malverns as my road bike is being serviced and I do not like riding my hybrid by myself as I have to have cleats and might fall off.

Cinema Visit

Between Christmas and New Year went to the cinema to see Paddington II and decided to walk as I needed some exercise.  This surprising view towards Bredon Hill was taken from the centre of Great Malvern and looks as if I am out in the countryside.

Wish I could get out on my bike but the weather is too windy, wet and cold at the moment and I have also got some kind of flu which has given me a cough, sore throat and temperature so not straying far.

Boxing Day Stroll

Malvern Hills

Had a walk with DH on Boxing Day .... that is if you can call it a walk?  We covered quite a bit of the hills but I had to keep waiting for him to catch up as he saunters rather than walks and keeps stopping to take millions of photographs.

Lots of flowers on the gorse bushes

Looking towards Herefordshire

Even came across a bit of yarn bombing up a 'Narnia' lamp post near West Malvern.

Malvern Yarn Bombers

Took myself off for a walk this afternoon as I cannot ride my bike as it is too cold (and wet today). Came across this nativity scene in the middle of Great Malvern outside the Priory.

The local bible shop had a fantastic Christmas tree in its window made out of opened books.  Unfortunately I could not photograph it as there were iron railings in the way but I did take a picture of one of their book page angels ... there were spectacular candles made from the same technique too.

Autumn has arrived

It was such a lovely morning that I took myself off for a long walk starting at the Wych Cutting and walking through the woods on the Malvern side of the hills back to North Hill and then down through the Quarry car park back home.  Still lots of leaves on the trees, but plenty underfoot too.  Saw a Green Woodpecker which was a lovely sight.

View from North Hill over Leigh Sinton

Yesterday we went to Compton Verney to the Textile Fair and I discovered a willow sculpture I had not seen before which is positioned in the field on the right hand side as you walk from the car park to the house. It is called 'Drift' and was created by Laura Ellen Bacon. It was quite interesting with lovely shapes within it and I presume it will eventually decay and breakdown.

Well Dressing and All That

Over the Bank Holiday the wells in Malvern had been dressed and Malvina was no exception.  The Elgar statue had also been 'bombed' again - this time with textile ivy leaves created by students of Malvern College of Art.

Victorian Postbox

There are one or two nice postboxes in Malvern and this is one of them and it appears to be from the Victorian era.  It is outside Malvern Community Hospital, which is somewhere I have been rather a lot over the past week or so!!  The lovely neighbour I take shopping each week tripped and fell and has ended up in hospital until she gets back on her feet so I have been visiting her as often as I can as she has only a few friends and relatives around to do so.  It means I am not getting much done at home which is disappointing.

The other frustrating thing this past week is, that for some unknown reason, the computer has been playing up and some of the Adobe Creative Suite software has stopped working, mainly Photoshop and Illustrator. I am going to have to take the hard drive to a man to fix it as it is beyond me.  I think it is probably one of the updates from Microsoft that has caused the glitch.

Autumn Treat

On Monday afternoon DH and I walked from the Wyche Cutting back home and, because he is not used to walking far, we dropped down onto a lower path which took us through the woods along past St Anne's tearooms.  It was a glorious afternoon and we saw a Buzzard nest in one of the pine trees.

There were of course other things to see including ....

Lovely willowherb seedheads

Sweetchestnuts and leaves

Needless to say that has been the highlight of the week as DH is now exhausted and has not done much else since!!

Out and About

It is amazing what you come across here when you are least expecting it.  I popped out this morning to pick up some cinema tickets and had a couple of other jobs to do at the same time and this is what I found ....

Looks like someone has been out 'Yarn Bombing' again!!  It is the Malvern Flower Show starting tomorrow after all.  Poor old Elgar is looking at something decidedly fishy.  It did prompt me to pop into the Bluebird Tearooms (located just across the road from the Elgar statue) though to see the textile exhibition that features the work of several people I know.  Well worth dropping in to see and the bonus is that they serve fantastic coffee, tea and cakes.

 Some of the fishy goings on ....

Even Malvina got decorated.  I think there is a Well Dressing event going on too.

Blossom

The weather was so nice on Thursday that I managed to walk there and back to the hairdressers in Malvern Link to get my hair cut. I also discovered how to find the route through the churchyard on the way back and came across this cherry tree in full blossom in the local infant school grounds.  It was absolutely stunning.  Even more interesting was this amazing drain cover in the churchyard.  It has enormous hinges.  The gate over the church door says 1846 and 1996 so I guess this could be a pretty old design.

Apart from that I have been stripping paint from skirting boards and a windowledge.  Joy of joys!!  Still no stitching getting done.

View of the Malvern Hills

I took some pictures of the skyline to get an accurate image of the Malvern Hills whilst at Croome Park.  I have joined two photos together to get this vista.  We live at under the end of the hill on the right, below North Hill and End Hill. The Worcester Beacon is behind the cedar tree in the centre.

Malvern Walk

This morning the weather was so nice that we went for a walk on the Malvern Hills. We went up the 99 steps to St Ann's Well where we found this creature dispensing spring water.  We walked along the hill towards the Wych Cutting and then back along the ridge to the Worcester Beacon.  It was absolutely glorious, very sunny and fantastic panoramic views.

Back to reality now I am afraid and must do my bookbinding homework and some gardening jobs!

Worcester Beacon

I persuaded DH that he should climb the Worcester Beacon and see the lighting of the Jubilee bonfire on Monday evening.  Mr C decided he would come with us so we left home at 8.30 pm

Mr C showed us a route up to the Beacon from West Malvern.

We experienced a wonderful sunset and the rising of a spectacular moon prior to the Beacon being lit at around 10.15.  (Think it was actually later than that as there were problems getting it ablaze)

Unfortunately I kept getting the bald heads of total strangers in my photographs, but it was an experience not to be missed.

The views from the Worcester Beacon are spectacular at the best of times so it was a GREAT evening.

Malvhina

One of my first discoveries was this lovely sculpture.  She is opposite the the Deli in Malvern and very interesting.