Selby

I'm going back a while here, a week last Monday actually when it was May bank holiday. Eleanor had gone off to her friend's house, five of them were meeting up to rehearse the scripted play which they were performing as part of their Drama GCSE later on that week.

Mick and I decided we'd have a couple of hours out of the house so I suggested that we go to Selby. It's about fifteen miles away from where we live, but I know that Monday is market day, and on bank holidays, the market attracts more stalls than usual and spreads along the streets. I enjoy wandering around a good market and seeing what each stall has to offer. If you don't already know, it's Love Your Local Market fortnight May 14th to 28th 2014, a celebration of our market culture here in the UK, with lots of events scheduled. There's a link on the site to find your nearest event.

Selby has a beautiful abbey which is open to the public every day. It has a lovely coffee shop which is open most days, and on the day we went, there was a craft fair in the abbey too. We browsed the various craft stalls as well as taking a look at the inside of the abbey.

Back outside, we carried on strolling around the market and came to a book stall where I couldn't resist purchasing books two and three of The Midwife Trilogy, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End. I know I haven't read Call the Midwife yet but it's good to have these other books ready to follow on when I do. Another two books to add to my reading pile then.

Archie had been left at home, I didn't think he'd appreciate being dragged around a market whilst we kept stopping at every stall, so we decided to buy him a treat of a pig's ear. I should imagine that pig's ears are quite a delicacy to dogs, Archie takes his time when given one, sniffing it for quite a while before licking it and eventually giving it a good chew. I have to tie his ears up in a scrunchy to avoid them becoming a slimy, matted mess when eating anything like this.

After a while, he took his lovely pig's ear outside to eat in the sunshine whilst he watched Mick cut the grass.

You'll be pleased to hear that all the rehearsals for Eleanor's performance paid off. We were allowed to go in to school to watch the exam performance and it was very good. Afterwards, her teachers presented each of the students with a dvd of the performance as a keepsake, a lovely touch.

Only another week to go and we get another bank holiday.

Reading Pile

The books on my reading pile keep increasing, I can't read at a fast enough pace to keep up with them.

You may remember me reading A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen towards the back end of last year. I've recently read the follow on to this book, The World According To Bob. This book continues telling the tale of James and Bob's life together and the ways in which Bob has helped James through many hard times. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Bob's antics.

I've also read the third book in the Nightingale series by Donna Douglas, The Nightingale Nurses. This book is my favourite so far, perhaps because I've got to know the characters so well through the first two books. I couldn't resist buying the fourth book, Nightingales On Call, when it came out at the end of April and I'm reading that now. New characters have been introduced in this book so I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

While passing a bookshop in Leeds which sells discounted books, I saw Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth for just £1.99. I love the television series which is based on these books so I'm sure I'll enjoy reading these memoirs.

I buy many of my books from charity shops these days, though I'm careful about which ones I buy from as some want to charge nearly the same price as it would cost new. These two books cost me the princely sum of 99p for the pair, they were buy one get one free. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian sounds worlds away from the gentle pace of Call The Midwife. The blurb:-

Sibyl Danforth is a midwife, highly experienced and respected in her local community for delivering babies at home. Then the unthinkable happens. On a winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, in the middle of a lengthy and strenuous labour, tragedy strikes. With phone lines down and roads slick with ice, Sibyl is forced to perform an emergency caesarean on a mother she believes has died of a stroke.

But what if Sibyl's patient wasn't dead - and Sibyl inadvertently killed her?

Related through the eyes of Sibyl's 14-year-old daughter Connie, Midwives is powerful and gripping to the end. A courtroom battle ensues as Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law and the accusations of her own conscience, while trying desperately to keep her own family and reputation intact.

The other book, One Day by David Nicholls, has now been made in to a film and though I haven't seen it myself, Eleanor has watched it over and over again, she loves it. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that the one day which the title relates to is the 15th of July, Eleanor's birthday. More often than not, I prefer a book to a film, so I thought I'd give this one a go. The blurb:-

You can live your whole life not realising that what you're looking for is right in front of you. 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

We've recently started decorating Daniel's bedroom while he's away at university. Whilst packing the books on his bookshelves away, I came across the copy of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee which he used in secondary school whilst studying for his English Literature GCSE. It's a book which I also studied for my English Literature O Level and I'm now looking forward to rereading it. Flicking through the book, I can see that Daniel made notes in it and underlined various text. I've seen the film version of this book starring Gregory Peck many times and I never tire of it so I'm sure I'll be able to say the same for the book.

I'm not a fast reader, I only read a chapter or two when I go to bed so I think there's enough there to keep me going for a while.

The Belle Of The Ball

Eleanor had a wonderful time at her prom last night. I thought you might like to see some of the many photos I took.

We called at my mum and dad's so that they could see her on her way to her friend's house. These photos were taken there.

The back of the dress is laced up.

All the girls were already there when we arrived at her friend's house, we were still waiting on a couple of the boys though.

It had been raining heavily in the morning but luckily, it had brightened up by the afternoon. It was very windy though and the girls kept having to adjust their hair.

They all scrub up well, they don't look like this when they're coming out of the school gates.

Sharing a joke.

BFF's. (Best Friends Forever).

The obligatory limo line up photo.

They all managed to fit inside the limo, three of the boys were seated at the back.

I knew Eleanor would be the first one with a glass in her hand. Like mother like daughter.

The prom was held at the Centenary Pavilion at Leeds United Football Club. Here they are arriving.

Eleanor and her date.

After the prom, they all went back to Eleanor's friends house where they partied the night away in to the small hours, after which, they crashed where they dropped. Eleanor had a fabulous night and memories were made which I'm sure she'll remember for a very long time. Just the GCSEs to get over and done with now.

It's Prom Time

It's Eleanor's school prom tonight. I don't want to think how excited all the Year 11 students will be at school today, I doubt they'll get much work done.

Eleanor's all prepared.

She went for a French manicure yesterday.

Sparkly hair accessories.

Sparkly jewellery.

Sparkly bag.

Sparkly shoes.

Would you like a peek at her dress? Go on then, I'll unzip the bag a little.

Sparkly dress.

Even more sparkles.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you how it all looked together.

Cannon Hall

On Sunday, Mick and I left Eleanor at home revising and went off to walk Archie at Cannon Hall near Barnsley. It's somewhere we've never been before.

It was originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, but is now a country house museum. We didn't go in to the museum as we had Archie with us.

We'd really gone to have a look around the walled garden, which you can read about in my Garden Visiting In May - Part One post over on my The Good Life blog, but we made the most of the fine day and had a wander around the beautiful grounds too. The parkland was landscaped in the 18th century by Richard Woods of Chertsey.

As we walked up to the hall from the car park, we came across this beautiful deer shelter which was built in the early to mid nineteenth century.

It has a stone slate roof which is supported on four yew trunks.

We had a wander around the gardens to the front of the hall. They're presently laid out with bedding and spring bulbs.

The rhododendrons just seem to be getting going. I bet they're beautiful once they're in full bloom, another couple of weeks I reckon.

We headed down to the lake. Archie had to be put back on his lead at this point, he loves water so much that I don't trust him anywhere near it, he'd be in there. The lake has a range of water birds including geese, coots, ducks and swans.

There's a number of waterfalls along the stream which leads in to the lake.

This waterfall has a stone bridge in front of it. The gushing noise of the water was quite loud.

Archie didn't mind the noise, he just wanted to get closer to the water.

Looking back towards the hall, you can see how extensive the grounds are.

We had a lovely day and I can thoroughly recommend Cannon Hall if you're in the area. I'd like to return to have a look round the museum, and there were other parts of the grounds which we didn't get to explore on Sunday so we must visit again. The museum, grounds and gardens have free admission, but there's a nominal £3 charge for parking. There's also a farm which looks like a lovely place to take children. Across the road from the car park is a garden centre, it's quite big, and the prices here were on par with other garden centres. Of course, we had to go and have a look round, but I didn't buy anything. Maybe next time.

Tristar

We were just leaving the house on Saturday morning when I noticed this star in the sky made by three separate planes.

I thought it quite unusual for three planes to cross the exact same place leaving a trail behind to create a star. I wonder where they were all heading.

The Passion

Last night, we went to see Eleanor perform with her drama group in The Passion, a rock opera by Adrian Snell.

The musical is based on the Gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus' life, beginning with the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ending with the crucifixion and resurrection.

Eleanor took the leading female role of Mary Mother of Jesus and sang a beautiful solo, Son Of The World, as well as singing a duet, Jesus Alive!, with a friend from school who took the part of Mary Magdalene.

Afterwards, we went in to the parish centre for refreshments where Eleanor's recently retired singing teacher came and found us. It was a lovely surprise for Eleanor as she didn't know she was coming to see the play.

The last performance is tonight, after which, Eleanor will be taking a break from her drama group until her exams are finished. It's been quite full on for her rehearsing as well as revising for her GCSE's, but she's been working very hard so that she could give her best.