Packwood Gardens

some lovely photos 🙂

ladyleemanila

The famous Yew Garden in Packwood Gardens, dating back to 1650, must be one of the largest collections of yew trees in the world.In the Carolean Garden visitors can admire the stunning herbaceous borders and enjoy views across the gardens and parkland from the seventeenth century brick gazebos. One of the gazebos also offers information about planting in the gardens. Away from the formal gardens visitors can discover Packwood’s lake, which features a circular stroll through a wooded glade.

For: #MySundayPhoto – Running Route /July 31, 2016, San Francisco’s Hometown Creamery (Sundays In My City), Sunday Trees – 246, in silvery grey…, SEASONS – END JULY and BEGIN AUGUST, Jo’s Monday walk : City of Birmingham (24 hours in Brum)

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Jo’s Monday walk : A Garden Extravaganza

lovely garden 🙂

restlessjo

This isn’t a walk so much as a wallow in flowers at an Open Garden event last weekend.  I did propose a walk to nearby Witton Castle, but ‘someone’ was feeling lazy, so we opted to loiter instead.  Hillside Cottages are in the quintessentially English village of Low Etherley, a few miles from Bishop Auckland, in County Durham.  A look over the garden wall will show you the lie of the land.  Calm and pastoral.

I love nosing around a garden.  My plant knowledge isn’t huge, but I do enjoy identifying a friend or two.  Small explosions of colour lure me into the borders.  Rich plum, ‘poke you in the eye’ orange and soft pink mingle with the green.

There are two gardens, side by side, quite different yet so harmonious that the division between them is little more than a gap in the adjoining hedge, which I initially fail…

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Take Me Along!

memories…. 🙂

ladyleemanila

I left the Philippines many moons ago
And since then I’ve been venturing out
New frontiers, new challenges
Switzerland – where I saw the first snow
Where I was able to get a job at the United Nations
Where my heart was broken for the first time
Germany – where I met Him Indoors in the lab
Action, reaction, chemistry in motion
First time to camp in a one-man tent
America – ah Hollywood and Rodeo Drive
Met some celebrities, can you believe that?
Went to work on my bike, loved it
Him Indoors came for a visit
We went to see the Grand Canyon, brilliant!
Asked me to marry him and I said yes
Great Britain – got married there
Worked at Boots the Chemist
In their Research, doing Statistics
And back to Germany – had HRH the son
Our pride and joy and we’re still here
26 years…

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Photo Challenge #212 – I’m entirely too impulsive

Ladyleemanila

I’m entirely too impulsive
Creative as I can
With elision if conducive
Hitchhiking with Afghan
By pure stealth, I’m who I am
Not a let-down in Amsterdam
By pure stealth
By pure stealth
A hipster riding in a tram

I’m entirely too impulsive
Defiant stepdaughter
I’m impoverished as I live
Life could be such a blur
Namelessness doesn’t bother me
Murmurous like a busy bee
Namelessness
Namelessness
One day I’ll be able to flee

I’m entirely too impulsive
The world is my oyster
Indecisive and emotive
Looking for some answer
I’m always me, do what I like
Riding my bike, part of my psych
I’m always me
I’m always me
If I don’t agree, I strike*

(c) ladyleemanila 2018

* Trijan Refrain

For: Photo Challenge #212,  Wordle #194

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Jo’s Monday walk : Bede’s World

Jo’s walk 🙂

restlessjo

It was last Summer when I first came upon Bede’s Heritage Trail, quite by accident, in the sleepy hamlet of Whitburn, on the north east coast.   A 12 mile walk, it links the church of St. Paul’s in Jarrow with St. Peter’s, down the coast at Wearmouth.  I had inadvertently arrived, right in the middle.

Benedict Biscop, a Northumbrian nobleman, had travelled to Rome 6 times and was inspired by the Christian life he found there.  In 674 he approached King Ecgrifth of Northumbria and was given a large estate on which to found the monastery of St. Peter’s, in Wearmouth.  It’s twin, St. Paul’s, was begun 8 years later, further north at Jarrow.  They were among the first stone buildings in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, and St. Paul’s contains the oldest church dedication stone in England.  Part of the Anglo-Saxon monastery survives today as the chancel of St. Paul’s.  A…

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Spinning Yarns – Our Storyteller

remembering Tia Nena 🙂

Ladyleemanila

I know a good storyteller, Tia Carol!
When she was still with us, bless her soul
She’d tell you stories of the past
When they were young, what they did
Where they went, who said what?
Word for word, we’d hear what they said
With an exercise in throng anecdote
Children and grandchildren circled around
Listening to her, telling her tales
She never got tired, she never got edgy
There was always a request for another story

For: Yarn

Other “yarn” posts:
https://sapphireelisha.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/yarn/
https://tinyfawns.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/crafting-with-the-creepers/
Spinning Art
https://stoneronarollercoaster.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/gravity-vs-biology/
https://lanternwords.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/not-a-woven-yarn/

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Help Kristine Fight Cancer

she’s my friend’s daughter 🙂

Ladyleemanila

Kristine Marielle Felizardo
9 April at 20:58 ·

Last week, I received news no cancer survivor would ever want to hear. My cancer has relapsed. I have Lymphoma again. I knew having a relapse would haunt me for the rest of my life, but I didn’t imagine it would be this fast. Just a year and 3 months of being in complete remission, I was starting to rebuild my life, my career, my hair – just trying to be normal again. Even my doctor told me I was recovering so quickly that I didn’t look like I had cancer.

A month ago, I started having chest pains which prompted my doctor to order a PET scan for me. As usual, I was having scanxiety but I was thinking it’s not something serious. I may never understand why this had to happen to me again but I still feel lucky because…

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Jo’s Monday walk : Among the fisherfolk

Jo’s walk 🙂

restlessjo

I was all set to take you castanet rattling in Jerez today, but we had a strenuous week last week, didn’t we?  I thought a gentle amble round the latest addition to Olhão’s street art might be a better option.  Truth be told, I could easily have missed these, if it hadn’t been for Becky.  What would I do without her?  A mine of information, she saves me hours of research.  Murals with memories of the city gives details of the artists and how they came to work on this very engaging project.

Images of the sea always appeal to me, but the detail and realism of these bring them alive.  They were taken from a set of photos of life as it was in the canning and fishing industry in Olhão, giving them authenticity and vibrance.  While he was working, a lady asked to have a photo taken…

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Twittering Tale #57– The Roundup

Kat’s round-up 🙂

like mercury colliding...

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less. Be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.

Finally, have fun! I know it can be a challenge squashing an entire tale into 140 characters (spaces and punctuation included), but it feels so good when you are able…

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Kat’s round-up 🙂

like mercury colliding...

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less. Be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.

Finally, have fun! I know it can be a challenge squashing an entire tale into 140 characters (spaces and punctuation included), but it feels so good when you are able…

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