Friday 27 September 2013

Wonder which city is coming up next ?? Dreaming of France Meme

I just have to have them once
on a trip ... ♥
 


 
DELICIOUS!
 
Sorry I cannot remember the name of the
restaurant but it was just off  Place du Tertre, Montmartre.
 
 


 
 
More to come ♥♥
 
 
 
Dreaming of France ,have a story to tell ,
photos to share  then call over to
An Accidental Blog with Paulita and her
Dreaming of France Meme .
We love to read about France ♥
 

Tuesday 24 September 2013

My thought of the day!!!

How do people do it??
 
How do they work , travel , and whatever
else they do and blog ?   Some everyday !!
 
Some people must be constantly on their phones, iPads
or whichever they use .. I do understand if their jobs
require this..  but anyway ,
that was my
thought
as I was at my voluntary job today.
 
 
Can you see the watery web? 



 
Seen in the grass on the way home , for some reason there were lots of them flying about!
 
 
Collecting a stick for the nest!!
 
 
This butterfly let me get up so close..
 

 
Love the shapes and light of these flowers.





 
Hope you enjoy these .... today was so summery .
 
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


Monday 23 September 2013

AT LAST ----- Blogging and what it brings ..

This month it has brought great and lovely friends
together for a wedding in London.

Jennifer and Peter - 9th September 2013
got married at Clissold House, Stoke Newington.

We met the lovely family of Peter, Jennifer's brother
and their friends too ..FANTASTIC day ♥



 Beautiful music ...


and my lovely friend Barbara


and of course ........


 
We are all friends who first  met in Paris!!
 
If it had not been for blogging I would never met
Jennifer , who left a comment on my blog August 2009,

 I happened
to be out there at the time and she asked if I would like
to meet up with her ...:-) and in
April of the same year I met Barbara and Didier.


On Sunday after we got settled into our B and B's (more info to come)
we met up and went for
a walk to the Abney Park .. 
they had seen my post from before and wanted to go.


 Interesting to find out
that they is a huge link with the Salvation Army
William Booth the founder is buried here , along with
lots of others who belonged to the Salvation Army.
(I am sure Didier/Barbara got photos)




After our walk here  , we went up and down Church Street, Stoke Newington ..
(this is linked to Barbara's blog)  and found ourselves
somewhere to have supper/dinner.

We stopped in Il Bacio Express.. we loved it .
Very family orientated , you could see the food
be prepared , lovely setting and the food
was delicious. I just didn't know what to have !!

I had Pizza and ate the lot (except for a minute slice)


Wine and friends ..


Please go over to Barbara's blog to read more ,
she has super posts , not just about the wedding
and Stoke Newington
but lots of fantastic photography too.

We had a fantastic few days together .. and on the Tuesday
we all had to return home.  I met Barb and Didier at St Pancras
for Coffee and Croissant and to say Au revoir!

Strange being there , as I was not going or returning from Paris!!

♥♥♥♥♥
 


Friday 6 September 2013

New Postcard - New Place and Thank you.

Isn't it great when
you get home ,
not expecting any post

FOR YOU
 
and you look down and there is a
 
lovely  postcard...
 
THANK YOU to my good friend
 
Diane from The Charante...

Go over and have a read of Diane's amazing blogs.
YES BLOGS!! Three of them , a Daily photo diary,  Life in Charente
and Life before Charente ,, (this is an amazing story.)
 
 How super for her that Nigel , her husband ,took her
on a SURPRISE  3 day trip to
 
La Rochelle

         La Rochelle is a beautiful coastal town , where the  historic port is beautifully preserved with a quayside that bustles with boats small and large, and the seafront is packed full of cafes and restaurants , where you can just relax and watch the world go by!!
Please read more in the link above.
 
♦♦♦♦♦
How wonderful it looks too, so happy that
Diane and Nigel  had a good time.



The streets of the old La Rochelle offers a testimony of rich historical and architectural changes from the city, remarkably conserved, they show a big  variety of styles ranging from the Fifteenth to Eighteenth centuries.


On the back of the card , Diane said she chose this for me  to put my
French in practice!!! Certainly did . With a little help from a friend. :-)
BUT I could read most of it.

Apologies to Diane , I have taken several photos of the card
and I cannot get one in focus :-) will try again
but this is just to say
It arrived and a Big thank you!

♥♥♥♥♥
 

Monday 2 September 2013

A little bit of fun with Jennifer ...

After the visit to Abney Cemetery - Nature reserve .
a Thai lunch in Yumyums
 a cocktail and a Thai beer (for me)
which was delicious ..
 
 
We took a walk down Church Street - Stoke Newington ..
a very up and coming street too. We found lovely cafes, delis ,
and gift shops , definitely would like to go back.
 
We popped into one (cannot remember name , sorry)
and this is what we found ..
had to have a go and leave our mark !!
 
This FAB wallpaper , as you can see we were not the
only ones who had to do some colouring ..!!
 
Jennifer is now choosing her colours.
 

Found  a spot!!

 

 
Finished picture lol
 
 
and mine , of course it had to be
Anne in Oxfordshire lol
 
The cat!




 
What fun ♥
 

Sunday 1 September 2013

UPDATE ON THIS POST - London for the afternoon with a great friend ..


 
A few days before I was due to go to Paris (in July)
 , I went to stay with my mother -in-law in North London,
I love going there and now it is extra special
as my lovely friend Jennifer has moved from Paris to London
to be with her boyfriend  ..SOON TO BE HUSBAND .. Peter.
And only three Metro stops from my mum-in-law which is super for all of us.

 
We went to Stoke Newington , which is new to me, I was able to see
where they were getting married ..:-) :-) .. also have a look around the
up and coming area.
 
So our first stop was ..a Cemetery.
We walk round them in Paris so why not London .. ??


UPDATE from Jennifer

Hi Anne, just to let you know that Marc Bolan of TRex fame was born in Stoke Newington. Elton John used to hang out on Church St and played in a pub on the river Lee. If you go to the library on Church St, you will see the gravestone of Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe. There is a Daniel Defoe society and apparently Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are members. Queen Elizabeth the 1st used to visit the small ancient church near the entrance to Clissold Park on Church St. By the way, the cemetery is tastefully scruffy, that's the way Stokies like it! The reason it's not trimmed down is the wildlife and it is National Trust protected. There are woodpeckers, jays and sparrow-hawks.

Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts,  and the Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, a semi-public park arboretum, and an educational institute, which was widely celebrated as an example of its time. Abney Park is one of the Magnificent Seven London cemeteries. ]It is also a Local Nature Reserve.

 
Given how important this place is I think the Hackney council need to step up and help preserve it!  After all this is one of Britain's historic park and garden . Unfortunately as is mostly the case in England the roof slates and roof flashings of the Abney Park Chapel have been damaged by unauthorised climbing and theft at times when the park was left unsupervised and unlocked overnight, and this has resulted in water seepage into the chapel walls which is now causing serious problems to the whole building, which on our visit was derelict.
The Chapel ..
which is waiting for restorations and brought back to life and
to be used by the trust and open to the public.
 

 
Statues we saw on our walk round,
 it was also quite eerie!!
 





 

William Frederick Tyler, Police Constable 403 of 'N' Division,
Metropolitan Police Service, fallen while bravely serving
the community on the 23rd January 1909.
 
Killed age 31 in the Tottenham Outrage
which took place 23 of January 1909.
 
One winter Saturday morning two armed Russian/Latvian anarchists, Paul Hefeld and Jacob Lepidus, attempted to seize the wages’ cash (£80) being delivered to the Schnurmann Rubber Factory in Chestnut Road, Tottenham.  If you would like to know more please click on the link above..





 
Wood carving in one of the tree trunks.

 
We also came across these men !!
 
Of course we were both curious !!



 
They were filming for a trailer for a film called
 
The Vampire ..
 
You can see the black guy in the photo ,
before this , they were standing somewhere else,
and when we walked up (Jennifer was behind me)
he turned to talk to me , I jumped a mile , he had
RED eyes and fangs in (and he has huge muscles) yikes.... Spooky..


 
At last I have managed to get this done , little bit more to come.
Hope you have enjoyed this little bit of history. I have linked up
so you can follow more if interested.
 
♥♥♥♥♥