Lunch in Derbyshire and our Garden in May

What good weather we're enjoying at the moment here in the UK!  Along with the sunny weather there's the need for watering the plants in pots so that they don't dry out.  This weekend I celebrated another birthday.  Lily-of-the valley is the flower that has been chosen for May and I'm pleased that my plant has flowered.  I keep it in a pot as it tends to spread.  

I was given lots of lovely birthday gifts, many of them flower related.  Our son came for a visit on Friday and we had lunch together and yesterday local daughter took us out for Sunday lunch in a country pub restaurant with heat-hazy views of the Derbyshire countryside. 

One of the gifts that Mr P and I can both enjoy is this bird table.  Mr P assembled it as it came in various pieces.  It was fun putting it together!  

One day last week I took another walk in the local walled garden and spotted lilies and an amaryllis in the glasshouse.

My own amaryllis called "Dancing Queen" that was given to us by a grandson in 2018 has produced flowers every year since.  We keep it in the covered yard and each year it gradually comes to life and produces several flowers.

There are red peonies in our garden, alliums, self-seeding poppies, lilies and much more blooming there.

It really is a beautiful time of year in the garden.  May is also Chelsea Flower Show time and we shall be watching the televised programmes that the BBC will put on this week.

Thank you for your visit.  I hope you're enjoying the sunshine where you live.  Have a good day and week!

Friday Five

We've had days of rainy and windy weather lately so I'm sharing photos of blossom before the last of the petals go brown and soggy and drop to the ground.

 

The photos above were taken on one of my recent visits to the local park.

A selection of my birthday cards. Any outing we had planned had to be postponed until the weather improves.  Meanwhile Mr P and I had a quiet day at home, a nice lunch, enjoyed the cards and presents sent in the post, phone messages and a visit from local daughter and grandchildren.

Thank you for your visit.  Have a very peaceful weekend whatever you're doing,

Linda.

Liverpool

We've been to Liverpool several times to take our granddaughter back to her accommodation and it has been our wish to stay for longer to see something of the city.  A celebration for daughter M's milestone birthday has been the perfect time.  Granddaughter was still busy with her studies, but joined us in the evenings. Some of the time we split up to visit places that we wanted to see as there's something of interest for everyone and then we got back together again for lunch and evening meals.

On the Friday evening we took a taxi down to Pier Head to see the Beatles group statues before walking back to the Royal Albert Dock and the restaurant where we were going to have a celebration meal.

The Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building 

and the Port of Liverpool Building are called the Three Graces.

Some Superlambananas outside the Museum of Liverpool

 (they were part of an art festival that took place some years ago)

Our granddaughter's boyfriend (a friend from high school days) who's at another university in the city where he's in his third year joined us for our meal at a Thai Restaurant in the Royal Albert Dock. (mosaic above is the food we enjoyed there).

A curious fact - all the pink Doric columns around the dock are made of cast iron except three made of grey granite.  The dock is made of granite and as there was some left over the engineer, Jesse Hartley, didn't want to waste the material so he used it to make three supporting pillars.  Before the dock could be constructed thousands of beech and elm trees were used to give a solid foundation on the river bed.  The warehouses were built of brick and iron rather than wood so that they would be fire resistant which was an innovative idea. Goods were unloaded straight into them which saved a lot of time and energy.  The new dock was opened by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, in 1846.  

As well as the many restaurants there are small shops

in the arcades around the dock.

Our taxis soon took us back to the apartment for birthday cake and Prosecco.

Thank you for coming by.  Have a good day!