Family Times Together

I mentioned in my last blog post it has been a busy week as there have been quite a few social family events as we celebrate our 59th wedding anniversary.

On Sunday we went to our daughter M's home for croissants and coffee.

 Blue wild geraniums and white astrantia flowers under the birch trees look pretty in the shared courtyard garden area 

Mr P and Daughter M have grown sunflowers from seed.  M has planted hers in pots and ours are in the flower beds.  Hopefully we'll get as good a display as we did last year. 

Along the lane there are many trees and daughter M gathered some elderberry flowers, thoroughly washed them, added lemon peel and made some elderberry cordial.  We were given a bottle (originally used when she made limoncello) and we are now enjoying this refreshing drink at home.

When Daughter M and partner came for an evening meal after work this week Mr P made spinach and ricotta lasagne.  (Daughter M had given us beforehand the spinach which she grows in raised beds in her large garden). 

Tonight our granddaughter, partner and baby are coming for a visit and a shared meal.  She's bringing mushroom risotto for our evening meal which will be followed by Mr P's home grown strawberries. We're certainly well looked after by our family members. We're also looking forward to our Berkshire daughter coming to stay when she breaks up from school work in the Summer.  We've a lot of places we hope to visit with both daughters during the Summer season weekends.

I hope all is going well with you.  Thank you for visiting.  Speak again soon.              

 

Daughter D's Birthday Treat

How I miss the River Thames where it flows through my home town!  Never mind, I'm sure we'll get back to Reading in the near future especially with a Berkshire great grandchild on the way.  Recently daughter D sent some photos of a walk by the river after going to the riverside lido in King's Meadows and she said I could share them on my blog.  She had chosen to go there for a swim and a spa session followed by a lunch as part of a birthday gift we had given her.  We're glad that she had a relaxing time and it was glorious weather for her treat.

We're also glad that her drive back to Reading went well and she continues to spend time in her garden and with her family.  What a wonderful Summer it has been!

Thank you for your visit.  Have a good week!

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!

My week

We've been enjoying some mellow September weather and on Sunday afternoon we went to Meersbrook Park which is one of the local parks in Sheffield situated high up overlooking the city.

In the park there is a vantage point called Turner's Viewpoint because it's from here that the artist got inspiration for a watercolour which is now hanging in the Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield. (click on the title for the link to view it 'Sheffield from Derbyshire Lane').  J.M.W. Turner probably painted Sheffield when on a tour of the midlands in the mid 1790s.  He was still then a teenager and at the start of his career as an artist.  Today the views from this open green space are still amazing. The Botanical Gardens can be seen to the left and taller buildings include the university and hospital.

In the grounds of the park is Bishops' House.  We had hoped to take a look inside as it's now a small museum and is usually open to the public at weekends when volunteers go in to supervise, but  unfortunately it had been closed due to some safety issue relating to the electrical lights.  With National Heritage Days coming up this month when many such historic buildings are open to the public usually with guided tours let's hope that Bishops' House will be available for a look inside.
Afterwards we went to an icecream parlour.

this was my choice - raspberry sorbet and pistachio ice cream

On Wednesday we had another celebratory family meal We made lasagne al forno and suppli (riceballs with mozzarella in the middle) using fresh pasta and our own tomato sauce followed by birthday cake.

the lasagne al forno - a vegetarian one made with aubergine, squash and courgettes 

and a meat one before I put on the white sauce sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese

ready for baking. The suppli were ready for frying in shallow oil.

after baking

The portions were served with green salad and home grown tomatoes.

I forgot to photograph the suppli so this was the only one left

and that one was soon gone too!

The weather continues to be sunny although thankfully it's a lot cooler.  September days can be beautiful when the weather is good, but I don't mind a shower of rain either.