KIdnapped! Sunday morning- Long Mynd

The morning begins with secret Road Map peerings away from prying eyes... and zoom lenses...

and much speculation whilst P and S play  "the procrastination game" which involves much windscreen spraying and wiping, oil checking and secret smiles....

giving nothing away...

Oh here he is again...has to be fiddling with something

S gives the "okay, everyone come over here" gesture....what's coming....

It turns out...a 5 mile walk...I've learned NEVER to ask now, just do it and don't look like a wuss...

OOh look, who's under the bridge acting out  3 Billy Goat's Gruff...trip trap trip trap...K plays her part as lead goat....

S climbs up a rock face which totally freaks L out and I can hear her telling R catagorically that if she is expected to "climb up there, I am turning 'round and going back".  Thankfully S has chosen the path of most resistance... for to our right there are alternative steps to negotiate...so up we climb and I have the final scene of the Sound of Music in my mind.

R and D consult...I stay out of it, probably wise...

of for goodness sake, he even brought a flippin' compass.....

Onward and upward.....there is a point at which a girls asks directions from someone on his way back...so why did the girl have to ask? No comment.... Of course the guys knew the right way....they had a compass and a map after all....

No words needed...I think R was chasing sheep and looking for hidden post boxes at this point....I didn't discover the "almost  an entire fleece" he had shoved up my coat sleeve until the following day....

A brilliant weekend with great friends who I have the privilege to have in my life....So  when's the next one,then?!!!!

KIdnapped! Saturday afternoon Blists Hill

Blists Hill: Victorian Town:

Signs of the Victorian Times! Here are a selection that made me smile!

SSo as not to bore you too much, I'll just show you the Victorian Doctor's house, which incidentally had a veg garden with chickens and a pig enclosure (if we had more land...sigh...).  The Doctor's wife was sitting by her open fire sewing a tapestry.  Her knitting basket on one side with wool items in various stages of development! I felt quite at home...

The Consulting Room:

TAll consultations written down, Doctor's handwriting legible?! Sorry it's a little too small to read easily on here, but believe me I had a good read!! 6d for a consultation or no charge in some cases....Stuart Smith wanting his 2nd opinion...1/6 please!

Nice.......

There was a framed painting in the small waiting room in the house. I wrote down the name of the artist:Luke Fildes and did some research when I got home.

"Fildes’s painting was inspired by the death of his son and the professional devotion of Dr Gustavus Murray who treated him. But this work shows the moment when a child shows the first sign of recovery. The redeeming light of dawn is shining on the child.In order to make the picture convincing Fildes constructed a cottage interior in his studio. He began work at dawn each day to catch the exact light conditions. The image of an ordinary doctor’s quiet heroism was a huge success with the late-Victorian public."

 Here's one I made earlier...the item that looks like a hand drill on the middle shelf is a Blood circulator....what the heck.....

Oh and the kitchen, homemade jams...yep, as I say, quite at home!

I loved the whole experience of wandering around a working Victorian town, with characters in costume going about their daily life!  We will definitely go back and aim to have a sepia photo done at Smitheman Studio Photographers next time!

Ended the day with K and D going off to buy and prepare dinner for us, followed by an unplanned (by us) Jackfield Brass Band concert in a courtyard near to the Youth Hostel. Lovely end to the day!

Kidnapped! Saturday morning.

Saturday breakfast...there is always one exhibitionist.....love 'im....

Not the Ironbridge, but I liked the plaque attached to it:

See what I mean...

The motley crew minus S and me!

I just loved this mid terraced cottage with the lavender growing out of a sieve and a Morris Minor parked in front. The garden was an ordered chaos, if that makes sense!

Everyone needs a couple like this in their lives!  Might regret saying that re the male of the species...

Oh, here we go again.... "Saturday Morning Fever" comes to mind!

Yeah..straitjacket...don't be fooled by the pout....he's into Am Dram...

Follow my leader to Ironbridge...learned to identify a chaffinch call on the way!

First sitings of the town....

and the Ironbridge itself!

Kidnapped! Friday afternoon...

The Time: A weekend in June was booked in advance

The Place: Somewhere in the UK

The Company: Unknown

As D and I were coming via Bristol not Yeovil, on the Friday, we were given an envelope the day before departure to open the following afternoon and not before!

which read......

During  coffee the rest of our kidnappees arrived. S & P had divided them up in 2 separate cars, no one knew where we were heading....

Lots of plotting and whispering..... from two...

Lots of guessing and surmising...from eight!

The only clue:

A World Heritage site with a link to China.....

The Youth Hostel at Coalport near Ironbridge, which used to be a China Factory.

Managed to get 3 twin rooms and a room for 4-sorted! Won't have to put up with Roge faffing about all night :) (memories of sailing...the anchor really is holding , it's okay..) and no snorers in our room....

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our_attractions/

The Shakespeare Inn where we all piled in for dinner and they agreed to serve us "because we were so nice!" despite the fact there were ten of us and they were just about to close the kitchen.

Now, what about Saturday?