My Neck of the Woods

In support of Tara Cain’s Week 10 Gallery theme: The Place in which we Live at Sticky Fingers, I am sharing with you a glimpse into some of my favourite places in my neck of the woods.  I’m stretching back 5 years on this one.  The very first weekend that I came to England (Feb. 4-6, 2005), this was the first restaurant Mark took me to to share the traditional English Fish & Chips.  I was suffering from travel sickness and was resisting the urge to vomit most of the time BUT I had never tasted anything so lovely.  I still adore Fish & Chips, particularly from the Riverside Fish & Chip shop in Stamford, Lincs which we don’t visit near as much as we used to…sigh…

This shot is of the River Welland in Market Deeping taken from a footbridge across the river.  I took A LOT of walks into Market Deeping when I first moved here in June 2005.  I couldn’t drive & was trying to stay reasonably fit so walking the 25-30 minutes in from our village was a good choice.  This river is a gentle flowing one with the occasional angler and at least one regular pair of swans who nest & raise their family every year.  It’s a lovely place…

This is All Saints Church.  Mark and I got married here in March 2006.  It’s a glorious church in the heart of Stamford, England and has tonnes of history attached to it.  It’s ideally meant for slightly bigger congregations so our small contingency only filled up the first 5 pews but it was lovely and beautiful (albeit a bit frigid!) and an amazing place in which to get married.

This is Spring in our Back Garden.  It was a few years ago as the glass-topped table you see in the foreground has since shattered into 8 billion pieces and the lovely “kissing chair” right behind it has faded to a weathered grey.  We have lost the odd bush & tree but for the most part, it’s the same.  Oh, add in a sandbox!  The tree on the right middle flowers in the Spring with fluffly pink blossoms and then rains down into the garden.  Our garden is our haven.  It’s secure and private and one of our favourite places to be.  My non-English friends think it’s our “secret garden”…I tend to agree!

This is a sculpture called “Vertical Face 1″ at the Burghley House Sculpture Garden in Stamford, England.  Burghley House has always been a special place for us as it’s got acres of land to explore and walk through and a new Garden of Surprises (with amazing water features which Little Miss adores) as well as the Sculpture Garden.  This sculpture is AMAZING and Giant…most people can only reach up as high as its nostrils which always makes for a good picture as well.  Everyone who comes to visit us is dragged along on a visit to Burghley House.  I never hear any complaints, however.  Come along too if you like!

I hope this gives you a “snapshot” of my neck of the woods…I’ve so enjoyed trawling through my archives to bring it to you.  Don’t miss my next Gallery post for this week (that’s right…there will be two) coming to a blog near you…  Don’t forget to visit Tara’s Sticky Fingers every Wednesday to see all of the Gallery submissions and on Fridays for the Gallery theme announcement.