and ice cream castles in the air

well it can only be Joni to listen to with this one - click below and chill out

these shots were taken last week in West Kirby walking around the marine lake.  Feels like walking on water along the little path with the lake on one side and the River Dee on the other.
Hilbre Island and Little Eye in the estuary.
The Welsh hills and the Irish Sea in the distance.
You can see Great Orme if you squint.
The tide was out.

and suddenly the sun started to sink and these amazing clouds appeared from nowhere

and as we walked further round the path they started to look like a child's painting folded in half to make a butterfly's wing - so stunning

I know - too many came the cry - but it was just so incredible standing there with the light and patterns changing so quickly.

These are the very railings I've taken sunset pictures from for all of my life - trying to catch that certain rosy glow over Hilbre.

  

Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

from Both Sides Now by Joni Michell, from Clouds, 1969

it's all in the presentation

Made by a friend this week - the Olympic Stadium - cauldron 'n all.  Snapped before it got the wobbles!!!

New Brighton cucumber salad - never seen the like before - amazing!!

up the garden path

peeking out of the back porch window

(and remember, the other day, this was the state of our garden - click here to read)

looks like the fairies at the bottom of our garden have been at work battling with the tangle.

So, creeping around the weeping willow - with a little bit of low evening sun peeping through it's branches

 lo and behold - the way is now clear

and venturing right to the end

I turn and see one of those lovely flowers that pop up every year, probably weeds, no idea what they're called, but I love them (answers in the comments box if you know)

and next there's the lovely hydranga

and it strikes me I love this wildness the summer rains have brought this year

oh to be in England

Can't believe what an Olympics convert I've become in the last two weeks

Watched the torch pass through Sheffield

Sat glued for 6 hours watching Danny Boyle's magnificent Opening Ceremony - it was just like a magical wonderous blog of all he loved about the British Isles - and so much felt real to Sheffield for a change, as we usually don't even make the BBC nightly weather map!  The steel industry, that wonderful cover of Come Together by the Artic Monkeys, the whole Industrial Revolution explosion and of course, the dear old National Health Service.

Found another Jess at Jess Ennis's post box  -  which even has it's own little Twitter account - Tweet here

and will definately be there when she's welcomed back to Sheffield this Friday - more here.

And hasn't London looked every bit the magnificent city she is - I hadn't realised the games would be all over the city as well as the Olympic Village and the atmosphere looked and sounded just amazing.

Loved tales of other Olympic cynics experiencing a similar conversion:

Click here for Simon Hoggart's admisisons in the Guardian on Saturday.

and Charlie Brooker's interesting experience watching the dreadful NBC coverage in America

and of course loved the excitment of the races and events themselves on our little telly, especially when we were surrounded by cheering friends on both Saturday nights!

And some of our lucky family even got to be there

The closing ceremony was a brill night of quirky fun too - with its great rendition of "Always look on the Bright Side of Life"!  And we must!

Go Sheffield with your brilliant Jess Ennis medal, Go Britain, Go World . . . pass the torch on!

Oh well

A tour round our garden today was more of an oh dear!

Just loved re-discovering the wheelbarrow

Enjoy this Fleetwood Mac track to accompany you round our city jungle, caused by weeks of holidaying and a British summer

here we go:

and this is one end of the (now very) secret path

and this is t'other (what path? you ask!)

Oh well, at least we can boast loads of buzzy bees and pretty flutterbys and wild poppies and lovely swaying grasses

and there'll be a bumper crop of berries from these wild branches

even though I got stung by a nasty nettle taking that berry shot!

but it's home sweet home!

Might even update this garden theme once we've conquered nature's weeds !!  Keep reading

Looking up

 . . . to the wonderful ceilings of Burgos Cathedral

and down to the amazing ancient floors

and those magnificent mighty pillars

and paintings and carvings

and cloisters

and El Cid's treasure chest, no less!!!!

I am no expert, but it seemed that every architectural possibility was crammed into this wonderful building and all set off against the beautiful white stone.  The attention to detail and the craftmanship was staggering - a well deserved Unesco World Heritage status.

And look at this lovely saint - I think he was someone important but for the life of me can't rememeber his name

So this was just 'morning one' of our adventure - the morning when we thought we'd get nothing much achieved as we were arriving in Burgos in the early hours and it was a Sunday - how wrong we were!

Next I'll be writing about our arrival at Santiago de Compostela, picking up our car and driving off to Muxia and our amazing time exploring the Galician coastline.  Click here to read on!!

(This is part of our Spain by train holiday in July - you can read about the itinery here)