Look Up ... Look Down

This weeks Friday My Town Shoot Out was chosen by Sarah Lulu and is "Look Up..Look Down" - Sarah is no longer part of the group but it was considered such a good topic, it was adopted!

If you look down to the stones before my front door, you will see a selection of stones which I have painted and varnished. I have put uplifting words and phrases on there along with a clump of stones of people who have/are fighting cancer. The idea behind this is so that when I cross my threshold each day, my thoughts are focused on positive words and my thoughts are also directed at those special people.

Looking up at the trees in the orchard of Erddig Hall and you can see clumps of mistletoe growing in them - it is so pretty! I look forward to each winter just so that I can indulge myself.

If I look down when I am at mums house there is usually a dog to be seen! In this case it is Al, a 15 year old border terrier. Bless him, he is deaf and blind and spends alot of his time looking down too.

Great shoot out - have a great weekend everyone! I am off to Prestatyn to the Gathering 2010!

Sounds!

I have created a new Blog for my Friday Shoot Out to keep it separate from my regular blog "Cancer Ain't Gonna Beat Me (and it didn't)" - please check out this blog at www.canceraintgonnabeatme.blogspot.com

The assignment this week is "Sounds" - this got me thinking and I had lots of ideas but I have been suffering terribly with chemo brain this week and have left the house each day without my camera. However, after school one day this week I took a walk around the block and took some photos.

The picture above is my son Harry with his bike on my front garden. We live in a small cul-de-sac and it is open plan. We replaced the grass with stones because we always seemed to be the neighbours cutting the lawn and decided that this would be less maintenance. The only down side to the stones is the fact that they are noisy and with kids, postmen, papermen etc walking over them, the crunch, crunch, crunch can always be heard! Mind you, it is a good alarm call for visitors!

My son Harry and my neighbours daughter. The sound of children is always in the air even in the winter and its nice to hear. During the summer they make lots of noise with water fights, tag games.... the sound of children has kept me going through last year.

The main Chester Road runs at the top of our lane and you can always hear the sound of cars. The cars tend to enter Darland Lane at a silly speed, taking the corner and ending up in the middle of the road. One day there will be an accident!

Cars coming from the other direction of Darland Lane. Pretty soon there are going to be speed bumps in place to slow the traffic down.

My son is the noisiest person in the village!

My dogs are the noisiest dogs in the village! Pickles and Wilbur! I knew that Miniature Schnauzers were "vocal" but these two are just ......... too much! Pickles constantly dances around the room, talking to you, asking for endless cups of tea!

Mostly I hear birds in my village...... Robins, Wood Pigeons, Blackbirds, Crows and even Owls if you dare venture to the woods at night! My mum keeps hens.... ex battery hens, these hens belong to the Teece Equestrian Centre. They are quite noisy creatures. The cockeral is called Rocky and he has the most amazing colours - he is so handsome!