Quality time

I'm so thankful for this lovely summer weather. Today I had a girls' day out with my mother and daughter. We went to Ironbridge, a place I've fancied visiting for a while. Visiting places I've never been to before is not an easy thing for me as I have the "Grant sense of direction" which I inherited from my father and share with my brothers and definitely my daughter if not my son as well. It prevents me from having any clue where I am and what direction I need to go in to get wherever I want to go. Most of the time I rely on the trusty AA route planner and it's then only when I try to follow the directions backwards to get back home that I come unstuck. Today for instance, how am I supposed to know whether I want the M54 east or west? I manged it with no wrong turns somehow.

I rather liked Ironbridge. I particularly loved the purpleness of these houses. I would paint our house lilac and purple if only Peter would let me.
The highlight of our day was Blists Hill, the Victorian village. I always used to love visiting Lark Hill Place when I was little and this was like that on a bigger scale, with real people instead of dummies. The print shop was particularly amusing. Annabel didn't want to be pickled or bottled!

We arrived in time for the first lesson of the day in the Victorian school house. Annabel was reprimanded for having painted nails. "Goodness knows what profession you'll end up in!" the schoolmaster scolded. It was great fun. The lesson ended with a prayer and it made me really sad to think how quickly prayers and hymn singing have vanished from our schools. We always used to pray in assembly and at the end of the day. I was heartened to hear that they still pray in some of Anni's assemblies though.

Then we explored the shops. Anni rather liked the bakery where she bought a currant bun.

Afterwards we visited a lovely tea room in Ironbridge where they sold Anni's favourite Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We sat in the courtyard and drank in the sun. It was lovely for us to be out and about with Mum and you can see from this photograph how much she enjoyed herself.