Thursday 27 September 2012

Floodland

So I've been meaning to share some pics from our  trip to the Welsh valleys.  Not quite a month but what seems like a lifetime ago.  That was until I looked back and realised that I'd hardly taken any, apart from a few family snaps...

So here are some pictures of self proclaimed intellectual love god Andrew Eldritch instead

Source

He has been in my life since I was 12 years old and still slumbers rent free in my head from time to time

Anyhoo,

Oh, I took some pictures of the ice creams I had, obviously.


Lemon crunch and bubblegum & rhubarb crumble and lemon crunch (with bubblegum sauce)
 
Anyhoo,

 The only other photos I took were of Lake Vyrnwy.  A place we've often visited but I never ever tire of.

Found here
 
Isn't it magnificent?   On the surface, a picture of natural beauty.  In fact, Lake Vyrnwy is a Victorian reservoir. 



The huge stone aqueduct was constructed between 1881 and 1888 at the behest of Liverpool Corporation for the purpose of supplying the rapidly expanding city of Liverpool with fresh water.

During those years the people of the nearby village of Llanwddyn went about their daily activities.

  

They were eventually rehoused in a new purpose built settlement lower down the valley.

By November 1889 the village of Llanwddyn, its two chapels, three inns, ten farmhouses, and thirty-seven houses were all lost forever under the water. 

Source

This under water image is thought to be the remains of Llanwddyn

Apparently the remains of the dead were exhumed from the churchyard and re-interred in a new cemetery above water level

I'm told that several buildings of the old village are visible when the reservoir is low.   I have personally never seen this but Mr N has.  I hope to see the drowned village for myself one day.


I love the gothic style of the straining tower.   Worthy of many towered Camelot

Source


It was a sunny day when we visited, which was nice and perfect for ice cream.  However, I always prefer Vyrnwy later in the year when it is overcast, there are fewer visitors and there is a mist on the water.  There is something about being in the vicinity of a drowned community that is endlessly fascinating.  The stillness of the water and the eerieness of the area make my hair stand on end!

If you ever get the chance, it is definitely worth a visit.

I've just realised that my post title might be making some people in the UK recoil a little.  My apologies.  For once I am not using this blog as a platform to bemoan the weather.

Here you go

Enjoy
  



Lucy x

Thursday 20 September 2012

While we're waiting for the next one to arrive...

... and while I ponder how many Sisters of Mercy lyrics I can sneak into post titles, take a look at some outfits I've been liking lately


I discovered this blog quite by accident.  It's not updated anymore.   The talented lady behind it now blogs here.  She is a girl after my own heart to be sure.   These outfits make me want to watch Tim Burton films and skip around the woods dressed as Stevie Nicks.  But not at the same time.




 Some impressive vintage.  I want every single one of these bags!

Man, I love her hair!   I also love the clashing colours and prints.  I need those heart print tights!


Some Girls Wander

Emily describes her style as "fashion as seen through the bottom of Alice's "drink me" bottle".  Unfortunately she doesn't blog her outfits anymore, which is a shame.  She is one of my favourite bloggers from my lurker days.   Also, her blog title is a reference to either Leonard Cohen or The Sisters of Mercy.  Either of which is fine by me.
Autumn is upon us - yay!  The season where I feel most like me.  I thought I'd celebrate by making a few iccl changes to the old homestead.  A few simplifications if you will, in keeping with the changing of the seasons.   Hope you like them

Lucy x

Sunday 16 September 2012

Shaken Not Stirred

I thought I'd share some photos of me enjoying a vodka Martini after a particularly long day last week...


 



Mr N mixed me one as only he can




I was trying to be all 'Mad Men' in  my new-old dress, bought recently at a vintage shop in Leominster. The collar is an Ebay purchase 


  I bet Joan never looks like this though




I kept telling Mr N off for referring to our fabulous bar area as a "cabinet".  How dare he?! It's a bar dammit!  I haven't spent all this time pimping it up retro style for nowt 







All I need now is some soda siphons and a pineapple ice bucket.  I'm on the lookout

Anyone fancy a G&T?

Lucy x

Wednesday 12 September 2012

There is a Light That Never Goes Out

The light is the eternal flame of the Hillsborough Memorial at Anfield stadium, Liverpool.    It commemorates the loss of 96 lives in the worst peace-time disaster ever to affect this country.

Today has been a momentous day and I couldn’t let it pass without writing something about it

I cannot claim any great interest in football.  In fact I have spent my entire life trying to avoid it.  I can’t name any players, I don’t know the rules, I find it ultimately boring.  But I have grown up in a city that eats, sleeps and breathes it.   I was 8 years old when the Hillsborough disaster occurred.  I can remember the endless news reports and the front pages of the newspapers showing the anguished crowds crushed up against the bars gasping for breath.  I can remember my mum always trying to shield me from the horror of it and complaining that the images were far too graphic and gruesome for children’s eyes.  I can remember counsellors coming in to my school to talk to relatives of the victims.

Justice for the 96 has been emblazoned onto the city’s consciousness for the past 23 years.  You couldn’t go very long without hearing further theories emerge, new reports come to light or seeing TV dramatisations and documentaries.   Even my 5 year old daughter, who has become interested in the sport due to the intervention of ardent LFC supporting family members, often asks about “the 96 people who lost their lives”.

Many people over the years have suggested that perhaps the victim’s families should move on.  Accusations of “professional mourning” and group sentimentality have been glibly made to diminish the credibility of the grieving families.  Did I ever subscribe to this?  Perhaps.  It's been hard for many observers to not be affected by the narrative that so many elements of the media have spun out regarding the city.

Today, the devastation, loss, and perpetually unfulfilled yearning of the bereaved family members has been validated.  Today, for the first time, I have seen why these people have never given up their fight for justice.  Today, for the first time I cried my eyes out over the scale of this unspeakable tragedy.  An injustice which carries the rare ability to shock in a time when we’re all virtually unshockable. 

I am not a statistics person.  I tend to glaze over facts and figures. But, the statistics revealed in today’s report are impossible to ignore:-

Of 164 police statements altered, 116 were significantly altered to explicitly remove references to blame on the part of the South Yorkshire Police.

Senior police officers, with the knowledge and approval of the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, immediately began a concerted cover-up by briefing the media that the whole thing was the responsibility of drunken, ticketless fans that were violently rampaging through the streets. 

In the days following the tragedy Police Officers illegitimately ran criminal records checks on the victims in order to find further information to leak to the press to turn public opinion further against the fans

Blood alcohol tests were ordered to be carried out on all of the dead, including children, to further build the web of lies.

Most damningly of all, 41 people could now be alive if the South Yorkshire emergency services hadn’t decided that football fans were not worth their best efforts.  

Nothing I or anyone could ever say could begin to carry sufficient meaning or poignancy to begin to ease the pain of the relatives of the 96. I can only hope that peaceful rest and diminishing of pain and grief can start for the victims and their families.  The light that never goes out should ever serve as a reminder of the courage and bravery of those who keep fighting when the fight is all but lost,  and the need for openness and transparency from those who are appointed to protect and to serve us, any of us, who might just find ourselves fatefully in the wrong place at the wrong time.   
  
Lucy x

Friday 7 September 2012

Back to School Blues and Shiny New Shoes

So here is what I wore today.


Dress from the charity shop and opaque tights.

A touch of the 90's non?



Do you ever get weeks where you just feel completely 'meh'?  A bit like you're fading into blandness.  I'm definitely having one of those weeks.  Even my freshly dyed hair just didn't do the trick today.  My hair is rapidly developing a two-tone look thanks to my ever growing roots and the frizziness of the bottom half.  Not tousled or sexy messy just frizzy.


See?

Grrr!

Maybe it's the first week settling back into routine.  I am the type of person who takes forever to adjust to new situations and becomes rather fretful in the process

Anyhoo, I sucked it up, put a whole face of make up one and just knuckled down.  One thing that certainly helped me cheer me up are my new shoes.  Do you like them?  I found them here


 They were kindly sent to me by the good folk at French Connection a brand, I must admit, that I have not traditionally bought but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by their Autumn/Winter collection.  They have some great knitwear.  I especially love the 'Atticus' jumper. 

I opted for the shoes as I wasn't entirely convinced that the jumper or any of the pretty dresses would accommodate my curves!  However, I don't have curvy feet, more like Sideshow Bob feet, but these shoes accommodate them perfectly and should give me many hours of wearing pleasure! 


Yup, I'm pretty pleased with them.  They're sturdy, they're comfy.  In fact, I'd so  far as to say I fcuking love them! (you saw that coming right?)

I'm got such a thing for school style shoes lately.  One of the reasons I was drawn to these is that they remind me of the first pair of shoes my mum bought me for secondary school.  My 11 year old self desperately wanted a pair of sturdy air cushioned soled boots more than anything in the world but my my mum was dead set against buying me them.  No matter how much I tried to persuade her that they were good value for money and would last me ages and I would wear them to death and love her forever, her response was always along the lines of (imagine faux posh scouse accent):-

"You're not 'avin those big 'orrible bovver boots".  

However she did compromise by buying me a pair of sturdy looking lace up shoes from the Army & Navy Stores (remember them?) which bear more than a passing resemblance to my new beauties.  I got a few snide comments about them from girls at school but now I feel totally vindicated!  I'm actually in fashion, several years late but I'll take it.



I have absolutely no idea why these photos came out blue tinged, spooky eh.  But I realised that it actually fitted the whole 90's theme.  I seem to recall a lot of bands going for the moody violet tinged publicity shot.
So although uninspired and glum, my lovely new shoes and 90's nostalgia made my 'back to reality' blues that bit more bearable. 



Lucy x

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Take me for a walk

Hello there, it's been a busy few weeks, we've done a bit of travelling around the country, visiting family etc and now the Nations are back and life goes on.  It's Miss 5's first day back at school today and she's actually quite looking forward to it.  I on the other hand have had butterflies in my stomach for about a week.  What is with that?  Do any other mother's out there get inexplicably nervous at this time of year no matter how hard you try not to and no matter how right as rain your kids are?!  Trick is not to transfer the crazy to the offspring.  Phew, breathe, smile, have another glass!

 A couple of weekends ago, what seems like an age ago now, we went to stay in my sister's for a few days.  Where she lives is surrounded by quiet unspoiled countryside with winding country roads and overgrown public footpaths.  Mr N and I decided to make the most of the fading evening light and go for a walk

 

 This church was at a remote part of the roadside.  We spent ages just walking around, reading the gravestones and generally exploring...

...and taking many many pictures


I can't resist a gothic old church.  I swanned around pretending I was in an Edgar Allan Poe poem


I couldn't resist posing by the lilacs (buddleia if you will - thanks Curtise!)



The dress is vintage Eastex (British frumpy old lady brand).  I got it on Ebay for a song

 
 
Well, it's good to be back.  Oh normality - how is it I hate you and grudgingly respect you at the same time?!


So, how are we all?

I'll be round to catch up in short order

Lucy x
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