ON THE TILES !

I often think that roofs are more interesting than the houses themselves! Especially in shopping streets, where the fascias are usually just boring plate glass and uniform fronts, but the upper stories and the roofs tell a more interesting story!




This house, which is opposite our Library, was once a highly important one! I don't know who lived there, or what it was used for, but it made an imposing entrance to the town. It is now used for offices.




This imposing building faces directly onto the Market Place. When we first came here it was a big jewellers, but is now Cafe Nero.




But whoever built it was proud enough to put the date at the top!




Chestergate was once a busy shopping street, of little independent shops, and there are photographs of it with blinds down on every window and horses and carts in the street. It is now pedestrianised and although there are quite a few independent shops still there, big branches of Building Societies and Rymans the Stationers have made it look rather bland.




Church Street leads from the Parish Church in the Market Place down a very steep hill to the valley below, where the River Bollin runs, plus the railway, and where the Station is now.




Also in the Market Place is a house built with Dutch Gables. This is looking at the house and the Sunday Market from the Churchyard.




In the next County, Stafforshire, Leek is a lovely market town, with lots of old buildings still in use. This is the Butter Market, complete with clock tower. Inside there is still a market, still selling cheese, but also a lot of other things too.




This is the Market Place at Leek - the roofs are still interesting, but the frontages are now bland shops!




All these roofs at Loosely Hall in Surrey, show where bits have been added on over the years.




And lastly, in Norway, the houses in Tromso, well north of the Arctic Circle, are all different colours, and make an interesting picture. In the winter it must present a completely different scene - I would love to go there then, and maybe see the Northern Lights.

Wouldn't be much good at skiing, or sliding down the slopes!!

SUNNY DAYS

As it is cold, grey and raining hard today, I thought I would post some photos of holidays when the sun was always shining!



This is my Mother, sister and me, on a beach in East Anglia, in 1949! We all wore bathing hats then, and swimming costumes tended to be navy blue and robust!




This one must be about the same sort of time, but it is at Cromer, in Norfolk. Holidaymakers then had to return to their Boarding Houses for lunch, so there was a huge exodus from the beach round about 12.30. Cromer has fairly high cliffs, so there was a long trudge up a sloping path to the top. You can see the old fashioned dresses, and prams. I don't know if it will enlarge if you click it.




This is Cromer again, only in February, about 10 or so years ago. There was a lovely pier with a theatre at the end, where typical seaside shows were put on.




Up to the more or less present, Moel-y-don, on Anglesey, Wales, overlooking the Menai Straits.




One of my favourite places - Humphrey Head, on the Lake District side of Moreover Bay.




Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands belonging to Spain. Lovely place, warm and friendly




And lastly, Rudyard Lake, near Leek, in Staffordshire. Not very far from us, and we really must go again when Spring comes. There are lovely walks along the lake, in the woods, boats to watch and a cafe that does gorgeous bacon baps!