Shropshire – Page 6 – TRAVEL WORDS

Happy Easter…

Walking around Ludlow before Easter you can’t help noticing all the sheep and fluffy chicks and eggs adorning the window displays in the town.

The bookshop, sweetshop and even the coffee shop have a spring feeling

Milk churn

Hen

Rabbit

Coffe shop

Chicks and flowers

The florist is a bit steamed up…

Rabbits on the rampage

Hares in hiding

Ranunculas

Birds and eggs

Spring colours

Emporos always puts on a good display, no matter what the theme. It’s actually a GOOD thing that my grandchildren live so far away or I’d spend a fortune in this shop. I mean, can you resist that velvet rabbit?

Lambs a leaping…

A velvet rabbit

Chicks a cheaping…

Hares a hopping…

And spring flowers in tubs add colour to the charm of the town

…even artificial ones!

This monthly challenge is hosted by Dawn from ‘The Day After’ who invites participants to post pictures of any windows that they find curious, inviting, photogenic, or in some way tell a story. Visit her blog to see more windows and/or to join in with the challenge.

The Wrekin

The best-known landmark in Shropshire is the Wrekin, at only 1,335 feet it has attracted a lot of attention given its modest size. Those of you who have passed Shrewsbury on the M54 heading to mid-Wales will have noticed this volcanic-looking lump by the side of the road and from the Cressage side (south of Shrewsbury) which is my usual approach these days, it looks like a sleeping dragon with the tree-line resembling scales along its backbone. From the top you can supposedly see 15 counties.

wrekin 032 — The pink cooling towers at Buildwas in the Severn Gorge

Whenever I drove around Shrewsbury when I first came to the county in 2002 I used to say to the OH that I could never get lost if I could see the Wrekin – I just headed straight for it – so I was amused to find this saying “a Shropshire mon is nivver lost if he con see the Wrekin” Apparently I wasn’t the first to think of it though naturally being from Yorkshire I’d never pronounce it like THAT!

I remember my mother referring to a circuitous route as “going all around the houses”, here in Shropshire it is “going all around the Wrekin”.

There, somewhere, nor-nor-east from me
Was Shropshire, where I longed to be
Ercall and Mynd, Severn and Wrekin, you and me

~ John Masefield on the heaving deck of a ship in Cardigan Bay Continue reading The Wrekin

Take a Walk in the Park Day

Apparently this is on 30 March, so make sure you get outdoors on Monday 🙂

Attingham Park is a popular place to visit as it is very close to Shrewsbury. Famous for snowdrops and the deer park, we popped in for for a brisk walk in the early spring sun a couple of weeks ago.

Through the stable yard

Carpet of snowdrops

Snowdrops in silk

First stop, the walled garden. Work-in-progress as they have only recently begun to renovate this area. The aim is to re-create a productive kitchen garden with organic fruit and vegetables. It is a lovely sheltered spot to sit and bask in the sun.

The dipping pond

Bee House

Back out onto the woodland path which in May is filled with bluebells. And then into the deer park. Continue reading Take a Walk in the Park Day

The Stiperstones

The word Stiperstones comes from “stripped-stone” an effect caused during the last Ice-Age, a geological abnormality that is unique to Britain.” ~ Michael Raven

(Y Carneddau Tuon – The Dark Rocks)

The Stiperstones is a wild ridge of Quartzite tors surrounded by a sea of heather located south-west of the county town of Shrewsbury and offers panoramic views of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. But the mystery and fear generated by the serrated skyline led to some sinister associations in the past.

Shropshire has more than its fair share of giants. There is a Giant’s Chair on Titterstone Clee, but the feature with the same name found on the Stiperstones has become known as the Devil’s Chair.

The story is that the devil came over from Ireland with a leather apron full of stones either to block the Hell Gutter, a ravine on the side of the hill, or to dam the River Severn. He sat down to rest on what became the Devil’s Chair and when he got up his apron strings broke and the great stones were scattered all around.

Whenever he can, the devil flops into the chair so that his weight can help push down the Stiperstones since he believes that if they sink into the earth, England, a country he hates, will perish. If anyone else dares to sit in his chair a thunderstorm will immediately erupt.

Mary Webb (author 1881-1927) wrote in her book ‘The Golden Arrow’

Nothing ever altered its look. …it remained inviolable, taciturn, evil. It glowered darkly in the dawn, it came through the snow like jagged bones through flesh…

source: The Folklore of Shropshire by Roy Plamer, printed by Logaston Press

BTW Google spell-check wants to replace Stiperstones with superstitions – how spooky is that?

Benthall Hall

Situated on a plateau above the gorge of the River Severn, this fine stone house has mullioned and transomed windows, a stunning interior with carved oak staircase and decorated plaster ceilings and oak panelling. National Trust

Tall Chimneys

Pentagonal Bay Windows

Front

Decorative Carvings

It is always a good idea to look up at windows, you never know what you might see. Like the carved figure heads and hands.

DSCF4062 — The side view – from the beautiful terraced garden

And an interesting Dovecote with a window

There is also a little Restoration church

DSCF3987 — Restoration Church which includes an apiary

This monthly challenge is hosted by Dawn from ‘The Day After’ who invites participants to post pictures of any windows that they find curious, inviting, photogenic, or in some way tell a story. Visit her blog to see more windows and/or to join in with the challenge.