An interesting journey and a new acquisition ..............

On Saturday we took time out to drive to Norwich, which is an approximately one and a half drive from our home.  The weather has been threatening and after heavy downpours for several days,  the morning dawned bright and clear and we headed off on a trip which turned into something rather interesting and a little bit of a nightmare.

We arrived at our destination without any problem and after completing our purchase (more about that later) decided to take the opportunity to visit the city.  I usually do a little internet research before visiting a new place but with my present workload did not really have time.  We found our way into the city easily enough,  parked within reasonable walking distance (the husband had forgotten his walking stick!) and set off to see the sights.  Fortunately I did remember my camera so a few pictures to share.

This amazing angel on top of a war memorial was our first discovery.

 

a face on one of the many walls,  no idea who he is or the reason why he is there?

We made our way to the castle which is accessed by an old stone wall with a series of plaques.  This one caught my attention due perhaps to my Welsh heritage.  I just loved the dragon.

We decided that a visit to the castle and cathedral would have to wait for another time.   The castle is actually rather an ordinary structure,  certainly nothing fairy tale about it and not easy to photograph from the outside.  This old bridge is made from flint stone as are many of the buildings and walls in this part of the city.

To satisfy my fascination with churches we stopped to explore the Church of St Peter Mancroft.  The Norman foundations date from 1075 but the Church as it now stands was rebuilt in 1430.

 

This picture was downloaded from a website entitled http://stpetermancroft.org.uk/home/history/.

On the site I found this rather inspirational quote from Simon Jenkins who wrote a book entitled 'England’s Thousand Best Churches':

“Few who enter St Peter’s for the first time can stifle a gasp. The sense of space and light is overwhelming. To those who find Perpendicular bland or lacking in shadow or mystery, Norwich answers with a blaze of daylight, as if the sky itself had been invited to pray.” 

Perhaps this explains my fascination with Churches, that awesome feeling when entering these magnificent structures which have seen the footfall of many generations.

I did not take many pictures inside the Church but Megan can just be seen sitting gazing at the magnificent wooden roof which has angels on the end of each beam.

After visiting the Church we strolled through the arcade in this amazing Art Deco building to reach the market.

and the purpose of our visit......    Megan has long wanted a Singer Featherweight sewing machine and found this neat little one on e-bay.  In perfect condition it might just need a service at some stage but otherwise an excellent find at a good price.  I still want to acquire one of those old black Singer hand sewing machines.  Have fond memories of learning to sew on my older sister's machine which she never actually used.

Our journey home was not too pleasant,  Seems like everyone goes shopping on Saturday and the queues to the many shopping mall parking areas caused most of the problem.  It took almost an hour to get out of the city,  even driving in the centre of London is not so much of a nightmare as Norwich city.   The wonderful Garmin kept sending us around in circles and eventually I just followed road signs pointing to the route we needed to get home.

 Then we drove into a major deluge on the way home. Rather unpleasant as I could not see where I was going and the roads were awash. As the tour de France is next weekend we had cyclists on a three lane motorway (find this most annoying) hardly visible and rather disconcerting. Discovered later that Norfolk had experienced a monsoon rain storm!!!

The road from Cambridge to Norwich is undergoing a major upgrade. This 30m high war memorial sits rather forlornly right next to the motorway with no access to view.  Apparently it was sited here to commemorate those who served and died during World War I from the three villages of Elveden, Eriswell and Icklingham and is located here where the boundaries of the three parishes meet.

My bears for the forthcoming on line show are progressing slowly.  I am planning a different pincushion bear for the show and this is the first and most basic part,  a biscornu with a very pretty crochet snowflake which took much patience as the pattern is not very clear.  Not too happy with the white stitching which I think will have to be changed.   Biscornus are usually stitched on even weave fabric,  my idea to make them out of velvet means lots of painful backstitching by hand and I really should get the sewing machine out,  maybe next time. Still lots of work to do but slowly getting there.