The Weekend Whim 8 - Home Tourist

Yesterday well and truly felt like the first day of Spring. It sounds like such a cliche, but the bright sunshine and warmer weather really does blow away the cobwebs, and gets my feet itching to get outside and do something new. As much as I'd like to get away to some new horizons, sometimes commitments mean that I can't dedicate a whole day to schlepping around discovering new things. So instead, yesterday I put on my comfiest shoes, slung a camera around my neck, and became a tourist of my own home town. Someone even remarked to me that all I needed was an American accent, and I'd have the tourist thing down to a tee! So, here's what I got up to.

First up, I attended 'Spring Lamb Day' at a local chapel, which, whilst sounding like a cooking event, was actually an open day about all things yarn based. Seeing what talented people can do with just some plain wool certainly made me feel rather inadequate! Weaving, spinning, using a loom, and dying - everything was covered, but what excited me the most was speaking to a very creative lady knitting socks. It's been something that I've been meaning to try for a while now, and typically of me, now that the weather's getting warmer I'm going to give it try. What can I say? I'm just a very unseasonal knitter. I also had a slice of delicious banana cake, but it goes without saying that where there is cake, I'm sure to be there.

After heading to work for a few hours, I went to see an installation at the local library. Requiem is a piece made to mark the 100 year anniversary of World War 1, and is striking in both its size and detail (the soldiers are life size!). You can find out more about it, and the rest of the Grace Westwood's work here.

I finished up with a little retail therapy, and decided to change it up a little on my walk home. I took a longer route, which was lovely in the warm weather, and went past some of my favourite architecture in Oswestry. These are the gates to Brogyntyn Hall, an old mansion which has probably seen better days, but is still beautiful in its decayed state. I've actually never seen the Hall, due to it being on private land, but the gateway is the closest you can get. It's the kind of backdrop which, if I was a fashion blogger, I would use all the time.

Hope you're all having a great weekend so far!