Autumn, Moons, A Road Trip, and A Wedding!

The 28th September marked the night that the event of the "blood moon" took place in the skies over the UK, Europe, North and South America, West Asia and parts of Africa. It also so happened to mark the first day of my week off, so being that the weather forecast for such an event was good for a change I decided to get up in the early hours to see it take place. I have to say that it was a pretty spectacular event if not a little eerie, and below you can see a montage of the pics that I took at various points of the eclipse.

The first image is of the Blue Moon that we had back in August, the second shows the yellow moon at the beginning of the blood moon eclipse, and you can see against the first image how much brighter it was that a usual blue/full moon. This image was taken at 12:22am. The third image shows the partial eclipse during the blood moon and was taken at 2:43am. Then finally you can see the full eclipse and "blood moon" that was taken at 3:22am.  

It was odd watching an event like that and quite humbling as it just makes you realize how small our planet is in relation to space, how little we have discovered about it, and how powerless we are when it comes to space, nature, and the elements, and how lucky we are to have it.

Since then I have been taking notice of the moon quite a lot. I took the picture below when the moon was out during the day on a lovely Autumnal morning. 

    

Apart from taking notice of the moon half of the rest of my week consisted of decorating our hallway, which after stripping walls, sanding them, and having a bit of a meltdown in the middle of it due to the paint not wanting to stick to the walls, ended up taking much longer than I intended! So three days later, three coats of paint later, and with a bit of help from my mum that came to rescue me it is now finished and looks a lot better minus padded wallpaper! I would put up a pic, but since we have painted it a vanilla colour very similar to what it was before the difference doesn't show up very well without seeing it in the flesh.

Also within my week off fell my hubby's birthday which we celebrated by going out for lunch with his mum and step-dad, which was lovely as we don't get to see them all that often.

The weather was also glorious all week and has mainly been so for the few weeks since. We have had a bit of an Indian summer with very little rain, but you can tell that autumn is definitely here with the colder days, changing of the leaves, nights drawing in, and acorns and conkers falling all over.

The good weather has meant that we have been having some lovely sunsets and gorgeous skies recently, below you can see a beautiful rainbow that I caught sight of as I was walking back from work the other day. It caught me by surprise a little as the sun was beginning to set and the sky was all sorts of different colours, but it wasn't actually raining.  

I have also caught some pics of the stunning sunsets and pretty skies, once again on walks home from work over the past week or so as you can see below.

As well as capturing the colours autumn within the fallen leaves,

and those still on the trees

The last of the autumn berries, and other winter ones coming through 

The squirrels have also been everywhere lately and have been very actively searching for nuts and burying them. A sure sign that Autumn is here and that winter is on its way! I caught this little guy below outside out front window doing just that.

 

We also seem to have recently acquired a resident owl that seems to be living in the trees surrounding our property and along the nearby river. We were quite surprised when we first heard it cheeping, thinking that it was unusual sounding bird and wondered what it was. Then it let out it's distinctive twit-woo sound which is when we realized that it was definitely an owl! Like I say we were quite surprised as we had never heard a wild owl before, plus we pretty much live in the middle of town. Unfortunately try as I might I have never been able to catch a glimpse of it, but I am pretty sure that it is a Barn Owl.  

Finally I want to mention the lovely wedding reception that my hubby and family attended last weekend. It was the last of six weddings for this year, and involved us taking a road trip up to Norfolk for the weekend.

The wedding was that of the daughter of a couple of my mum and dads college friends, one of whom is also my sisters godmother. It was lovely to go up there and see them all as I haven't been up to Norfolk since I was about six, and we hadn't seen them since our wedding nearly four years ago. It had been even longer since we had seen their son, as he couldn't attend our wedding due to work commitments. The last time I saw him he was about nine, and now he is a 21 year old grown man! It is just crazy how time flies! We used to see them about once a year when we were younger when we would go holidaying there, but being grown up now and over a three hour drive away we don't get to see each other as often as we would like. So there was lots of remenising and catching up to do! We also finally got to meet the Bride and Grooms beautiful daughter Evie-Rose, who after being born six weeks premature fifteen months ago has now thrived into a very happy, cheeky, and gorgeous little girl.

That night we stayed at the venue, which was held at a local golf club and traveled back on Sunday. We all had a fab time which went far to quickly as these things do! We were all knackered when we got back, but it was worth it. Below you can see a montage of images from the day.    

The wedding also gave me an excuse to try out a hairstyle that I have been wanting to give a go for a while now, which is a hair bow!

I had a kit to help me make it, but even then it was very fiddly to do! Below you can see my attempt! I don't think that it turned out too bad in the end, especially since I couldn't actually see what I was doing. It's not perfect, but I am hoping that I will get better at it with practice!

 

I hope that you have all had a good month, and that you all have a fab weekend! Thanks for visiting as always x

Weddings,Weddings, Weddings!

Three out of the last four weekends since I last blogged have involved us attending weddings, so I thought that I would give you a little rundown of these three beautiful days!

The first was held on the August bank holiday weekend and was the wedding of one of my oldest friends. We have grown up together and known each other all of our lives as our mum's were anti-natal friends, so it was rather a special wedding for me. The ceremony was held at the Bride's parish church, and was then followed by a reception at a beautiful 15th century manor house just down the road from the church. There were two best men one of which was another friend that had also grown up with the Groom and I since we were babies, and who's mum was also within the same anti-natal group of friends. It was also lovely to have my parents, groom's parents, and best man's parents all together as they are very rarely all together these days. I even found myself unexpectedly getting a little emotional over the best man's speech as he reminisced about our childhood and college days together. It truly was a lovely day and minus the odd spot of rain on the way to the reception, the weather just about held out for them so that they managed to get the outdoor photos that they so wanted.

Below you can see a selection on photos to give you a taste of the day!  

 

You can also see the his and hers wedding cakes that they had, as they couldn't decided or agree on just one! The groom has always loved Lego ever since he was a young child so his cake was very aptly themed in this way, complete with a Lego Bride and Groom with wedding scene as a topper. His shoe and handbag loving Bride also had a cake that was equally apt for her, which was very girly and was adorned with her favourite colours, bows, sparkles and frills.  

The second wedding that we attended took place on the Friday of the following week, and was the wedding of my hubby's Best Man. The ceremony took place in a little country parish church, and the reception was held just down the road in a stunning Neo-Gothic Victorian manor house which is now a hotel. You can see from the pictures below just how gorgeous the venue was, with its towering presence, grand windows, chandeliers, and views over the Surrey Hills. My hubby was also the Best Man on the day and did a sufficiently good job at embarrassing the Groom during the speeches! Once again the weather was overcast and threatening rain but the day brightened up as it went on, and they even had a little sunshine in the end. The day was then finished off with the cutting of three cakes, a live band with lots of dancing, a hog roast for the evening guests, and shots with sparklers in the grounds.   

The third and final wedding that we attended took place last Saturday and was that of my Mother-in-Law. Both the ceremony and reception took place at a lovely golf club in their hometown of South London, and having been married before over thirty years ago the Bride decided to wear red rather than a traditional white dress. It was a lovely day filled with over 150 family and friends, and was also a long time coming being that the Bride and Groom have been together for over fourteen years! The weather was beautiful all day, the speeches were also both hilarious and emotional and were given by one of two very nervous Best Men that the Groom had, by the Groom himself, the Bride, and the Brides Best friend. My Sister-in-Law was Maid of Honour, and my Hubby himself also walked down the aisle with our three little nephews as Page Boys, and who looked gorgeously cute in their little suits! Once again it was another amazing day filled with lots of love, laughter, and dancing, particularly from the Bride's mum who despite being in her eighties can certainly still move!       

Below you can again see a selection of images from the day!

So after three wedding filled weekends and having had a very busy time at work lately, the hubby and I are having a quite one this weekend, minus me working, as we are pretty knackered to say the least! So today will be spent chilling with a possible venture outside as it is gorgeous out there this morning, and hopefully there won't be any of the heavy downpours that we have been having between the sunshine lately! Autumn is on its way and there is a definite chill in the air in the morning, even though the days are still warm. I love this time of year though and am glad that the mugginess has now gone! 

I hope that you are all having a fab weekend too! Before I go I just wanted to share with you these beautiful roses that a customer at work gave me a few weeks back for re-uniting her with her lost phone! Working with the public in retail is not always the easiest of tasks, but it is lovely when you have nice customers that acknowledge the work that you do.

 

Also the beginning of this month marked not only my 3rd blogging birthday, but I reached the 100 like's landmark on my Bobby Bunny and Friends Facebook page! So I just want to say a massive thank you to all of you that come back to my little blog and read it post after post, that have bought a Bobby Bunny and Friends card, and for those of you that have liked and shared my page. Especially recently when I have not had the time to blog, post or illustrate much. It really does mean the world to me and your ongoing support spurs me on with my little business. Thanks again and have a good week! x 

A Wedding, A Birthday, Two Hen Nights and a BBQ!

So another six weeks or so have passed since my last post and another packed six weeks it has been!

Firstly back in mid July I had one of my oldest school friends Hen Nights, for which she went to a pottery painting class during the day and then went out for a meal and cocktails in town in the evening. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the day due to the fact that we have now hit out peak time at work with the schools now having broken up, so I was unable to get the time off for this as well as the wedding itself. I did however enjoy the part that I was able to attend, and especially the cocktails! Below you can see a particularly spectacular one that I had!

I wasn't quite expecting it to turn up alight though, and it continued to stay that way for about five minutes after!

The hen night was then followed by the beautiful wedding a few weeks later, which was held at a breath taking neo-gothic manor house that is now a hotel. The ceremony was a lovely intimate affair that was so romantic as well as being rather emotional, due to the fact that the Bride and her family had faced a massive family trauma just over a month before. But this just highlighted how close the couple are and how much they truly are made for each other.

The ceremony was then followed by drinks outside in the grounds which they were incredibly lucky that the weather held out for, being that it had literally chucked it down with torrential rain throughout the day before. This was then followed by the wedding breakfast which was set on one long table rather than lots of individual one's, with candle lit chandelier's that made it feel rather like we were in a scene from Downton Abbey! The wedding party was then joined by a number of other guests for the evening reception, where we danced the night away to numerous different songs including a number from our college days. All in all it was an amazing day that was enjoyed by everyone.

Below you can see some pictures of the wedding as well as those of the beautiful house and grounds:

The week after the wedding was my mum's birthday, which not only fell on a gloriously sunny day but also on my day off. So mum, dad, and myself decided to make the most of the weather by visiting Arundel for the day, which is a place that I haven't visited to for years! It is also very rare for us to go out together without my sister or hubby too, so it was good to spend some quality time together.

We started off the day by having a drink in a little café by the riverside, before going for a walk along the river in order to get to get to a lovely little pub/restaurant where we stopped for some lunch. The pub/restaurant was also situated along side the river and as it was such a nice day we were able to sit outside and watch the world go by, which was lovely minus all of the wasps that kept trying to invade us! (I swear that wasps have some kind of magnetic attraction to me at this time of the year!)

After lunch we walked back towards Arundel town and stopped along the way to go out on a little rowing boat on the lake. We left the rowing to dad whilst mum relaxed and I took photos of the many ducks! We then continued our trip into the town passing by Arundel castle. Once in the town we had a little mooch around the shops, bought some lovely fudge, ice-creams, and visited the Arundel Brewery shop, where I bought some local cider for my hubby before we returned home.

Below you can see some of the pics that I took on the day:

Top left and right: The view from the café that we stopped off at in the morning.

Bottom left and right: The view over the countryside on our river walk, and some ducks on the river.



A little Robin that I spotted on our walk and the river a little further inland

Top left and right: The view over the river from the pub/restaurant, and the view of Arundel Castle in the distance.

Bottom left and right: More views of the countryside on our walk, and of the river further inland. 

Some duck pics taken from our little rowing boat. We found the duck on the right rather scary looking with it's red eyes! 

 A couple of signets on the boating lake, as well as another duck! 

Top left: Another duck from the boating lake and top right: The now closed and abandoned trout farm

Bottom left: A closer view of Arundel Castel and bottom right: A couple of signets that we saw further up the river.

Another view of the castle and river  

A preening swan up river along with it's signets

A sleepy little signet, and a Moorhen with her baby



The day after mum's birthday I had another Hen Do! This time it was for my mother in law, and involved a girls night out drinking and dancing the night away in a reserved area of a pub in Croydon. Everyone was in good spirits, we all thourghly enjoyed ourselves, and the DJ was fab and played lots of old records on turn tables rather than laptops as they usually do these days!

The Stag Do for the same wedding also took place that night in London, which my hubby attended and also thourghly enjoyed. Whilst out he randomly bumped into Richard Winsor who play's Dr Cal in the BBC drama Casualty, and ended up having a chat and his photo taken with him! I have to say that I was rather envious of him as I rather like Dr Cal!

A couple of days after the Hen and Stag Do's we had a Blue Moon, which was the 2nd full moon that we have had in a month. During a blue moon the moon appears larger than usual, so after hearing about it I went out to take a look. Below you can see what I saw. I was quite impressed with this shot considering it was only taken on my bridge camera.

Whilst we are on the subject of space and stargazing, there were also meant to be a number of my meteor showers visable over the past week, but unfortunately and I were unable to see any due to there being too much light pollution or cloud cover which was a shame. It's typical since we have had so much nice weather lately, but over the last couple of days or so the weather has definately turned. We have had a lot of heavy downpours and muggy weather with a bit of thunder thrown into the mix, but that doesn't seemed to have got rid of much of the mugginess which I am not a fan of!

Below you can see a rainbow that I managed to catch on a walk home from work during one of these downpours.  

I hope that you are all well and that you had a fab weekend! I worked as usual during the day on Sat, then the hubby and I had a chilled one on Sunday as we were both pretty knackered after a family BBQ in Redhill on Sat night.

It was held a my hubby's step-father's brother house, who sadly passed away after a battle with cancer earlier in the year. He, his wife, and kids used to entertain a lot and would have massive garden party's every summer, but since he got ill this obviously hadn't happened. Due to this it was the first get together that they had had in years, and the first since he passed away. There was a lovely hog roast, and all of the neighbours were there too. Everyone enjoyed themselves and there was lots of fun and laughter. They were also incredibly lucky with the weather as we had torrential rain again once again throughout the previous day. Everyone was saying that it was Alan that had made the weather nice, and that he was looking down on us all.

Below is a pic of the gorgeous sunset that we had whilst at the BBQ. If you look closely in the distance you can see that the garden overlooks the Surrey Hills.     

 

Thanks again for bearing with what has been another long post, and for visiting. I am hoping to start blogging more frequently again in the near future, as well as picking up with my Bobby Bunny work very soon. The work on our new place is getting there now, and my craft room is taking shape! Have a good week! x 



Download Rundown & Days of Sunshine!

Hello everyone! I just thought that I would drop by and fill you in on the goings on around here over the last month or so, the most notable of which was the fact that I went off to Download Festival! 

For those of you that have been following my blog for a while now you may remember me blogging about this back in 2013, but for those of you that don't know Download Festival is the biggest rock festival in the UK, which is held annually at Donington Park race track in the East Midlands. It is always held for three days across the middle weekend of June and attracts some 80,000 per year, hosting some of the biggest names in rock over it's over 30 year history: Including acts such as; AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper to name but a few!

This year was my sixth time at Download, all of which I have attended consecutively minus last year when we opted to go to Readings Festival for a change. I have to say though that having been to Download for so many years, returning back this year was like going to a home away from home. I and I think that it will always be my festival no matter how many others I go to! I look forward to it every year that we go as we always have an amazing time, plus it is the only form of holiday that I get to go on.

However I did um and err over going this year partly due to the expense not long after buying our first home, but mainly because my best friend and her Fiancé were unable to come and I have never been without my partner in crime before!

We also normally have a number of other friends that come with us to as it's not really my hubby's thing, so there usually ends up being between 6-8 of us in total. However this year there were only two of the male friends that I normally go with that could attend. I worried that it wouldn't be the same without my best friend and with only a few of us going, but I was desperate to seeing one of the headlining acts MUSE, who are a band that I have loved since I was eighteen but have never seen live as they don't tour very often. Then even when they do tickets are very hard to come by!

So in the end I decided to go and I am so glad that I did, because I literally had the time of my life! Granted it took me a while to recover when I got back after five days of camping, (as we arrive on the Weds when the site opens,) partying, going to bed as the birds woke up, and surviving on a few hours sleep. Before we would then get up, go and see the bands and do it all again. But it was so worth it! I did miss not having my best friend there, but being that there were only a few of us it gave us the opportunity to make new friends, of which there were many! All of whom we are staying in contact with, and hoping to meet up with again and some point. This is despite the fact that we live at opposite ends of the country!

When we arrived on Weds 10th June the weather was lovely, which was lucky as we had to queue for 2 and a half hours to get into the site, which is something that we have never had to do before!

We thought that this may have been due to the fact that they were trialling "dog tags," which were basically little bits of plastic that were fitted onto your wristband that had chips inside them to enable you to pay contactless like you can with a card. I was a little sceptical about this to start with to say the least, especially since they were the first big UK festival to be using them! It meant that you could only pay for everything on site with your dog tag, which you pre-loaded with you ticket before leaving and could top up whilst there. It took a little getting used to just bleeping a wrist band on a machine as payment, but I have to say though that by the end of it I was converted as it all ran smoothly and made paying very easy, maybe a little too easy! But then coming back to reality and using cash felt very odd, it's strange how quickly we get used to different ways of doing things!

The queue ahead of us when getting into Download just as the entrance tent came into view

 

  My Dog Tag Wristband

My tent and our camp complete with the Gazebo! 

The stunning sunset on the Weds evening! 

 

So anyway back to the weather, like I said it was lovely on the Weds when we arrived and remained that way until 8pm on Friday and then the heavens opened! When I say opened I mean rain for 24 hours straight until 8pm Saturday night, which isn't really what you want at a festival but equally it wouldn't be a British festival without it! Luckily it stopped raining just in time for MUSE to play which meant that I was able to use my camera, which I was most worried about not being able to do if the weather had persisted. MUSE didn't disappoint and were literally the best band that I have ever seen live, and it was made even better by the fact that myself and a girl that I had met there managed to work our way really near the front. It was a pretty rowdy crowd of predominately men, and we were all packed in like sardines keeping each other up as we all jumped about. I am not sure how I managed to get out of that crowd without breaking myself or my camera, but again it really was worth it and an experience of a lifetime.

 

Waiting in the crowd for MUSE to start

The crowds behind us whist we waited for MUSE!

 

Matt Bellamy MUSE's lead singer!

The confetti balls above our heads that were thrown into the crowds before and after they burst!

Images from during MUSE'S set

Some more images from during the set including the fire blowers at the end. We were so close to the front that we could feel the heat from them as they went off!

On Sunday the weather was once again not particularly fabulous and the site was a sticky mud pit, but it certainly didn't dampen anyone's spirits! I know that festivals aren't for everyone but I love them! I feel most alive and relaxed there, watching live music with friends in the euphoric atmosphere. Yes the mud and the rain aren't the best, but it makes you feel quite free and at one with nature. Plus you definitely appreciate the creature comforts of your own bed, toilet, and running water more when you get back!

The crowd at second stage on Sunday night, and back at the Doghouse the rock club on the campsite

 The amazing end to the headliners Kiss's set on Sunday night, which ended the festival

The sunrise begining to break though at the campsite village on Monday morning before we returned home

 

The sunrise as it broke through further on the Monday morning 

 

Typically on the day that we left Download and ever since I have got back, the weather here and across most of the country for the last few weeks has been just beautiful! The summer has now well and truly sprung for now at least! 

However it is probably a good thing that it wasn't this hot at Download as I managed to burn quite badly with little sun and cloud cover, despite being careful and having factor 50 on! I now look like a bit of an idiot with my burnt chest and thighs complete with short lines! So I definitely won't be going out in the sun anytime soon! Not that I am a sun lover anyway, but it is nice to have the brightness even if it is rather on the warm side!

So you are now nearly up to date with the goings on around here!

Last week my hubby had the week off to recover from a stag do from the previous weekend, and I was off on the Weds which turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far here, so we took a jaunt into town. I am not sure exactly how hot it hit here in the end but I think that it must have got to the mid 30's, as whilst sipping on a cooler in a local café I recorded the temperature at 32 degrees in the shade at 4:30pm! This for those of you that don’t live in the UK is practically unheard of even in the summer!

On the way back home we went via the river walk and came across this little fellow below:

There are usually a lot of squirrels jumping around this walk but on this day I think that the heat may have been getting to the squirrels too, as he was practically the only one about! He caught our eye not only for this reason, but because of the fact that he seemed particularly tame. These shots don't really do justice as to how close he was as they were taken on my phone, but he was cute little thing and kept posing for the camera. In the shot on the bottom left he reminded me of a little fox.

Further along the river walk we saw lots of Blackberry bushes all beautifully in flower, with the start of the Blackberry fruits beginning to form as you can see below: 

We will have to go back Blackberry picking in a few months once they are ripe!

Once home we finished off the day by having some lovely raspberries, meringues, and ice cream! Perfect for a summer day and Wimbledon season even if it wasn't quite strawberries and cream!

  

Since last week the weather has continued to be lovely and rather warm, minus the odd bit of heavy rain and electrical storms on Friday night!

I hope that the weather is good where you all are and that the heat is not getting too much for you! Stay safe in the sun and thanks as always for popping by and bearing with another long and picture heavy post! I got a bit carried away with all of my Download talk! x