Its a postal thing...

The first photo is of the postbox I use to post all my letters in unless I have to go to the post office. This resulted in me asking others to show me the post boxes they use. One of my friends ended up showing me 3 post boxes from 3 different countries and telling me its now my turn to show her 3 boxes from 3 differrent countries. As that was unlikely to happen I told her that I'll show her 3 British post boxes but instead it resulted in this!

Who knew that their were so many different types of post boxes. I'm going to keep taking photos of these kind of post boxes but in different locations. I know there are some types I still haven't taken photos of but these are local to me at the moment, either in the city, supermarket or on my way to my sisters.

 

If you fancy showing me your post boxes please link me in as I'd love to see all the different ones around the world. So far I've seen U.S, Holland, France and Germany. Quite sad considering all the countries in the world.

 

I'm in the process of taking photos of phone boxes which are appearing on my Samash81 account on Instagram.

It's a Vintage Fair!

Can you believe its the 1st of February already? I can not. I also can't believe I've hardly blogged last month, partly I didn't have the energy but then also I didn't want this to become a complete snail mail blog which is all I seem to be taking photos of these days. You can find me on Instagram @itsamailday if you're interested in what I've been receiving or up to.

 

One thing I've been forcing myself to do is go out more, whether to the shops or just wondering around locally I make an effort to go. Even though I do love snow I hate the slushy icy mess it turns into so I'm really grateful that so far this winter we've only had sleet on a night when I'm tucked up in bed! We do however have tonnes of rain which make it hard to go out but I still try...

 

During last week I came across an article in a free newspaper about a Vintage Home and Fashion fair. I've read a lot of blogs where people have been to these and I was curious so that weekend I got ready and went along to Saltaire

The fair was held in Victoria Hall. Just as soon as I got inside it started pouring with rain. I am not a jewellery person but I could have bought a lot of the items that were there that day. The house hold items were amazing and if I had a house I would have known exactly what to choose and for what area. There was this most amazing blue and white china that I couldn't help drooling over. I also loved some wooden Russian spoons that the owner told me that each one had a meaning behind it which resulted in me leaving them behind. I'm not superstitious but I would have loved to have known what each one meant. In the end I left with these...

I've still no idea why I bought them but I did. I will probably give them away one day as a gift but I'll see as they may fit in nicely once I get a house. 

 

I don't know if I'll go to any of the other fairs yet as I imagined it to be so much more then it was... it just felt cramped that I thought I'd turn around and break something. It also didn't feel like there were 40+ stalls and I was left wanting to see more. I kind of felt a little cheated having paid £2 to enter in the first place.

 

This post would have been longer but when I looked up my previous posts for Saltaire I only came up with one where I went on a shopping spree there so I've decided to save the rest of my photos for another day and I'll tell you more about the place then.

 

Added later

I've ended up having a search online to see what the wooden spoons are about. I didn't find any website that claims that they have any meaning behind them but I found so many wonderful designs on Google images. Isn't this whole set just absolutely gorgeous?

They are made of a really light wood that you can't even tell that you are holding the spoon, I'm sure the bowls will be the same but I could never use them on food but only to admire.

Lister Park

Lister Park used to be the home of Samuel Lister and was left to the council I'm guess when he died. His home is used as an art gallery and the grounds as a park and garden. I'm only going to show you half the park today as I didn't get the chance to go to all the areas on this day.

You already know that I absolutely love old buildings and maybe you can understand why with all that beautiful detail carved into the building. I imagine those workers took such pride in making this house  but also the mill further up the road which is also an impressive building with a huge chimney which can be seen for miles.

The door used to be the entrance to the cafe but now that they have built the boat house there is no longer any use for it which I think is a shame as the area outside it is like a huge balcony or terrace so I can imagine there being a couple of tables outside to enjoy a nice 'high tea'. The boat house could offer more of the burger etc... style food. Typical Bradfordian style though, they just abandon a good thing.

This is the boat house with an eating area inside and out, toilets and other bits and pieces. I think it does add some characters to the lake though.

I would have loved to have taken my niece around the lake but I was really wary of time as I had to get her back for when her parents turned up to get her. Still we managed to see some funny ducks with their bottom in the air and the white duck came over to see what was going ok. I've ended up ordering the photos like this as it looks like the white duck had something to say before swimming away.

The lake isn't the only watery area in the park, this fountain garden was built about 10 years ago to add a little something to the park. Along with using the stream in the Botanical Garden to create an oriental looking area which is beautiful. Plus many waterfalls. I only stayed in one quarter of the park but if I ever get the chance to go again soon I'll definitely visit that end so that I can share it with you.

I could have taken a million photos of just the benches as there's something about benches in general that I really like. The last one has been paid for by a family whose relationship has died and the carving is in memory of them.  I also weirdly have a thing about litter bins, I love the style of the blue one above at the refreshment place but I also really like the  litter bin outside the park too. I'll have to weird and take a photo of one so you can see what a litter bin in Bradford looks like.

Of course we had to admire some of the pretty flowers. I just really wish it would stop raining and its being a pain in the backside with my project. I've ended up with 2 really soggy envelopes because of it but I'm just carrying on as if the weather is brilliant as people still need cheering up.

This is one of my favourite places to visit. I've done well to visit 2 of them within a couple of days.

What are some of your places to visit?

A day at the woods....

It's that time of year again when my sister is marking exam papers. I was awake from 8.30am as I had an appointment at the dentist, I couldn't believe I ended up wasting an hour of my day for just a simple check up that lasted 2 minutes. I ended up phoning my sister and asking if she wanted me to collect my niece so that she could continue marking and I would take her to the woods. She told me she'd phone when she was ready which she did after 12pm.

What annoyed me most though was that she didn't tell my niece that she wouldn't be coming so when I asked her to get her shoes on so we could go she wanted to wait for her mum who was on the phone to the exam company. I just carried her out in the end screaming her head off and she cried for most of the time we were there.

I had hoped to take her for some weeks now as she seems to point out random trees telling me its the woods. So this was the only chance I had and its disappointing that she couldn't appreciate it for crying and thinking we'd abandoned her mum because she was supposed to come.  

This was actually the last photo I took as I had hoped on the way out that I'd take a photo of my niece standing at the gate but she refused to have her photo taken the whole time we were there. By the time we came back out anyway it was pouring with rain but its not so obvious here.

Wellingtons and shoes at the ready even though my niece was having a fit because she had white leggings on (thanks sis!) and was scared of getting them dirty even though she wanted to jump in all the muddy tracks along the path and on the way down.

I always love the creative looking roots that you see on the way down as this woodlands is mainly on a slope so I was quite weary of my niece dashing off as the trails/paths are quite narrow.

There are plenty of branches along the way but what is scary is to think that these have probably fallen down due to storms and over growth (lack of space for them to continue growing). Imagine if you were stood there and one of these came down... actually its not worth thinking about.

Once at the bottom you come to the stream. Whilst we were still at the top, I asked my niece what she could hear, of course she said birds since we were closer to the tree tops. I made her listen for the stream too and she was so happy when she spotted it before we got there. This orange water was always an attraction for all of us when we went with school which was on a regular basis. On the way back we used to stop at a teachers house for juice and a biscuit. That of course can no longer happen.

My niece also wanted an acorn but we didn't see any and to be honest I don't ever think I have. It actually really surprised me when she asked about one but then she knows such random things with watching childrens TV. After all she learned to speak English this way as none of us used to speak to her in English but now we can't help it as majority of her conversations to us are that way.

Once my niece realised there was a stream she asked if she could see the bridge, there were 3 that we came across and I would have carried on a long the trail but it just ended up too muddy and occasionally quite slippy so I decided it wasn't such a good idea to carry on up and down narrow hills as there weren't that many people around so if I fell...

This cow was staring at us which was creepy and it followed us for a bit but then I think they realised the rain was coming and every single one of them disappeared which was so weird but also quite cute as they were running up the hill. I've never seen them move so fast before as usually I just see them munching or lazing around. We also saw some squirrels.

I finally got sick of her moaning so decided to make my way back up. Half way up the wind blew and the rain came down but as we were still quite low down we didn't get wet, it wasn't until we reached the top and came out from under the blanket of leaves into the odd sky patches did we find out.

I took a million more photos but with Instagram not working properly you didn't get completely over loaded with them all. This is one of my favorite places in Bradford. It's just a shame that I don't go often enough.

I hope to see you again soon!

Are you having a good weekend?

Project: 30 Days Journal Challenge

When making up these project list it really makes me realise how quickly time it flying by. It's Friday already, not that I'm complaining as its almost the weekend... yes! I just need to make my way through work and another horrible rainy day first.

So here it goes.....

Day 16: Short, sweet, and straight to the point :) What are you wearing today? Write it, doodle it, cut it out of a magazine, whatever!

Day 17:Today you are going to illustrate a day. It can be today, it can be yesterday, it can be a significant event that you have had in your life :) Use pictures, labels, words, doodle, sketches, anything you want, to describe your day! This is a cute one. Enjoy!

Day 18:Music is one of my most favorite things ever!! It translates emotions that I can't even imagine putting into words. I love it. Today I want you to create a playlist of some kind. It can be your summer playlist, your July playlist, songs from your wedding day, or favorite songs of all time :) This one will be another fun one to look at down the road.

Day 19: Today I want you to create a "guide to your city." What are the must-see things that you would want a visitor to experience in your city. This can guide can be for your city, town, or state.

Day 20: Here is the age old question, what is in your bag?? This has always been a great photo prompt that i have seen all over the blog world. Today, you are going to write about the contents of YOUR bag, or illustrate it, or take a picture of it, whatever :D

Day 21: What is your most favorite quote? A quote that inspires you, or your mantra. I literally have 4 journals from college filled with quotes that inspire me and make me smile. Today is the day to share your inspiring words with your friends.

Day 22: Today I want to know what your favorite holiday is!! There are soooo many holidays out there and the cool thing is that they differ depending on where you live, your family, and your religion. Teach me all about your favorite holiday and why it's your favorite.

What are you up to this weekend?

Beautiful Buildings....

With doing the journal and trying to keep on top of my letter pile I haven't read a book for this week even though I started Les Miserables but might save it for a holiday as there seem to be about 10+ pages per pecentage and I'm still only on 1% so I could be here until Christmas if I read a little every night. Its a book I've always wanted to read as I've heard the musical is great but I don't have the energy to go and see it.

Instead I'm going to post these last few photos of my adventures last Monday. As I've mentioned many times before I love love love the olden buildings in our city with their stone carved and solid brick buildings. I just hate the thought of them knocking a lot of them down to make way for houses and other such things as they just don't feature in the city.

The top photo is of the city hall which was so hard to photograph because with it being a bank holiday it meant that none of the council workers were working (which of course included me). This meant that to the side of me there was a massive pile of green bin bags that had been emptied from bins around the city. I couldn't understand why they were there if there was no service. Also I had people walking in front of me etc...

I've actually been in the city hall twice, the last time was actually 2 months ago but I'm going to tell you of my first experience of each room that we  saw. We went up the stairs and there was a desk there with a lady to greet us, on either side of her were stone steps and we went up one set to a huge hallway area with artefacts etc displayed. From there we went into the banquetting suite which was set with a horse shoe shaped table with a bright white table cloth and all the dinning ware as if the queen was coming to eat. We then went to a Victorian school room which was set exactly like it and a person acting like a teacher. Then from there to a mini version of the houses of commons with green leather seats and brown marbled effect wood. That time we stayed to have lunch there in one of the rooms and the rest of the building wasn't nice, it reminded me of an old fashion school corridors with echoing etc... but the room we had lunch in was just like any room anywhere. Lastly we went to the Lord Mayors Chamber which is like an over cluttered and fussy old fashion room with all kinds of antiques to tell the story of the people who have been there but it was nice. 

You can't see it in this photo but they spent £22 million building a lake to the side of this building which they plan on freezing over in winter to create an ice rink. The water can be adjusted in height so at times it just looks like puddles of water with water fountains and a path down the middle, other times its full but I haven't see it like that even though I have a postcard to offer on make my day one day with it on.

The first photo is the wool exchange where people exchanged wool in the olden days. Now it is Waterstones the bookshop, Starbucks and a few other stores. I have only been to Waterstones though and its so impressive inside with all its black bookshelves all lined neatly with books but also the ceiling is so pretty that I wish I'd had the guts to take a photo of it. Even though you just walk up the stairs to Starbucks I've never been. The second and Third buildings are both banks, there is another bank that I didn't photograph that is also lovely but that bank is more impressive inside as it has a carved and painted ceiling with a mural. The last one I was just walking by and decided to photograph.

There are many impressive buildings but I was too lazy and cold to walk to all of them. I wish now that I had taken photos of some of the buildings I really dislike and on top of it they are empty.

I hope you enjoyed looking at our once very striving but now almost dying city centre as people now travel to other cities to shop which may mean we'll never really get anything back here.

What do you think of the town, city or village that you live in?