Friday

Fun time last night when we got involved in Nicola's 40th Birthday celebrations

Today we visited the Jardin Majorelle
The artist Jacques Majorelle purchased a palm grove outside the city around 1920, built a studio there and began creating the garden

After his death it was abandoned and fell into disrepair
But was purchased by Pierre Berge and Ives Saint Laurent in 1980

Since then the gardens have been restored

A beautiful cool tranquil place

The studio has been converted into a museum of Berber cultfure
 

And there is a memorial to Yves Saint Laurent

Thursday and we go exploring

First the main Square of Marrakech
Djemaa el Fna
Hard to describe the chaos of people, taxis and locals peddling their wares.
Stalls selling almost everything you can imagine, women offering henna hand art,
performing monkeys dressed in little suits, and of course snake charmers. 

I had been looking forward to seeing the snake charmers but as we watched from afar we were approached by a man carrying a snake.  I ran a mile !
So, I had to find this pic on Google but it is exactly what I saw.
Except often there were up to ten snakes at a time

The horsedrawn ride round the city was fascinating
It lasted about an hour and the quoted price was 120 Dirhams - less than £10
We were so happy we gave him 150 Dirhams

Then the driver offered to take our picture
Not bad but I would have liked to see the horses in the photo
Much more interesting than us.

Change of plan, my cold was getting worse & Paul in danger of Man Flu. So we delayed our departure till yesterday Tuesday 26th January and now staying for 10 days.

Not a bad view from our room !

Nice room too

Red rose petals everywhere - not just on the bed
I think that we are going to have a nice time ....

I have got a cold

OK, not the end of the world, but I am going on holiday tomorrow
We get back from Marrakech on the 29th so hope to have catch up photos by the 30th

Weatherseal arrive

To fix leak in downstairs flat and finish off new guttering etc
The joys of an older property

Sunday

Real snow
However, I think that this nice little succulent will be in flower in the Spring

Saturday

We went to Stratford and bumped (almost literally) into Andy as he came out of the library
We had not been able to get in touch to let them know we were coming
We went to see their lovely new house and then lunched at their local
The Crown at Tiddington
A very nice afternoon

Meanwhile Victoria, Chris & the boys were visiting friends, Rachael & Tony Lorman
The boys' god parents
Nice pic that I stole from Facebook
Top your own pizza with the Lorman twins

9.30 am today

No snow, but very heavy frost this morning
This is the new summer house / shed / man cave

Catch up

Twelfth Night approaches
Will the tree go back in the box ?

After a lovely few days at Victoria's house in Devon (above) we went to Stratford upon Avon on Saturday.
This is my favourite from the RSC costume exhibition
From "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a few years ago
The bodice is made of soft leather gloves

We went to see "Wendy and Peter Pan"
Magical

Not so magical is the weather
So cold that I treated myself to a onesie
Warm, whatever it may look like

We drove out to Malvern as Paul wanted a new vice. OK, yes we all think he has enough of those !

On the way back we stopped at a lovely little pub
The White Swan

The place was full of character and the owners must be too
In case you can't read it the blackboard beside the piano said
"In the light of this increasingly litigious society we wish to point out that this has been a public house since 1600 and may contain low ceilings, uneven floors, hot fires and steps.
Beware of everything
Please be aware that the price of a pint does not include childcare"

They sold St George beer
I could not resist a pic of this mural outside, with shadows of a tree in the watery winter sunshine

Joy

An uplifting film about success despite adversity
It really lifted our spirits

Happy New Year

This photo on Facebook made me cry
I am homesick