Shrewsbury

Travelled into Shrewsbury this morning to visit Stewart's Go Explore photography exhibition at the coffee house. Been looking forward to this for ages and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful landscapes and seascapes capturing the sheer joy of being out with nature.  Bought a particularly gorgeous sunset over surfers print which is to hang over the sofa. Can't wait to get it. To have a peek, click the link below and its the 4th one down with all the beautiful colours.

Stewarts website

So after that a bit of time to kill in town. Thought I would head somewhere new and realised I had never been to the castle. It is close to the coffeehouse so seemed the perfect choice. On the way in is this beautiful tudor style house. Not sure if it is real or mock tudor, but it is certainly beautiful. The trick in this photo was not including the line of cars parked outside.

So walked through the entrance gate into the castle grounds and picked up the signs for Laura's Tower.

This has got to be the cutest tower I have ever seen. You walk up some hidden steps and through a stone gateway and there it is in front of you. It has "Rapunzel" figuratively written all over it and the symmetry of those two over the top staircases is so elegant. You can't get in which is probably just as well as the reality couldn't compete with the imagined fairytale interior.

The views from the tower are quite impressive looking down over shrewsbury. Never seen the railway from this angle!

Back out through the castle grounds. The grounds house the Regimental Museum. I will do that properly another day but was fascinated by the two very large guns outside it.

They had obviously been there a while as they were covered in rust and cobwebs and I thought if only that could happen to all large weapons, left to crumble away in the centre of a large beautiful city as a reminder that war should be avoided wherever possible. Naive dream I know,  but hopefully in a better future one that might come true.

So simplistic over optimism out the way, I had a closer look at the guns and they really are works of art. All dials and wheels with the most amazing colours and textures.

I wanted to get up close and concentrate on the detail as we all know roughly what a big gun looks like, but have little idea of the intricate design involved. I found it fascinating and the fact that most of it was covered in cobwebs and rust just added to the poignancy.

And on this last photo, I understood "67 inches from ground", the rest, not so much.

Lessons Learned: There are many hidden treasures around, you just have to be prepared to look. From incredible works of art in coffee houses, to fairytale towers off mysterious pathways.

Diet Diary: Bearing in mind that its been a fortnight since my last official weigh in and that I have been on my hols and have eaten junk for England, I approached the scales with some trepidation. I am sure you can picture my disbelief when I saw that my weight hadn't changed. Nothing short of miraculous! So fired up and enthusiastic, I start again.