Charity Christmas Cards

Should you wish to buy charity Christmas cards in Chester, there are two places to go. One is in the Cathedral, and the other at the Wesleyan Methodist. Both are staffed by volunteers, and all profits go directly to the charities concerned. You can even get cards printed in Welsh.

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

And Albert

And Albert is a gift shop in Eastgate Row specialising in handcrafted Fairly Traded products from around the world. The shop is next door to The Boot, and is much larger than it appears from the outside, with an upstairs and a back room containing furniture. At the rear of the shop is a fire exit which I guess leads out onto Leen Lane. A great place for Christmas and birthday gifts, and you can order online at www.andalbert.com

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

Bollands Revisited

I went back to Bollands, the tea and coffee shop, the other day, and they had some interesting new ideas - a 'blend your own tea' section, a new range of teapots, and gift hampers. They have also managed to launch their website, you can take a look here: bollandsofchester.co.uk

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

Berries

All the trees have huge quantities of berries this year, in complete contrast with the lack of apples and pears. Abundance of berries is meant to predict a long, cold, hard winter, and certainly the first frosts have been very early this year - I have had to scrape ice off the car a couple of times already.

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

Roman Gravestone 34

In the Grosvenor Museum there are the most impressive collection of Roman gravestones in Britain. Some are more complete than others, but all were buried for centuries, preserving them. The one below does not have an inscription, but shows Actaeon, a hunter who was changed to a stag and ripped to death by his own hounds. You can see him warding off the dogs, already part changed into a stag with horns sprouting from his head.

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

Thatched Roofs

In the city centre, the majority of roofs used to be thatch, until the city council decreed that
'for the ornament and security of this Citty from fire...all houses now erected or hereafter to bee erected in Foregatestreete, Eastgatestreete, Northgatestreete, and Bridgestreete of this Citty shall be covered with slate or tyle and not thatched'.
As well as reducing the number of fires, this had the unexpected bonus of reducing the numbers of rats in the city, as they lived in the thatch in great numbers, and the city has had no outbreaks of plague since, though this may well be coincidental.

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park

Felt-Making

I went to a felt-making workshop on Saturday, at Funky Aardvark. Taught by Zoe Collyer of http://www.zoecofelt.co.uk, it was good fun and we all managed to produce passable felt vessels. The first photo shows the finished product, the following ones show the various stages.

 

  

 

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

Voir notre appartement meublé avec cuisine situé à Black Diamond Park