New boots and freebies

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned!  I've stepped momentarily into the realms of "proper retail" and bought a new, yes new, pair of boots.  And I paid with money, not vouchers, real money, eek!

I popped into Birmingham last week for a day of retail therapy with vouchers I had still to spend, and saw a beautiful pair of boots in M&S.  Little ankle cowboy boots, lovely they were, and part of the Indigo range, which I really like.  My M&S vouchers did not stretch to the £59 cost of the boots though, so I walked away with nothing more than a furniture catalogue!   Anyway, as I exited Boots (the chemist) with some free mascara (courtesy of my Boots card points which I didn't realise I still had!) I spotted the Deichmann shop nearby and went in. These beauties caught my eye, and at £22.99 I thought they were much more my price level, so I bought them! 

They are a lovely moleskin colour and oddly, a size 5 when I'm normally a 4 (and a very small 4 at that!).  I've already worn them of course, we drove over to one of our nearest National Trust properties, Hanbury Hall, on Friday for a relaxing end of week picnic. 

Hanbury is a grand country house built in 1701 in the William and Mary style. 

We didn't go inside as we have been in so many times, we just had tea and cake and a wander around the grounds.

As ever, I was fascinated by the old set of staff rules in the old servant's hall cafe

Spot the fake windows on the side of the building, clever huh?!

The Spring flowers are just on the turn, it's a funny time of year as I like the splash of colour but much prefer the lush foliage of June and July.  This is the parterre next to the cafe

Where we managed a hands free selfie, thanks to the camera timer and a strategically placed planter!

I do love the way they store the empty planters behind the orangery, all lined up neat and tidy 

                      Talking of the orangery, plenty of citrus fruits growing in there!

The grounds have an Italian feel in parts

The orchards do well, all the trees are just coming into blossom.  I'm pretty sure I saw these orchards on the BBC programme Countryfile last year.

There are so many lovely gateways, I'd love a garden with a bit of freestanding old wall and a random gateway in it!  OK so the middle pic isn't a gateway, just a view of the house through the trees!

 Lots of garden buildings to explore too, and an array of beehives near the chickens

When we arrived home, the postman had delivered goodies, lots of BHS vouchers, courtesy of my cashback credit card, that I only ever use for essentials, I've never bought enough in a charity shop to warrant using a credit card! .  Pay your bills and get vouchers for free stuff, can't be bad!

Best of all, there was an offer on redeeming BHS vouchers, you used 10% less points to get the usual amounts, so I was able to squeeze another £5 voucher for my points!  I feel another no spend shopping trip coming on, yay!

Nothing to show on the garden front this week, we have done loads but it amounts to piles of things we've moved from a to b, so not at all exciting.  Our plans are now being drawn up by the architect and we need to see what forms and permissions we need to apply for.

Just in case you were wondering, my outfit was

Levi's £2, Toast jacket £1, Nomads top £1, Jocasi green leather bag £1, East scarf, not sure how much this cost but it was pennies rather than a pound, and the new boots.  The undies were also free courtesy of previous credit card vouchers, but I'm not going to show you!

Finally, if you follow my facebook page you will know the only bargain I had this week was a roll of Gardman lawn edging for £1.50.  It retails at around a tenner and I wanted to try some so it was a good buy, just not exciting enough to show the photo again!  

Linking up with Sheila's Shoe Shine!