Malvern Magic

Having celebrated my 70th birthday with a party at the Beehive, it seemed like a perfect idea to be further indulged by spending a weekend away with my daughters. The perfect trip away for me, was a walking weekend on the Malverns, and so two weeks ago, we arrived at our accommodation on Friday lunchtime, and began exploring the northern part of the Malvern Hills near where we were staying. We reached the top of North Hill which at 397 metres gives a fantastic view of the surrounding countryside, although it's a bit hard to see the splendour with mist and cloud.

 Lovely photo of Ellie and Ali in front of the view.

 I didn't take many photos on the first day because my phone 'blacked out' and so I've used some of Ali's photos of the fantastic sculptures in the Rose Bank Gardens, with the most amazing backdrop:

The first one is a bird on its own

 I've included several of the two buzzards  because I think they're so fantastic, they were made by Walenty Pytel, an internationally respected metal sculptor. He is Polish, but has lived in England since childhood, and today is based in south Herefordshire. Among his many works, he created a large sculpture of Heraldic Beasts outside the state entrance to Westminster Hall in London, which was commissioned by Parliament for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The Buzzard sculpture for Rosebank Gardens, commissioned by Malvern Town Council, was created to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year for Malvern.

We walked back to our flat via the centre of Great Malvern where there seemed to be a good range of independent shops, unfortunately just about to close, so we headed back for a Prosecco celebration.
Our landlady had recommended Anupam as a good place to eat Indian food, and looking at the website, it has been open since 1987. The food was excellent, as was the atmosphere

And there were 2 more days of walking to come!