Having a giraffe!

Rain was forecast in the afternoon, which was a great pity, as we had plans for Friday.
The weather appeared to have finally turned a little cooler after the exhausting heat of the last few weeks, which was a great relief! In fact, I was wondering if venturing forth minus an outer garment, was such a good idea, as there was a definite nip in the air first thing!

Despite the threat of rain we were keen to visit Worcester to follow the Giraffe trail - Worcester Stands Tall, which began a few of days ago.
It did not disappoint.
No sooner had entered the town centre, than we started spotting these strange and exotically decorated beasts, which were attracting quite a bit of interest.

We popped into the information centre - which we had never noticed before, despite it being situated bang next to the Guild Hall (the ornately decorated building behind the Giraffe on the right)  and on the main shopping street.
A map was purchased for a nominal fee - proceeds to the local hospice - which would assist us in our hot, but harmless, hunt. There is also an app, which we may well play with on a future visit, as the giraffes will be in situ for the summer, before being auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity.
We set off on our urban safari, and despite our best intentions to 'stick to a plan' were soon lured off into a shopping arcade by the sight of the smaller calves which were not on the map and had been decorated by local organisations.







Outside Debenhams, we discovered a fabulous mosaic-decorated beast, which was attracting quite a bit of interest. We spent some time admiring the quirky creativity of this design.
















Bemused 'Bones' appeared seemed to be holding up the traffic at a crossroads, but maybe the chaos was actually caused by roadworks...













By the time we had reached this rainbow coloured giraffe by the racecourse, we were melting, as the temperature had rocketed up into the high twenties.
At this point, we had barely walked half a mile, but we were definitely wilting. So much for a cooler day!


We walked back towards the City Centre, past the inevitably bee-themed giraffe outside 'The Hive' - a gold-clad building that contains both the city and university libraries, as well as the county archives, in search of a cafe. Having located one, we sat outside, enjoying the breeze every time the doors opened into the world outside the arcade in which it was situated.

Meanwhile, the rain that was forecast, had evaporated out of sight. So we decided to visit some charity shops in search of cups and saucers, for another little project.

During our trawl of charity shops we found a variety of offerings, but none were quite what we were looking for. Just as we were admiring a posh set with gold trim and a golden price tag, the assistant pulled out a box containing a good selection of plain tableware with a wonderfully low price.
Perfect.
We wanted to visit the cathedral as we knew that there were giraffes in the grounds. As we didn't want to carry the tableware further than we needed to, we left the assistant searching for a box and bubble wrap, promising to collect the items on our way back to the car park.









The KHT had great fun following the giraffe footprints that had appeared outside the Cathedral


















...especially when she discovered the spider...

The footsteps led us into the cathedral, past another giraffe....











...and towards the pink giraffe in the west window - which the KHT found easily.
If you look carefully it is just to the right of centre, at the top of the pointy shaped bit!





























If those instructions left you confused, go and look for yourself!

















We returned along by the river, which was sullenly and sluggishly flowing under increasingly leaden skies. A thunderstorm would have been a very welcome relief. The air was so heavy and humid that you felt you could reach out and wring the moisture out of it!

We collected the very well-wrapped goods, paid and added a donation because we were so pleased with our purchases.
Before we left the shop one or two items were removed from the box to make it easier to carry. For the journey home, it was placed carefully on the floor of the car, with a bag on top of it, to minimise shake, rattle and roll potential.

Heading home, we encountered a small queue of traffic travelling in the opposite direction.
An idiot in a dark saloon decided to take the opportunity to floor the accelerator and overtake the tractor which was the cause of the small queue.
Unfortunately, he didn't check that the road was clear first.
Fortunately, as we had crockery on board, we weren't travelling fast, but we still had to brake to allow him time to get back on his own side of the road in order to avoid a head-on collision!

How ironic it would that have been, if our carefully-wrapped bargain goods, became as broken as those used on the mosaic giraffe we had admired earlier!

Life is fragile. Handle with care.