Married with three grown-up children and two grandchildren, she specialises in turning family portraits into hand-built, decorative pieces of art for the home or garden. She moved from East Anglia to Sheffield 23 years ago. Fenella dived straight into ceramics, her first love, on retirement from a career in teaching and now "works harder than ever…"

Ecclesall Parish Church

Ecclesall Parish Church is my first and best place to be. We've been attending for 24 years and have done a lot of laughing and crying and worshipping there.

We've attended very wet baptisms when the young choose total immersion in the inflatable pool, many joyful weddings and some moving funerals. We have lost count of the number of friends we have there and new people appear almost every week. I'm one of the regular Sunday welcomers, so do come and say hello.

King Edward's swimming pool

THIS is the place I go if I need to chew over a new project or decision or just have some time out. The staff are young and friendly and I have total confidence they would dive in without hesitation and save me should I get so carried away with my backstroke that I concussed myself on the end of the pool.

I go for a lane swimming session when I can work my way up and down without being swamped. Physical activity like walking or swimming allows my brain to work creatively. Perhaps it is the extra blood flow that does the trick. I used to walk to work each morning and would have the whole day planned by the time I arrived.

Birkdale Prep School

Which brings me to the staff room at Birkdale Prep School. There is always such a buzz, such energy and support, so many good ideas being suggested and taken up, such hilarious stories about things the littlest boys have said or done, so few grumbles, so many celebrations and such sympathy in times of trouble.

I've just retired and shall miss my talented, warm, funny, hard working and dedicated colleagues. I dare say there was some letting-off of steam at home in the evenings, as with any stressful work, but my overwhelming memory is of a very positive and immensely professional atmosphere.

Sheffield Round Walk

Some days ago a friend and I completed four sections of the Sheffield Round Walk, following the route in the leaflet produced by Sheffield City Council.

It took us from the Round House on Ringinglow Road past a sunlit golf course at Beauchief, through cool woodlands and eventually up to Bishop's House and from high up in Meersbrook Park we gazed at the panorama of Sheffield. It is a great vantage point from which we saw how the city has settled into the valleys and used the topography to its best advantage.

We watched the cranes transforming the city centre and saw the height of the newly built blocks and felt some sense of the history of the city and of its continuing development.

Millhouse Park

Another park, Millhouses, has a cosy café by the boating lake.
We sat there last weekend enjoying excellent treacle tart and coffee, reading the paper and watching some beautifully crafted model boats being sailed by remote control across a peaceful pond. I talked to a member of the Hallam Model Boat Club and we reminisced about the real thing, sea sailing, and agreed that the only thing less than perfect about Sheffield is the distance from the wild grey North Sea.

However, most people might think that an advantage.

Sheffield and Tinsley Canal

At the other end of town runs the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, with its impressive series of locks leading from the canal basin northwards.

I love the sheer scale of the stonework in the canal basin, testimony to the size and the importance of the industry which the canal served. The cobbles are massive and the slabs supporting the lock gates are huge. You can now sit and have a beer and imagine the noise and activity where once railway trucks trundled their loads to and fro and hundreds of workers loaded and unloaded the barges.

No 83 bus

Now I've got my bus pass I can't keep away from public transport. Any little excuse and I'm on the 83 into town to do a bit of shopping. (Actually the number 30 is becoming a favourite as it stops at the Hallamshire, which is very handy for King Ed's pool – see above).

I've a lot of exploring to do on the buses and do feel privileged to be given the freedom to go all over the city. It is opening up all sorts of possibilities.

Park Square roundabout

Have you noticed the skill with which the planting has been chosen on Park Square roundabout? There is a vertical wall made from corrugated concrete and growing perfectly up each groove is an orderly climber, leaves in pairs, neatly aligning itself with the engineered surface.

It's just one testimony to the horticultural knowledge of the city landscape architects and the parks department, creatively applied, and it gives me pleasure each time I pass.