Here comes summer!

The garden is now bursting into life..... summer must be on its way....

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......... at last!

Wild crochet comes to Chatsworth

On Monday we had a day out. The weather was lovely, for a change. We set off mid morning and headed off to Bakewell. Monday is one of the market days, but when we went a few weeks ago it was very quiet. Today was a different kettle of fish, it was really busy. The market was packed with plenty of varied stalls. I think this is the best market I've been to for a few years. I bought some threads and ribbon from the haberdashery, plants and fruit. We also went into the farm shops to see what was on offer, and as ever we weren't disappointed. We then went for a lovely lunch at Byways. We'd never eaten there before and we weren't disappointed. The food was lovely. .... It was time to move on, and our next stop was Caudwell's Mill.This is a lovely place to visit if you've never been. There are local craftspeople making and selling their wonderful work, a gift shop,the mill itself where I get my flours. I always buy my flours and oats from here. We don't make a special trip, I buy my flour in large bags ( enough to last about eight to twelve weeks or so) and then we combine it with a day out. There is also a lovely place to eat here, The Country Parlour Cafe. It gets very busy here, and the food is delicious. If you've never been it's well worth a visit. After a while it was time we moved on to Chatsworth. I must say the house is so much brighter after the renovation work. Anyway, I thought you'd like to see these....

..... these are the big cats which Shauna Richardson has created.......

....the pictures aren't great I know, but taking them through glass on a bright day, I couldn't get a really clear shot. But it will give you an idea of the size of them....

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......if you want to see more about these big cats there's more information here ........I couldn't resist taking this shot.....

....so green and so beautiful! It was a lovely fruitful day, and it only rained once and that was a quick shower. Roll on summer!

Dales, Lakes and a chance meeting.

We've just been away for a few days. We went up to the Yorkshire Dales and then on to the Lake District. The weather wasn't very good, but, you make the best of it don't you? At our Dales stop we stayed in a lovely b and b in Elslack, just outside Skipton. We hadn't been up there for a few years and we did notice some changes. We went to Grassington on Sunday. It was very quiet, but maybe that's because we'd just had the Easter holidays. There were a few farmers market stalls, but not many people. We moved on to Pateley Bridge for a look round and a nice cuppa. here it was that I saw this lovely lady. She didn't know me from Adam, but I do read here lovely blog, and I just had to stop and say "hello". What an inspiration this lady is! If you haven't read her blog, just pop over and take a look! The next day we went to Howarth......

.....very quiet, as you can see.....

....many of the shop were closed. The Souk was open and some of the tea rooms were. There is actually workmen working on relaying the stones at the moment. What a job! But, as ever I had to go into here....

....the sights, the smells, the treats, the Zambuk. I've been using it Zambuk for years, so did my mum and grandmother. I'm never without it. Over the road was an additional treat....

....ooh, let's get closer......

...we're still not close enough are we?......

....that's better. What a beautiful Jubilee window! ........After spending three days in the Dales, we moved over to Windermere. We stayed at the Hawksmoor B and B and it was wonderful. So friendly, helpful, and the food was wonderful. I would recommend Hawksmoor to anyone and everyone. You won't be disappointed. There are so many places to visit when you come up here, but as we only had a limited time we knew we wouldn't get to visit everywhere we wanted. So I'm afraid, Allan Bank, Dove Cottage and Hill Top have to wait until September. The view of lake Windermere at Bowness is delightful....

.....this was as 4.30pm, you can see how quiet it was.....

........in fact there were more birds that people......

........plenty of boats, if you wanted a trip....

......but the weather was a bit grim....

..... but we didn't really mind. It may not have been weather for taking wonderful pictures, but it was a lovely break!!!

April already, how did that happen so quickly? We went to Bakewell last week. They have a great market there, something that the city of Derby has been lacking for almost 40 years! Anyway, once we'd spent some time there we moved on to take in the views from here....

....it was a gorgeous day, and it was so quiet up there. It was quite hazy and so I couldn't get a good shot of Chatsworth from up here, but the view was still wonderful....

.....I even caught this little chap doing some "rock climbing"....

... The weather forecast for the Easter weekend doesn't sound too good. But then Bank holiday weather isn't usually very good, but, it's no good complaining about something which you can't change....

...so we'll be making ths most of it, whatever the weather!

Sunday at Sudbury

We paid a visit to Sudbury last Sunday. We wouldn't normally visit National Trust places at the weekends as they're so busy, but we were in the area and thought we'd stop by. This was our first visit for just over a year.

...On this visit it wasn't our intention to go into the hall, we just wanted to go to the Museum of Childhood and to look around the grounds and take a few nature shots.
The museum is forever changing and is always worth a visit. They offer so much to visitors and there is always a packed programme of events.
If you want to take a look the link is here

There are new exhibitions for this year,and it's wonderful to see all these things in one place, even toys which you may still have yourself, (like Thunderbirds Tracy Island). But for me it's not about the massed produced toys it's about the handmade, homemade toys. If you should pay a visit, take a good look at the Betty Cadbury collection, these toys and games date from the 4th to the 20st century. See if you can spot the handmade snake, made from old postage stamps, made in the 18th century.
Here's a bit more information on the Betty Cadbury collection.
I did take a few pictures, it was a lovely day...

.....just a gentle breeze....

.....I hope there are lots more days like this to come this spring...

It really does give you a spring in your step!

From the Attic!

Here's the first selection from Grandmothers Attic!

Why not pop over and take a look!

Monday mystery tour

Yesterday hubby had a day off. We had already decided that we were going to go out for the day, but weren't sure where. So with walking boots and cameras in the boot of the car we headed for the great blue yonder. Well it was a glorious blue sky!
Our first stop was here.....

..it's been a year since we were at Dovedale. It was lovely and quiet,the best time to come, when everyone is at work!
The air was so fresh, a little chilly, but gorgeous...

....the sheep were people watching....

...it was so quiet and lovely..

On this occasion we didn't walk all the way to Milldale as we had other plans, so on the way back to the car....

.....I took a couple more shots of the magnificent scenery...

......some of these shots will make wonderful scrapbook pages.
We headed off and stopped here..

Hartington. It's a beautiful village....

.....we went to see if the "Pot" shop was open. We are in need of some terracotta pots for the garden, but it wasn't open today. Never mind we will just have to make a return visit, no worries!
It was very quiet...

...the spring flowers were all bursting into bloom...

....the cheese shop is open....

...I love cheese, much more than chocolate!!
Anyway it was time for a bite to eat and today we had our lunch here....

..... todays lunch was:- beef hotpot with spotted dick and custard to follow, Mick had syrup sponge. It was delicious, all home made and the service was wonderful, but it always is! Do stop off and try it if you are ever in the area!
After lunch we headed for Buxton. It's been a while since we were here too. Very quiet here also. The last time we were here the Pavillion indoor garden was closed, but today it was open. Just take a look...

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.....it's beautiful!
I also had time to take a few shots of the beautiful gardens too, and the bandstand..

....I always wish I could step back in time, to see what it was like a hundred years ago....

...then it was a look around the shops, a cup of tea at the chocolate shop and a nice drive home.
Today it's back to normality, and housework. Here's to the next trip out!!