Derbyshire

Lucky enough to have a wonderful 3 nights up in Derbyshire - not an area I knew well at all.  I went with John and his family and we couldn't have asked for better weather.  Truly glorious and we were in such a brilliant location.  And all we did was a lot of fun while still feeling like a relaxing holiday.  John was really good at getting us to say what our favourite 4 things were about each day.  There were lots of choose from.  These photos include some of my top fours!

We shared the journey up from Leicester.  John found a compilation CD from 1999 - I think it was Now 42 or some such.  We had a funny time singing along to some of the 'classics'!!  I realised just how lacking my music knowledge is - even from an era I remember watching Top of the Pops!
This is our lovely place that we stayed - I haven't worked out the best thing to call it: cottage, barn conversion... 

We were in the middle of a golf course with nice views out across the valley and with a castle in the distance.  We headed out on a walk for a bit of an explore.   Having left the map at the ranch we was a little longer than intended but a good time no less!

Each night, the younger generation took it in turns to cook.  Think we all did a good job.  It was a nice sized dining room and on the last night we ate outside.

On our first full day, we drove to Chatsworth House and parked the cars.  We went on a walk that had featured in Leicestershire Life magazine.  It was absolutely lovely.  This is the iconic-to-me bridge on the entry to the house.

A stop for our picnic lunch by a pub.

The uphill stretch of the walk - a little trickier - but it was shaded by trees so I couldn't really tell how steep and ongoing it was!

And it let to some good views, over a type of moorland, at the top.

On the second day, we headed to Bakewell, then on to Lathkill Dale.  I didn't really know much about the Dales but they were a nice place to spend time.

One of the great things about the house was it's games room.  We kept finding new and exciting forms of entertainment in there.  We all went over one evening after dinner.  I was feeling tired and not majorly in the mood but had a lot of fun there!  Having a go on the weights machine:

The games room also had these springing running shoes which we had a go at and I absolutely loved the hysterics I ended up in watching people!

And the piece de resistance was the tennis court outside.  We had many a game out there.  I have never enjoyed playing tennis as much before.  I particularly enjoyed it when we played games of round the world, which just seemed ludicrous to try with the four of us, but we managed a rally of into the 30s and I think even once in the 50s doing it that way - much better than properly!!!

A lovely holiday indeed.  Thank you all!

Royal Wedding

Really wish to record about one of the most exciting historical events of my younger life!  Though not quite sure how best to label it!

I was excited ever since William and Kate announced their engagement back in November, though many others only seemed to get into the mood in the days leading up to the event.  Sometime a few months ago, when we were at home and up in the roof, we found a box of magazines mum had saved from Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981.  They were really interesting to look at and they really came in to their own in the last couple of weeks, including a literacy lesson at school!  Wasn't sure what to actually do on the day, Friday 29th April, whether to try and go to London or to join in mum's day of a rolling buffet, family style!  Really pleased John and I chose the latter.

We had had 3 days back at school after the Easter holidays and then on the Thursday night, it felt like a very exciting holiday adventure as we set off on the drive home.  Then it was all systems go on the Friday morning as we had to make it round to the Grandparents by 8am for the start of the coverage.  Mum had been up from some scarily early hour cooking sausages. We stopped to buy a tabloid and a broadsheet on the way there;  I leapt out of the car forgetting I had my Union Jack head bandanna on, but the people in the newsagents seemed to find it funny!

We were greeted by, what else, a feather duster in Union Jack colours poking out of the letter box.  The giggles and excitement were certainly underway! We were all dressed in our best red white and blue - it was so lovely to be with people who were equally excited and wanting to share in the day!

There was food to be unloaded and decorations to add to then we could settle down for the start of Hugh Edwards coverage on BBC1.  And can you believe it, we didn't really leave from our seats for 8 hours!!  The big decisions were just what time to pop into the Dining area, momentarily out of site of the TV but within hearing distance, to fill our plates with the splendid food Mum had created; whether to have the union jack iced Judith during the ceremony; at which point to pop the champagne.

 

Happy day indeed.