Back from holiday catch up

We arrived back from our holiday in Derbyshire yesterday. We had such a lovely time. It's nice to be back in my own bed though! I slept really well. Our mattress at home is a fairly firm memory foam mattress, the mattress on holiday was very comfortable but sprung and so every time G or I moved it woke the other one up.

The journey home wasn't too long and we drove through some beautiful countryside. I was very excited to see a badger by the side of the road scuttling along. It's pretty unusual to see them in daytime.

Look at that pothole... there were some magnificent potholes on the country lanes.

I've been pottering about this morning, tidying up, doing a bit of cleaning and noticed my gerbera daisy outside. The picture below doesn't do it justice, it looks a bit oversaturated on my computer, but it's glorious. I was given this gerbera daisy 22 years ago by some kind neighbours where we used to live after I suffered a miscarriage. Sadly it had recently succumbed to leaf mould and those horrid black mould flies. I'd followed all the advice online, bought mould killer but to no avail. It was a sad looking plant. I put it outside because I couldn't bear to get rid of it and now look at it! It's leaves are healthy and the flowers beautiful. The only issue is I think a snail has been chomping on the leaves a bit. Do I dare bring it back indoors?

 

It was G's 50th birthday recently. We had an open house type party. I kept it secret until the day before. Loads of people came, which I was rather chuffed about as organising parties is not my skill set. Our little house was full to the brim.  Below you can see Coco guarding the Lego. G loves Star Wars and loves Lego. I bought him the At At and a friend bought him the R2-D2. I think he's planning on building them today.

I'm planning a fairly lazy day too. A big of blogging, a bit of sorting through the myriad of photos I have stored and organising them by date and year. I'm currently using them to put together a bit of a journal, which I might transfer over to the blog so that is is more of a complete journal. Although, if I spent all my time and effort doing that, what if Google suddenly decided to stop supporting Blogger - yikes!! That does worry me a bit! Oh and laundry, the post holiday laundry is always fun. 

I have my bookclub tomorrow, we're meeting at a local cafe. This month we read The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner. I gave it 4 stars. It's a bit of a mystery, thriller, plot twist kind of book and jumps between points of view and time (which normally annoys me because I get a bit lost, but this one was OK).

I'm currently reading Play Dead by Harlan Coben, a bit dated now - it was his first novel - but still a good read. 

I really like Harlan Coben books, I discovered his books after watching the adaptation of The Stranger on Netflix, what a great TV series!

I think I might read Pride and Prejudice again soon, I haven't read any Jane Austen for a while. For my 50th last year my girls bought me Pride and Prejudice with all the letters included as separate 'handwritten' letters. It's SO pretty.

To Miss Elizabeth Bennett

Written from Rosings at 8 o'clock in the morning

From Fitzwilliam Darcy

Pretty cool hey?

Anyway, that's it for now.

Sarah x

Bolsover Castle - Visited 10th July 2024

On Wednesday we visited Bolsover Castle, which is owned by English Heritage. It's not a real castle but rather it's a Stuart mansion which was built where a medieval castle once stood. There is a little 'castle' and the ruins of the 'Terrace Range' which were apparently very impressive banqueting rooms and a large kitchen.

It was kind of interesting to visit, there were some really cool rooms but the rest was mostly a bunch of empty damp rooms and blank panelled rooms that had no information on display - we should have bought the tour guide book! There were some rooms that had painted panelling - and we came across a woman doing some conservation work on the paintings, which was interesting.

I had a very nice Cornish Pasty in the cafe though, so that made up for my slight disappointment.

Ruins of Terrace Gallery

Little castle and wall walk

Fountain Garden with Venus in the middle.

The following are pictures of the more decorated rooms... I'm not sure which rooms they were, I didn't make a note.

Painting of Hercules doing his thing

Money doesn't buy taste, that's for sure haha.

Sarah x

Haddon Hall - visited 9th July 2024

G and I are currently on a short holiday staying in a cottage in Derbyshire. It's a lovely location, just outside of Chesterfield.

We're only here for a few days and the weather has been constantly grey and drizzly, so not much opportunity to explore the countryside sadly. BUT, no matter, it's a good excuse to do one of my favourite things! Explore stately homes and castles and whatnot.

On Tuesday we visited the beauuuuutiful Haddon Hall. It's a fascinating old place, and, because the family moved out in the 1700s to another house but maintained the place, it has escaped some of the 'modernising' of the Georgians and Victorians - so not as much marble and pillars as Chatsworth (which you may have seen as the residence of Mr Darcy in the film adaptation of P&P).

Anyhoop, here are some pics and a bit of info.

View from the river

The hall has been around since the 11th century and was mentioned in Domesday Book in 1087. It looks like a castle, but isn't. There was a fortified wall built in 1194, permission granted by John Lackland (future King John) at the time (an aside: you needed royal permission to build fortified walls otherwise you might just be seen to be planning your own little kingdom... reigning kings are a tad suspicious of that kind of thing - which is a bit ironic as John was definitely planning against his brother King Richard who was crusading most of the time). Like many ye olde houses, it's be extended numerous times.

Courtyard

It was a fascinating place to walk around, with many uneven floors worn down over many years, and a huge open fire in the Hall, which they had lit that day.

Banqueting Hall - nice fire - it's definitely a bit chilly for July!

The chapel is beautiful, it's Norman (around 1150) with later extensions. The walls are decorated with beautiful frescoes from about1425, that were damaged and covered during the reformation, and then discovered in 1858 underneath layers of whitewash.

You can just make out some of the fresco around the window

This fresco shows St Christopher

Entrance into Hall - you can see how worn the floor is

Some beautiful tapestries - 15th - 17th century

The Long Gallery

I've made this one extra large so you can see the signatures

Above the picture is of signed tiles above a fireplace - you can make out King George V who has put RI next to his name which is Rex Imperator, i.e. King-Emperor the last British Emperor, his wife Mary is on there twice. According to the volunteer we chatted to Mary was quite the collector and well known for taking what she wanted from houses she visited. So it was important to hide anything you really liked before she visited - this amused me a bit. You'll also see Alexandra - which I think is Princess Alexandra, Charles is on there twice - Prince of Wales at both times of visiting, and Princess Anne. Very random but interesting. Hey, nice of you to visit, can you sign my fireplace?

Nice little doorway shot there

The gardens were lovely. Very fragrant!

It's a beautiful spot

So that's it for Haddon Hall.

Sarah x

It's been a while

I had an urge to do some blogging again so here I am!

It's been nearly 2 years.

What's happened??

A lot really. My girls are all grown up. B got a first in Religious Studies from university in 2023, we are so proud. L has just finished her second year at university, studying Design.

Sadly our beautiful crazy kitty Boots passed away in December 2022. We recently got a new kitty, Coco, from a local animal shelter. She's 3 years old and very fluffy.

Coco

I'm working part time for a non-profit in a local town.

I recognise no-one will be reading this blog anymore, but I thought I'd just say 'hi'.

G and I are on holiday this week, I'll perhaps share some pictures :)

Oh, and England are through to the final of the Euros!! Whoop! Windows nearly blew out when we scored in the 90th minute haha.

Sarah x

I bought some shoes! I did gardening! And other life changing activities.

I think I'm gradually building up my strength after my nasty bout of pneumonia.

Today the girls went off to do a bit of clothes shopping leaving me and the hubs to ourselves.  I desperately need some new shoes.  I'm down to two pairs of casual shoes: a pair of doc martins and some plimsols (which are starting to come apart at the front).  So off we went.  And success!

Three pairs!  Three! It usually takes me a life time to pick one.

We had a post-shopping Lunch-date in a local cafe.  Lunch was delicious... steak sandwich with mushrooms and fried onions on ciabatta...mmmmm.

Then back home.  We watched a spooky film, Malevolent, which was ok. 

Boots enjoyed the sit down.  Look at her tiny fang and pink toebeans haha

Then I did a bit of gardening. The garden has got out of control since I became ill at the beginning of August.  Trimmed down a wild roses bush that had grown exponentially in the last few months and put down some bark just to tidy up the front garden.  Arms now covered in thorn scratches.

Hahaha

 This is me and hubs!

Working from home and cookies

Today I worked from home.  I'm on a phased return to working at the office, and it's working out great.  I would have definitely struggled to go straight back to work as I'm still sooo fatigued (it's a bit frustrating to be fair).

L was home today.  We were hungry and there was nothing in the house to eat, so she baked.  Lucky me!  Not much else to share. It's been a lovely quiet day.

So tasty!

L has been playing around on her new iPad.  It's Boots!