Autumnal day trip to Derbyshire

Hello again everyone.  I finally managed to pack away my work for the rest of this half-term week and yesterday took off with DD to Derbyshire for a girls day out.

We set off bright and early from home, and, before we knew it, arrived at Darley Dale at this lovely little shop...

don't you just love the yarn-bombed bicycle?  Not sure if this one had had a guest appearance at Yarndale or if it was used as part of the Tour de France Grande Depart celebrations but we both thought it was a lot of fun!  Inside the store is a fantastic array of all things embroidery, and the young girl who served us was so friendly and helpful.  We love coming here to buy supplies. 

Next up we went to Rowsley to visit another favourite stopping-off place for us, Cauldwell's Mill.  We love to mooch around the old out buildings...

Quite a bit of autumn colour in evidence...

On a distant hill, a farmer was sorting out a tree that had probably been blown down the day before when we had a lot of high winds and stormy weather...

Back at the mill is a lovely gift shop...

...this little fellow was waiting patiently for his owner..

The sky was absolutely stunning...

We then jumped back in the car and drove another ten minutes up the A6 to the beautiful town of Bakewell, where we had a good rummage around the charity shops and found some super bargains, including a brand new handbag for me and a brand new hat for DD.  We went in some other shops and bought a few gifts for Christmas, but these will have to remain a secret for now!

It then started to spot with rain, and, as our tummies were rumbling we went to the Thorntons Coffee shop for a lovely lunch...

The service and the food in this little café is second to none, do try it if you are ever in Bakewell.  The cakes looked very tempting, so we decided on these two, we cut them up and had half each...

It was such a treat to be sitting having a lovely chat with DD, we have spent a lot of time together this week which has been absolutely fantastic.  We both have very similar tastes, we are both heavily into the Scandinavian vibe at the moment!  She also shares my love of autumn, and is doing an autumnal themed project for her Art Textiles A Level at the moment.  As we sat chatting I couldn't resist taking a photo through the café window as we watched the world go by...

 With our tummies full, we had another wander around the town and came upon this superb display at the little greengrocers shop...

 



This is probably the nearest we will get to a pumpkin patch (DD and I would LOVE to go to a proper pumpkin patch in New England...)  and we loved this funny little face...

DD took a lot of time to pick an ideal pumpkin for us.  Hopefully I will be able to do it justice on the 31st!!

On the way home we popped in to see my Darling Mum, whose health is still very up and down, but it was lovely to have a chat with her and tell her what we had been up to.  Three girls together!!  I can't wait for her to be up and about again so that she can come to my house for dinner, we always have such a good time.

Back home, we found that the vegetable soup I had put on in the slow cooker before going out had cooked nicely.  After dinner, by means of a "thank you" DD made me a lovely hot chocolate...

can you spot the little gingerbread men she made? 

Hope you are all having a lovely week, thanks again so much for all your recent kind comments, very much appreciated.

Helenxx

Grand Day Out in Derbyshire

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week.

Yesterday my bestest friend Sue, our two Darling Daughters and me had ourselves a road trip to Derbyshire, following the route of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.  Our aim was to have a fun day out together, take in some lovely crafting supplies shops, do some small town browsing and have a bite to eat.  Three years ago Sue and I did a similar road trip, which I blogged about here.

Driving along there is much Industrial Architecture (which I love) to admire:

Rowsley -

Matlock Bath -

Belper -

Milford - 

We visited some lovely shops, including this one in Darley Dale, a veritable wonderland of all things related to embroidery, we all bought some lovely things.  The windows made great eye-candy too

I was drooling over this Midwinter coffee set, would look great with my growing collection

The staff are very friendly, it is a lovely place to visit, just be sure to save up some pennies first as there is so much you will want to buy!

We then jumped back in the car, and made our way to the pretty little town of Bakewell, which is only 10 minutes up the road.  We parked up and made our way to the little bridge - it is quite wobbly, rather like the Millenium Bridge in London, but quite safe of course.  And a great place to stand awhile and snap some photos

The river was running really quickly

But nothing could ruffle the feathers of these two stately creatures

We browsed some lovely shops, including the most amazing charity shops I had ever come across!  We stopped off for a bite to eat, and a bit more browsing.  We then decided to head back down the A6 to

it is a lovely little place to wander around, with a craft shop and mill museum.  But the things that took our eye on this visit were these little cuties...

The very essence of spring!

Some more feathered friends were there as well

The countryside was just beautiful, the green was so intense, so hard to replicate in photos...

There were even what I call Marimekko trees!

I think silver birch trees are wonderful, would love one in my garden

Driving back home along the A6 road I snapped some photos of the villages and towns we drove through (please do not worry dear readers, I wasn't driving!!)

Rowsley...

Matlock Bath...

and just had to take this photo in Belper, after all it was St Georges day!  And the building dates back to Georgian times too...

Thanks so much to Sue and the girls for a lovely day out, hopefully won't be too long before we can do something similar again!

Helenxx