Road trip to Derbyshire

Half term is properly under way for me at last!!  Hooray!!!!

So my bestest friend Sue my darling daughter and I have had a lovely day out in Derbyshire.

So many lovely flowers and blossom everywhere. ..

 

 

the May (Hawthorn) blossom was at it's very best...

 



Adorable animals...

Bakewell was quite busy...

 



Lots of padlocks on the bridge, this seems to be such a growing trend...

It drives my husband absolutely mad, he can moan about this trend for ages...

Love this shop selling hand made baskets of all types...

Reminds me of Domestic Science lessons, when we would carry our ingredients to school in baskets like the one below, covered by a freshly laundered tea towel...

Old police station complete with blue lamp...

We trawled the charity shops, which are usually very good indeed, but only managed to get a few bits and pieces as I think they had been pretty much picked over during the bank holiday weekend.  By this time we really needed coffee and lunch so went to our favourite café.  I love the pattern on my latte - wonder how they do that?

 

The café is within a Thornton's chocolate shop, so they give you a chocolate smile...

 

 

 

Sue was the driver so on the way home I managed to snap a few more photos en route.  The Peacock Hotel in Rowsley, dates back to Elizabethan times...

Big old Victorian Mill in Belper...

Matlock Bath, with the Horsechestnut blossom at it's best...

Tunnel of trees between Matlock Bath and Whatstandswell...

 

A wonderful day out with a lovely friend and DD, just what was needed after what has been a very hectic few weeks. 

 

Helenxx









Welcome 2015!

Good morning and Happy New Year!  A whole New Year spread before us - hopefully we can all make the most of it and grab every new opportunity that comes our way.

Yesterday was a lovely day.  First there was some happy pootling about with some crochet in the morning (yes, I was the first to get up again, I love that quiet time before the household wakes up).  I had quite a lot of scraps of yarn left after completing my challenge blanket (which will have it's own post soon) so I am making a lap blanket for me - this is my progress so far...

I will make it as large as I can with the yarn I have left.  The rows are completely random in order as I am going with the smallest scraps to the largest left over to make the most of every bit of yarn.  But I am quite happy with the colour scheme so far.

Then my 3rd eldest son woke up and helped in the kitchen to make some veggie sausage rolls...

I had some puff pastry and home made mincemeat left so had a go at making pinwheel pastries...

These little treats didn't hang around for long because the rest of the brood were woken up by the cooking smells!

Then DH suggested a little trip out to the Peak District in Derbyshire - neither of us had been out of the house since Sunday so we thought we needed a change of scene.  In-between days are the best, enjoying being at home and just having time to "be", but eventually even the best of loungers can start to feel slight cabin fever looming on the horizon!  We love driving up to Derbyshire, sometimes if we just want to get out for a couple of hours we just drive up to Bakewell and back, the route is so scenic and there is always something different to see.  This time, being the festive season, the little villages were all dressed up for Christmas.  We ended up at the Peak Village retail outlet in Rowsley.  This is based on the site of an old railway station, with the old buildings preserved as shops.  The courtyard looked so pretty with all the lights...

I love how the old stations were heated with real fires, just look at those chimneys...

The snow was still laying thickly on the ground as you can see, but on the way home the temperature started to rise and rain started to fall.  This morning all the snow has melted away.

Once back home, DH cooked tea (he is an amazing cook!!) whilst I finished working on a little heart for my bestest friend Sue...

I wrote "2015" on the larger of the two buttons in permanent ink...

We always go to Sue's house on New Year's Eve to see in the New Year with her and her family, and I like to make her a New Year gift in the shape of a scented heart as a little "thank you". 

As usual, we had a lovely time, catching up with the gossip news, talking about plans for trips in the new year, nibbling on delicious treats.  When the clock struck twelve, DH cracked opened the alcohol-free bubbly.

Then we watched the firework display from London on the TV, as ever these were amazing...



image courtesy of BBC News

I would love to go to this display one year, it looks so spectacular.

Later today we are going to visit my Darling Mum to have a New Year's Day meal with her, DH and I will prepare it as she is still fairly frail after all her recent illness, but thankfully improving.

Happy New Year!

Helenxx

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