Good morning lovely people I hope I find you well as it is Friday time for
So what have we been up to so last Friday I spent some time typing up some information for my Mum, I then managed to print it off and take it over to her, it was nice to be able to get this little task done as my Mum asked me a while ago.
Last week marked the reopening of Chatsworth house and our first visit of the year, whilst we didn't have to wear masks around the house we did need them for our exit as the last room leads directly into the shop.
I've never been in Chatsworth when it has been so quiet, they are only letting 37 people in every 15 minutes (which when you bear in mind a busy Chatsworth at Christmas event day they can see 6000 people just tells you how very quiet it was.
I love the hare bell in the middle courtyard
As usual blogger has put these photos in whatever order it fancies, so first up a sign of the times me and hubby and our facemasks made by said 19 year old's GF, they worked really well and are really comfortable to wear.
The house looked beautiful
The dining room was beautifully laid out
We noticed extra details this time, maybe because we weren't rushed but also because I think they had lit rooms slightly differently
The painted hall was so very beautiful and very very empty
I liked the display of ceramics
The cascade was lovely, they have been running it for a reduced amount of time because it is gravity fed and the lake above Chatsworth has low water levels currently (although looking at those black clouds in the photo, we were slightly confused as you would have thought we'd had enough rain).
The inner courtyard detail is stunning
The horse sculpture is still beautiful
We spotted a lost teddy (hope he found his way home)
The path to the rose garden, which is currently devoid of roses had some gorgeous planting.
The library is beautiful, all those books to read.
I loved the shot through the window of the emperor garden
The new wall in the arcadia part of the garden
Shot of hubby near the blue bridge
and one of us without the masks on.
Other gratefuls this week, hubby buying me these beautiful flowers and some chocolate after a partiularly trying day at work.
The flowers are stunning
and my new cleaning slippers, I love to steam my floors but I hate that they can end up dull afterwards because of the water drying on the surface, my slippers made the difference and I had lovely shiny floors as a result
And that my lovely people is my week, I hope you've had a good week too, if you fancy joining in pop back and link up and we can come and visit, enjoy it whilst you can because apparently the legacy version of blogger is going to disappear which means I'm going to struggle to put Mr Linky on as I can't get the HTML coding to work, hey ho, we shall keep going and hope blogger sort the issues.
Well last Friday I had the day off and it was the day before my niece's 21st birthday, obviously at the beginning of the year we had some lovely plans for parties but as we know the world has changed and up until a few weeks ago she was very much of the view that her 21st would be something of a wash out.
However, my sister had different plans which included landscaping her garden, they'd already had some help during the week and filled a 4 tonne skip to boot but the garden still wasn't there. So on Friday I headed over there and said 19 year old followed later in the morning and between us we 3/4 filled the new 3 tonne skip and deposited 2 tonnes of pebbles on said garden, which meant on Saturday the ridiculously sized marquee that my Mum had bought could be erected and a birthday party was had.
So here is the said birthday girl with my sister singing happy birthday to her, we had a lovely day, good food, good company and an all round fabulous day which was definitely a success.
Sunday was a lovely slow day where we did very little, we put the cushions out on the chairs outside and sat and read, chatted and just enjoyed drinking in the blue skies summers day. I even had an afternoon nap and hubby prepared a super speedy tea which was lovely and tasty in time for the two workers (said 19 year old and his GF) to arrive home from work.
Monday arrived all too quickly and I was definitely stiff from all the gardening but it looked so much better and was so worth it.
I've had a busy but productive week at work, I'm still working on a lot of funding bids at the moment but that's the nature of things and I don't mind, I had a couple of productive days in the office which I enjoyed too. The downside to mentally tiring days is that there isn't a lot left of me by the end of day for anything else in all honesty, despite making the decision that I would definitely be doing more of an evening, yesterday was the only one where I managed and that was cleaning the house through ready for the weekend.
And that my lovely people was the week that was, short on photos this week, so I thought I'd leave you with a few scrapbook layouts I've completed reminding me of times when we could go out and do things a lot more easily
Crazy golf at Center Parcs
Meal out to Bella Italia at Center Parcs (they've gone bust over the pandemic)
Hubby playing on the kids play equipment which was out of bounds during the pandemic, although this was at Center Parcs during that time so that wasn't even open, we so took this time for granted
Badminton and crazy tennis
Out on the lake (and using up a scrapbook kit with lots of mini cards)
Playing spoons and reading
Then last year's visit to Wray Castle
My Stott Park poem (managed to get it included in the layout)
The cottage we stayed in, hubby took the shot from the opposite hillside when him and said 19 year old went exploring
These two on the see saw a Holker Hall
Trip to Hardwick Hall last year
Enjoying a coffee in the coffee shop last year
Birthday outing a couple of years ago
More celebration of valentine birthdays in 2018
An early morning walk for me and hubby
Another one of Hardwick Hall
If you fancy joining in pop back and link up so we can some and visit.
so this time last week me and hubby were heading off to our old home town of Stafford for what should have been a weekend of culture with a Shakespeare play, alas like many other things it has been postponed until next year but I had no option to cancel the hotel, so we decided to venture anyway.
We headed off at 10am and went straight to Shugborough which is a national trust property on the outskirts of Stafford (somewhere back in the depths of time we had membership to the farm which we used to take said 19 year old when he was younger than 4).
This is the tower of the winds in the grounds themselves, closed up due to Covid at the moment
We had a wander around the gardens and grabbed a selfie
There are also some strange carvings in the grounds
and some lovely structures
I've always loved the oriental building and the red bridge
It was the first time we'd ever been in the walled garden (we didn't even know that it existed), the house that you can see was the old head gardeners house).
Blue skies eventually as it was rather dark when we first got there, this is the back of the house which is mighty grey in my honest opinion but still pretty against the sky. It was the ancestral home of Lord Lichfield who I believe was the Queen's cousin, very famous photographer, we've been in the house before and there is still lots of his camera equipment in the house to see.
another shot of the head gardeners house, the triangular shape is where there was an original glass house leant against the house.
The druid statue on the ruins overlooking the river, I assume the ruins were a Victorian folly although I'm sure I read that the stones used came from the original manor house that sat on the site.
Then around 3pm we headed off to our hotel, we got there fine but were amazed at the quantity of house building that was happening in and around Stafford, we think it has become something of a commuter town for Birmingham in all honesty as the major employers have all gone.
We had a lovely meal on the Friday night in the restaurant. Saturday dawned and we headed to Blist Hill for a wander; if you've not been it is a Victorian town that operates as it would in its heyday, a living museum, they'd gone to extra lengths to keep us safe and some of the shops that didn't have an 'in and out' were still closed up but with genius signs on the doors to explain away the closure.
These are all out of order so apologies if you do know the site
This was the view from the table where we grabbed our early morning coffee (much needed).
Hubby as we started the walk up the hay incine plane (a method of transporting goods - usually coal) up and down steep hillsides to the river below, this one linked with the Canal at Blist Hill, the weight of the heavy load going down one side raised the empty one on the other side to be filled with coal before being lowered to the bottom to the boats on the River Severn
I've always loved the squatters cottage
This was the sign outside the haberdashery
Me and hubby before we ascended the incline plane
I bought some of these genius signs for our black and white wall at home
The boat on the left was designed for breaking up the ice on the River Severn, up to 20 horses would pull the boat from the side of the river and the middle platform men would stand and rock the boat back and forth to break up the ice
Blist hill on our canal walk back along
The locksmiths actually had a volunteer to chat to (which is the first time ever), he was really chatty and informative and told us that locksmiths were incredibly poor, making and selling their locks to big locksmith companies that made the profit, they often had 2 apprentices that they took on from poor houses, but as such that meant the market was flooded with locksmiths (think about the doubling issue with Covid, if 2 apprentices take on 2 apprentices once they were qualified the 2 becomes 4 becomes 16 etc etc quite quickly). They often had to have a side hustle to make ends meet as the money made selling locks this week was often used to buy supplies for next week.
I loved the accidentally adjacent statement on this one, apparently the manager at Blist Hill is a trained graphic designer and he put the posters together in the correct style and dotted them around the site, they definitely raised a chuckle.
This is Jack Sampson, the blacksmith at Ironbridge (he has an instagram feed under the same name if you want to follow his work), we had a lengthy chat with him, qualified to degree level from Hereford University, he was making barley corn in metalwork, mesmerising to watch.
Me and hubby
Hubby had a beer from pub early in the day, look at that happy mischievous look
We had a fabulous day and have to thank Ironbirdge and Blist Hill for making us feel very safe in these difficult times and allowing us to have a brill time.
We had a wander around Stafford before our evening meal
The main church is so pretty
and the walk along one of the back streets
We split our journey home up on the way back and stopped off at Chatsworth having pre-booked the week before, we were treated to blue skies and managed to stay off the beaten path
The house looked splendid with is shiny gold windows
Grabbed a selfie after our epic weekend away
An up close view of the house
Oh and a shot of the church at Stafford, I said it was putting them in a random order - sorry
The rest of the week has tripped along, Monday we had a day off just to recover from the weekend and return to normal (if that makes sense).
I hit two years of not drinking alcohol this week which I'm mighty proud of if I'm honest (although hubby's wine last weekend did smell mighty fine).
Said 19 year old and his girlfriend have returned for a few weeks (they are now able to split their time between the two houses, but do it for several weeks at a time to minimise risk).
Our locality has seen an increase in cases recently, so they've advised everyone to get tested whether you have symptoms or not as they try and suppress the spread, so grateful to receiving the postal tests via Amazon (which did make me giggle) and getting them sent off yesterday, not that any of us feel poorly just because we've been asked to do it.
and that my lovely people was the week that was, hope you've had a grand week, if you fancy joining in pop back and link up so we can come and visit, I think we have got comments flowing through again, although not sure if Lisca sent one last week, I can't remember lol.
