ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 2ND OF 2022

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for

So how has the last 7 days been?  Time to clock the silver linings and positive moments

We had a lovely weekend last weekend albeit that we spent quite a lot of time just tootling around the house on Friday and Saturday.  I got a new tablet which I'd ordered recently as my old one was creaking as it had reached its maximum storage level, it has been nice to be able to use the new one without it falling over every two minutes this week which is definitely a grateful.

As most of you know we have a Chatsworth membership and unlike last year when they decided to open the gardens January through to March (which we couldn't use as Boris made us stay local), this year they have decided to close as normal and their last day of being open until the end of March was last Sunday, so me and hubby booked and headed off bright and early. 

I got to take in my favourite view at the top looking down the valley towards Chesterfield.

We headed to the carriage restaurant first thing for a cup of tea (we'd had breakfast at home), they had some new wintry canvases up on the walls and this was by far my favourite, the drumming hare is a stunning sculpture in the gardens but this was even better and so atmospheric. 

Out into the stables courtyard the Christmas decorations were still up

and then we had a slow wander down to the house and headed in. 

Inside the house it was still fully decorated for Christmas, bearing in mind the decorations have been up two months and some of those trees are real I think they've done amazingly well. 

The entrance hall was Alice themed and I loved these tiny textile white rabbits hung on the tree. 

and the painted roses

The Narnia themed courtyard is still looking amazing, they did a Chatsworth at Christmas show again this year to show the decorations and explained how they did this (and what hard work it was), I think it looks amazing and genuinely you forget when you are walking around that there isn't in fact snow everywhere. 

Whilst you might think we were still in the entrance hall, this was the corridor with reference to the Dickens theme with the Victorian pocket watch

and the paper houses created by local artist Su Blackwell were back on display

The wooden panelled room was the theme of Mr Toad of Toad Hall and I love the fact he is huddled under a blanket holding a hedgehog. 

This corridor still looks so pretty the lighting was beautiful 

We also noticed this painting which we hadn't noticed previously which I think is gorgeous, we've been watching a couple of science fantasy series (The Witcher and Wheel of Time) and it reminded us of the landscapes in there. 

The painted hall was still looking spectacular, although it looks fantastic with or without the Christmas decorations. 

The veiled lady is back in her old position at the moment, but with the curtains open you can see her slightly better than before, they sell replicas of her in the giftshop

The dining room table looked spectacular, but we were still confused as to why there was no lights on the top of the trees in the dining room. 

Outside and the sun was still shining albeit that it was very cold, along past the Emperor lake you get a view down the valley towards Matlock

We wandered the gardens, the maze garden was in deep shadow due to the time of year. 

We came across the dry stone wall sculpture and strangely approached it from a different side for the first time. 

The drumming Hare by the Grotto pond not quite as atmospheric as the picture in the restaurant. 

Overall we had a really lovely visit and it was good to shake off the cobwebs and have a lovely wintry walk before they closed for the season, they will now have the unenviable task of taking down all the decorations. 

The rest of the week has tripped along at a merry old pace (actually it is running at full tilt as normal).  

On Monday we popped to my Mums to pop her Christmas decorations back up in the loft, I also vacuumed through whilst I was there as it needed a fettle and she is struggling at the moment.

We binge watched and thoroughly enjoyed watching The Witcher season 2, hopefully they will make another series.  We enjoyed spotting places in the UK where it was filmed, we spotted High Force waterfall on one of the scenes.  

Hubby and said 21 year old have been sorting an issue out that I was struggling to manage and so another grateful was those two being amazing as always and that my lovely people was my week, I hope you've had a grand week and will happen across your blogs over the weekend (fingers crossed). 

Much love

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 1ST OF 2022

 Good afternoon I hope I find you well, tis Friday time for 

It has been a quiet week overall if I'm honest, mainly because I returned to work.  

However, before that I went with hubby for a good walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and strangely I managed to find some new sculptures we hadn't seen before.  This was my favourite as from a distance it definitely looked like a space rocket. 

I enjoyed seeing the beautiful sunshine on the way to work when hubby was driving

We had a really productive day at work on Monday, most of the staff headed in despite the fact it was technically a bank holiday moving a few staff into different office space and sorting out some activities equipment in a better space than we've used previously.  It was a good day overall and we all went home exhausted but happy with what we had managed to achieve. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were very busy work days, but Thursday I actually went in late to work and left early and me and hubby headed to watch the new Matrix film.  I loved the first one and the second but the third one made me very unhappy so have a fourth reboot of a more positive nature definitely ticked all the boxes. 

Afterwards me and hubby enjoyed a date night with Tapas at Tapas Revolution. 

It was lovely but very very filling and then I find myself at Friday. 

I hope you've all had a brilliant week, I will hopefully catch up with your posts over the next couple of days.  Apologies if I'm missed any, I will check them out if I have and comment accordingly. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 53RD OF 2021

 Good afternoon lovely people, I'm a wee bit late, but still time to clock the positives and the grateful moments of the last 7 days. 

So last Friday we had set the table all ready for the big day, I was really happy with it this year and it was a change in colour scheme and matched the room perfectly. 

On Christmas morning we had a leisurely couple of hours opening gifts and it is good to know that I can still surprise him. 

I managed to grab us a Christmas selfie, I don't think we look too bad bearing in mind we were in the midst of cooking for nine. 

Christmas day was lovely, lots of love and laughter around the table, and said 21 year old's fiancée and said neice's other half joined us later in the day. 

They left around 9pm and we decided to leave the tidying up until Boxing day, this is what we came down to on Boxing day morning. 

And in a short space of time it looked like this

and we gave the same treatment to the kitchen

which soon looked much more orderly

Boxing day is known as pig table day at Mums, so we headed over there around 1pm, we had some lovely roast pork sandwiches with stuffing and some sausage rolls.   Here is the hostess for the afternoon

My Mum had been very sensible and got paper plates to save on washing up, here is my sister enjoying her food. 

Mum even cut a piece of her Christmas cake, which was lovely. 

The rest of the week has been something of a blur, my sister and my niece have both ended up with Covid, but touch wood, we are all OK at the moment other than a cold, which we keep testing with lateral flow tests just in case, but it is definitely a cold, however, we are triple jabbed so that may have some bearing on it. 

My Mum had a hospital appointment this week, whilst the cancer in her back is currently OK, the one affecting her middle is what they have defined as 'unstable' so they are giving her one more round of her current treatment and a further scan to see if it is making a difference, if not they will change it.  If you can offer up some happy thoughts and positive prayers at this point, that would be lovely.  

Me and hubby decided we needed to blow off the cobwebs off so we went for a walk locally however, it was mighty blowy. 

We walked around the local village and then headed down to Wentworth Woodhouse, just to give our legs a stretch. 

I've started next year's cards (as I usually do), the current design is Christmas gonk which have been popular this year, they have quite a lovely expression and each one is individual. 

Yesterday we headed to the local panto to watch Aladdin

and today we've headed to Sheffield for Sleeping Beauty

which was awesome

I hope you've enjoyed your Christmas and are looking forward to the clean slate that will be here with us tomorrow.  May I send all my love at the close of 2021 and hope your 2022 proves to be positive and beautiful. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 52ND OF 2021

 Good afternoon tis Friday time for 

Last Friday was the great pre-Christmas clean, now am I talking about my house, nope, me and my sister had already diarised having a pre-Christmas clean at my Mum's house as she is still struggling, however my sister being a single person and a very busy nurse hadn't even had time to put her decorations up.  So Friday was a full on day of sorting not only my Mum's house, but also my sister's house too.  I was needless to say absolutely shattered when I got home gone 6pm.  Hubby also came over for a good few hours and sorted out a new curtain pole (and wooden plinth) for my sister's bedroom and hung some pictures she's had forever but not got around to sorting.  

Saturday arrived and me and hubby headed over to my work place for the Santa boat trips, he was skippering and in an ideal world I was making drinks and sorting out the gallery.  In reality I was upstairs in the office doing work, a final bank run, a reconciliation or two, some other items on the bank, a full back up and then I did some scanning that has needed doing in forever.  Whilst I was pleased with what I got done, it definitely wasn't the planned Saturday that I had. 

Sunday was defined as a day of rest, we decided after two incredibly busy days we were quite literally going to do nothing.  Hubby almost waivered early on, but I convinced him that a day of rest was definitely needed.

Monday and it was my turn to clean my own home, thankfully as we keep top side most of the time, it didn't take a huge amount of time, said 21 year old landed home from his fiancée's house and gave us a hand, which definitely speeded things up.  He'd actually come home to sort an issue with his student finance which was sorted relatively quickly. 

Tuesday and it was Christmas food shop day we were all done at the supermarkets by 9.03am which I don't think is bad going and we got everything we needed bar for one item. My Mum was at the hospital again to be drained, she was a little fed up early in the day as they hadn't got a bed for her or taken her bloods and she was sat in a drafty corridor feeling very cold, but thankfully it all got sorted relatively quickly and she was home again that evening, she's had a couple of 'sore' days but she is hoping to be well enough to enjoy her Christmas day. 

My hubby and said 21 year old took a Christmas gift over to a relative as well, which was lovely, she was in fine form. 

Wednesday and we headed to YSP, a much needed break from the house and some decent fresh air.  I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it

We walked down through the park (the sky was very pretty) 

Grabbed a selfie along the lakeside path

and found a couple of new sculptures we hadn't seen before

The waterfall was very loud as well. 

Thursday we had a sorting the Christmas table day getting everything out ready and then me and said 21 year old decided that we needed to make some name tags for the Christmas table, but they were tiny, so we made some impromptu Christmas gonks each with a name tag on them.  We had great fun creating them. 

And that my lovely people was my week, I hope you have a fantastic Christmas, stay safe, enjoy time however you spend it. 

Much love

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY 51ST OF 2021 (OK LET'S PRETEND IT IS STILL FRIDAY)

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday (OK it is Saturday but let us pretend that I'm not stupidly late). 

time for 

Well as you can tell I've had a mighty busy week, although last weekend we took the time to just stop, having had a few very busy weeks and weekends of it, it felt good just to spend time in our own four walls and enjoy some downtime, which as most of you know I'm not very good at. 

However the positives are, these beautiful roses from hubby 

He did the make ahead gravy ready for Christmas day following Jamie Oliver's recipe, which he then freezes. 

We've had a few late nights at work, but on one of the evenings we were leaving at a sensible time we got this beautiful sky shot

On Thursday I took my Mum and sister to Chatsworth, we had this beautiful view on our way (my favourite view). 

We enjoyed a cuppa outside before venturing into the house

My Mum is struggling again and has to go into the hospital again next week to have some fluid taken off her middle, it is hard for me and my sister to see her struggle, but she is doing amazing nonetheless and spending time with her is such a precious thing for us all. 

I enjoyed spending the day with the two of them and hubby. 

I hope you've all had a grand week, I'm so sorry this is short and sweet, but I've got 6 minutes before I leave to do the Santa boat trips at work.  

I will catch up on blog reading over the next couple of days (I might spend tomorrow sleeping if truth be told). 

Have a fabulous weekend and week ahead you lovely people.