Monday 10 October 2011

The Peak District




Here I am again to bore you with details of our week in the Peak District. The cottage there couldn't have been more different from Liverton Lodge in Yorkshire if it had tried. It looked very tiny from the outside but was deceptively spacious inside. There was a very modern kitchen (with a boiler that worked!), a dining room and large sitting room. The stairs led off from the sitting room where upstairs were two bedrooms, one with a double bed and the second with twin beds, there was also a very nice bathroom, the whole place was very tastefully decorated.

We collected the key from Ivy House Farm (the cottage was Ivy Cottage)where we were given a very warm welcome from Christine the owner. She took us to the cottage where she had laid out a welcome tray, there was also a bowl of fresh eggs from her chickens and milk in the fridge. There was even a vase of fresh flowers in the sitting room, a lovely surprise.

The garden, whilst not huge was completely secure with plenty of room for Bonnie to run around. In the field next to the cottage were chickens .... Bonnie had never seen chickens close up before and she was fascinated! She spent hours each day watching them and trying to get closer to play with them (at least we always knew where she was), and she had no trouble going outside on her own there!

The heatwave continued for the first few days but then it began to get very windy and noticably cooler, in fact the wind felt bitterly cold on the last morning as we walked Bonnie in the fields.

We knew it was time to go home though when we had a power cut at 3am and the smoke alarm kept "bleeping" keeping us awake for most of the night. The next morning there was still no electicity and so yet again no hot water and this time not even a cup of tea and some breakfast .... I never thought I would be glad of a service station for breakfast!! Still other than that we had a brilliant time.

Now of course it's back to reality and all the washing and ironing. Still I can now look forward to "Craftaway Saturday" ... not far away now!

I'm Back!



I'm back ..... yes I know, you didn't even realise I had gone! Well I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks. The first week we went up to North Yorkshire where we met up with my Sister Joan, she and her partner Ron have a B&B in Whitby, we had the best time ever and even better they are coming down here to Hampshire to spend Christmas with us before going off on a cruise for a couple of weeks .... I can't wait!

The cottage we rented (well it wasn't a cottage really) was HUGE! Here's a photo of it, it had an impressive entrance hall with a sitting room on either side of the hall, both with TV's and one with a grand piano! At the end of the hall it went into a T shape, to the left was another hall a dining room and kitchen with a utility/boiler room leading off. To the right was a bathroom and shower, a cloakroom/telephone room an a walk in cupboard. Upstairs were 4 big bedrooms, two with king size beds and two with twin beds, there was also another bathroom and seperate WC, up another set of stair leading to the attic was another twin bedded room and various other rooms that were locked. The garden was also very big. All this and there were just 3 of us plus Bonnie.

The only problem was that as the house was so big Bonnie was never quite sure where we were and so she would never go out of the house on her own (I have a very neurotic dog!).

The weather was perfect, we arrived just right for the heatwave .... wonderful!!

The only probem we had was on the last day when the boiler decided to pack up and so we had no hot water at all! So after a cold wash and breakfast off we set for our second week in the Peak District.... more about that later.