Enjoying The Holidays....

 

 

It busy, busy here at the moment! We are really enjoying the Summer Holidays, the break from routine.....not rushing in the mornings, NO HOMEWORK! I hate how homework eats up so much of our family time.

 

Well I've quickly tidied around, the house continually looks like a bombs dropped during the holidays, but I can live with it, yep, I'm REALLY enjoying our relaxed routines!

 

 

 

On Sunday, once the black clouds passed over, we went to our local National Trust House, Hardwick Hall. It's only a few minutes away, the perfect place to spend a few hours. It was built by Bess of Hardwick in the late 1500's, Queen Elizabeth 1st stayed there too.

 

Some beautiful tapestries, plasterwork....The Long Gallery has such a wobbly floor you feel like you're on a ship!

 

 

 

Now we're BIG, BIG NT fans here, we love their houses, gardens, the attention to detail. How they make their properties accessible and interesting for children.

 

Living on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire boarder, we have our choice of lots of places to visit. In fact, wherever we go on holiday, we try to find a NT property to visit. (I've a couple yet to show you from our holidays!)

 

 

 

I particularly love their gardens, always interesting, inspiring and so well kept, unlike my own which has been sadly neglected over the last few weeks!

 

 

 

Great places for hide and seek too!

 

But our absolute favourite place here is the Old Hall, rejected in favour of the new hall, it was left to fall into ruin.....but what a great ruin it is!

 

 

 

It's quite a scary place, old, dark, and crumbly. Perfect to activate childrens imaginations! We always look out for ghosts! I'm sure we've seen some too.......

 

Steep steps, plenty of places to fall out from, so care needs to be taken! I feel sick at quite a few points on the journey to the top.....but well worth swallowing hard and breathing deeply, fantastic views over the Derbyshire hills!

 

Yes a great place to spend a few hours!

 

 

 

So today the girls have school friends over, and apart from providing tomato soup and crusty French bread, I'm redundant! Hence time to write this!

 

I've been looking through my Vintage Sheet stash, choosing colour combinations.....what a hardship!

 

 

 

Thinking up crochet plans........

 

 

 

There's a zingy green and yellow to add to this stash.....thinking winter blanket!

 

 

 

 

Feeling very, very lucky to have such special friends from all around the world! Thank you sooooo much Ale, this yarn is fantastic! And a lovely little Pin too.....yes, I'm very, very lucky! This will come in very handy as my crochet skills develop!

 

 

 

 

Well I'm off to meet up with some old friends later, some I've not seen for over a year.....there will be lots of chat and laughter, I might not have a voice in the morning!

 

 

 

 

Yep, as I said, I'm enjoying these Summer Holidays.....

 

 

 

 

 

Bye for now.....hope your enjoying yourself too!

 

 

Ada :) xxx

 

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