We went over the border to England to celebrate something pretty special at the weekend, and as the dogs already had to be in kennels we thought it was a brilliant opportunity to treat ourselves to a night away before the celebrations kicked off.
So we traveled first to Lyme in Cheshire and had a lovely few hours looking round Lyme house, making good use of our National Trust membership.
As always I whizzed through the main 'fancy' rooms and headed for the servants areas.
There's so much more I find interesting in the nitty gritty behind the scenes look at daily life.
I loved this old range in the Butlers pantry.
Crocks on the window sill, a simple but charming 'still life' ... ... so much better than the still lifes depicting dead deer and hunting trophies upstairs!!
We had a wonderful afternoon, rounded it off with shortbread and coffee and then we headed along the road to Derbyshire and our hotel for the night.
It was lovely at The Old Hall Inn, our room was the white window and doorway you see to the left of the photograph on the first floor (and third roof level). We had a little outdoor area with a table and chairs., where we sat with cider and newspapers until the cooling evening air drew us back in to the cosy bedroom.
It was so relaxing to be away for a couple of days, but now it's back to normality, cleaning out the chickens, cutting the grass and doing lots of little jobs until it's time to go and pick up the dogs from the kennels.
It seems Ginger wasn't all alone while we were away ... he had a little friend round!!
When we got back we found a blue cat collar on the back doormat. We rang the phone number contained in the little canister on the collar and Eric's mom called round yesterday to pick it up. She had been searching all over for his collar, thinking he had lost it in their garden .... now she knows how far he roams to visit friends. No wonder Ginger wasn't that desperate for our company when we arrived home, after walking over to greet the car he made straight for the woods and carried on with whatever it was he was up to.
It's nice to get away for a night but it's always lovely to get home ..... even if the reception we get is very perfunctory ;-)
Sue xx
