April 4-10th
We spent the first week of the school holidays down in Derbyshire in the Peak District National Park. The weather was fantastic and it was great to escape to the country for a few days.
Some highlights:
On the drive down we went around Manchester and Stockport, so we took a detour to Lyme Park (aka, Pemberly) and spent a couple of hours charging around before they closed!
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| Yey! |
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| On the famous steps |
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| Favorite thing: rolling in the grass! |
Easter Sunday we visited Haddon Hall, near Bakewell. Setting of many period dramas, and also the castle of Harfang (home to the 'gentle giants') in the BBC production of the Silver Chair.
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| The bridge railing was a bit low.... |
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| They'd decorated for Easter |
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| The courtyard of the castle. (This is where Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum stood watching the giant's hunting party leave, we think....) |
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| The building itself hasn't been overly altered since Tutor times. The carved wood paneling inside was impressive. |
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| They gave Felicity the bunny ear headband as part of the Easter egg hunt they'd done in the house for visitors. |
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| Here's where the Silver Chair folks found the cookbook, we think... |
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| Beams throughout the kitchen |
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| Felicity kept making Simon more 'strawberry cake' |
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| Simon got a snap of the kitchen in a rare lull - it was really busy! |
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| Beautiful paneling and leaded glass windows. Also think this is the window seat where they saw 'Under Me' |
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| Fabulous original Tutor wood paneling in the dining room. The cards in the room informed us that the Lord and Lady Manners still dine and entertain their guests regularly here. |
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| Felicity found a knot garden out back. A little boy came along and Felicity was doing her best to chase the boy out of 'MY garden!!' (She told me confidentially later that: 'Boys are naughty. Girls are good!' I laughed and Simon laughed indignantly!) I wish I knew what the purple flowers on the wall where - fabulous color for this time of year. |
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| We've won the ponytail struggle! This week she's consistently asked for 'baubles' in her hair. I think it's long enough to annoy her now - I've heard her telling-off the wind for blowing her hair in her face. lol |
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| Love the swishy tutu! |
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| Haddon Hall from its backyard. |
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| She loved all this running around (I think she was still chasing the little boy at this time.) |
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| Inner courtyard, but in the sunshine this time! |
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| Simon took Felicity on a little walk further along the garden while I sat and chilled out. |
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| Can you stand the cuteness?? |
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| Leaving Haddon Hall, looking back from the bridge. |
Monday, we went to Bolsover Castle, home of William Cavendish, a very wealthy, powerful noble who among other things, was crazy about horses. He built a stables and riding school that was fancier than the castle itself! And his treatise on horsemanship is still influential on modern day dressage techniques.
Over the Easter weekend, they had horses demonstrating some of the 'exercises' in the riding school with trainers dressed in period costume. Unfortunately, not allowed to take pictures (health and safety.)
The castle was packed, so we left to go up the road to Hardwick Hall (also a seat of the 'Cavendish' family.)
All the pictures here are from Hardwick.
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| This is Hardwick Hall. It's a National Trust property now. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (descendants of Bess of Hardwick who built this palatial hall) gave it to the government in lieu of death taxes...unbelievable wealth (see: Chatsworth, later in the photos.) If I remember correctly, before they had to donate it to the government, this was a small country lodge - kind of a back-water get-away as it were..... |
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| As brilliant as the house is (and it is furnished to the gills with original old tapestries, carvings, furniture, etc), I just love the gardens. They've restored a Tutor herb-garden (unfortunately too early in the year to see most things at full swing) and there are many little garden 'rooms' to explore. |
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| We laid out on the grass sketching for a good excuse for a rest! |
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| Yey! |
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| It was warn enough to go barefoot! |
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| Felicity was helping me draw |
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| And when we went inside, she decided it was appropriate to lay down on the floor with her legs in the air.... |
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| And to use my scarf as a cape (or 'Flap' as she likes to call it.) |
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| Some of the gardens near the hall |
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| Someone had built this fairy house in front of a hollow of a tree... |
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| 'Anyone home?' |
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| Next day, riding the cable car |
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| The Heights of Abraham |
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| Looking down to Matlock town |
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| Swiss style cable cars! |
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| One of the main attractions at the top of the hill is a natural cavern they discovered while mining lead in the 1800s. I took this picture of Simon and Felicity..... |
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| Then Simon took the camera and worked magic -- |
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| Same spot, same camera - different photographer!! |
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| I only use the auto-functions! Most of the time it works though - good subject material! |
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| The first thing we did at Chatsworth was visit the animals |
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| The gardens were the best (again, I preferred them to Chatsworth house itself). Felicity loved the lawn. |
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| We spent hours looking around the different parts of the garden. The weather was perfect. |
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| I love this series of pictures. Happy girl! |
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| At the top of the rock garden |
Our last day - we did visit a cavern in the morning, but didn't get many photographs. We just wanted somewhere we could go out and enjoy the gorgeous weather, so we went back to Lyme Park.
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| She pretended to be a 'chocodile' and she was snapping up the little white daisies in the grass for food. |
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| Barefoot rules! |
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Good times.
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