Holiday Snaps

Right, recipe will come soon! Hope you liked the sketch too - it's been a while, and I'm hoping to include more, as they're a fun way of making my blog a little different. We'll see...

I'm tired after bizarre sleeping patterns to and from a lovely wedding in Northern Ireland. Still got almost all my packing to do, and am moving house on Saturday... fun fun! So I'll leave you with some photos from the trip Colin and I took up to Yorkshire and Derbyshire a little while ago.

Col chose Yorkshire (not sure what prompted this, but good choice Cogs) and I decided it was too far to drive from Somerset, so we stopped in Derbyshire first. And we stayed at lots of beautiful Youth Hostels - this is the path which led out behind the first one, Ravenstor. Apparently it's where David Bellamy first developed a love of wild flowers.


We had competitions over who could take the best stairs shot... but since Col's isn't here, you can't be the judge.


Mum and Dad had bought us National Trust membership (thanks OV and OVW!) and the first we visited was Ilam Hall.


The place I was most excited about visiting was Chatsworth, recent home of Debo Mitford aka the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. The house was kind of dark and broodingly handsome (so like me, naturallement) and then the gardens were simply gorgeous. I could have stayed in them for hours and hours, but Col was waiting in the car park - owing to his irrational hatred of all things Mitford, and all things costing £9.50.




The other highlight, once we were up in Yorkshire, was of course Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage. Although I'm not an obsessive Bronte fan (and, unusually, Anne is my favourite) it still felt wonderful to be there. Even with a group of thirty schoolchildren wandering around after us, their teacher hovering outside each room we were in, saying "No, you can't go in yet, the room is not empty yet."


But Anne, Charlotte and Emily are not all that Haworth has to offer - they have a working steam train! I'm not a trainspotter, but still harbour a love for steam trains which probably dates to loving the Railway Children - which was filmed along this line. Here is Colin, enjoying the only first class carriage we're ever likely to occupy.


One day we decided to visit four National Trust properties... they included the stunning Rievaulx Terrace and Temples (first pic) and a ruin, the name of which eludes me for the moment (second and third pics).




Finally, a view of the dramatic scenery that surrounded us:


Wish me luck with moving, and hopefully I'll find some time to put together a Weekend Miscellany... then I might be quiet for a bit, depending on whether or not we get internet sorted out at the new house quickly...