Autumn Holiday

I'm back from my holidays.  Again.  You could be forgiven for thinking that I am always away.  I don't get six months off work a year or anything.  Yes, the holiday allowance is quite generous but I take it as lots of smaller holidays throughout the year instead of one big jaunt to somewhere far away.  Plus I like holiday cottages in this country.  I can cope without sun quite easily - give me somewhere cosy with a log fire, lots of beautiful countryside to walk around and some nearby market towns with good charity shops and I am as happy as a pig in muck.

This time I went to stay in one of the lodges at Calke Abbey, just on the border of Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Mum and Char came for the weekend (see above for them getting up to leaf-kicking larks) and then I spent the rest of the week on my glorious lonesome.

The house is closed at this time of year but I've been before so it wasn't a source of great sadness to me.  If you haven't been, GO. It is the most wonderful place inside and very unlike any other National Trust house you'll see.  It's all preserved in a complete state of 1880's decline with jumble and rubbish everywhere and it's got such an atmosphere.  Even the stable yard (which is open all year round cos it houses the shop and restaurant) is very similar.  Nothing has been tidied up.

I'd also recommend a little wander around Ashby de la Zouch one day. It was pissing it down with rain when I went, which wasn't ideal. But it has a castle and loads of great charity shops, so what more do you want?

Books ahoy! That's a Folio Society copy of Cold Comfort Farm at the bottom, yoicks!

Then I spent the rest of the week reading, watching DVDs and doing a spot of beading. It's my autumn/winter craft of choice.

I did stir from the sofa occasionally, honest I did.  Lots of walking also happened.

The parkland there is quite astonishingly beautiful at this time of year.  I'll leave it to a guidebook to explain all the whys and wherefores of it being a site of special scientific interest but I can tell you how gorgeous it was. Better still, I can show you. Look at the colours!

But look at how lovely the cottage was. I think you can probably understand why I didn't need to go out that much.  

Back to normal life for me now though!

This Week

I have been:

Photographing:

Autumn at work. We have some good trees.

Lacking:

Inspiration. I think all the housework I've been doing today has knackered me out and so I can't think of anything particularly interesting to talk about. It's been a quiet week. It'll probably be a quiet month as I've got bugger all money left.

Luxuriating:

In a very hot, very bubbly bath. I used a Bathos bubble bar from Lush for the first time - MMMMM! It smells like a big bath full of Parma Violets. Again I say MMMMMMMMM. Don't know why it took me so long to get round to trying it but I'll definitely be buying more.

Buying:

Vintage and second hand goodies. I had a bit of a charity shop spree yesterday which turned up a couple of nice tops, some Kurt Geiger green suede heels, a super cute handbag, tons of books and a very fun vintage green fur hat. I'll try and get some photos of the ever growing hat collection up soon.

Making:

Melting Moments biscuits, stewed apple, apple and blackcurrant crumble and blackcurrant and vanilla jam, all in the space of a few hours this afternoon. I miss my old kitchen. This one is a) tiny and b) has no dishwasher, so cooking more than one thing at a time is a tad tricky. I cope, but I really hate doing the washing up.

The jam was my first ever attempt. I don't know if it's set properly but if not, hey ho, I have lots of tasty blackcurranty goop!

Drinking:

Red wine. For the first time ever. I am gobsmacked with myself. I have always loathed red wine - it smells and tastes like socks - but I had a sip of some with dinner on Tuesday and it was rather nice! I'm sure my taste buds are late developers because I've only developed a liking for coffee, curry, melon and a host of other things over the past year, having previously loathed them.

Wanting:

A more interesting header/title thing for the blog. Any ideas? I don't have the technological wizardry to do it myself but I don't know where to go to get it done!