A weekend off

That was fun. A whole weekend off. Not only that, a whole weekend off and At Home! Trouble is - I might get used to it!!

And boy did we have good weather for it. Cold and frosty overnight. Sunny and quite warm during the day. On both Saturday and Sunday morning the dawn sky was tinged with pink, the trees and grass were white and crisp and it was all very beautiful. The birds are certainly happy and in full song. March, really. It must be March!

A couple of weeks ago, I did a roast lamb for Sunday dinner, which produced a lot of clear white fat, which I drained off and kept. Eventually, I rolled it into a ball, rolled it around in the bird seed and put it out on the bird table. The Builder said nothing would eat it. But something has. Every last little bit is gone! Must acquire more.

So Saturday. No need to leap out of bed at 06:00. No need to rush about. A nice, steady start to the day is called for. Some gentle cleaning, a little ironing, a load of washing (which I hung outside, not with any expectation that it would dry, though it sort of did, but because I thought it would be nice to have some aired clothes for a change). Then off we pootled to Bakewell for lunch, a potter about and a visit to the tool shop. It was quite crowded, to say that it is February. It's normally a little less so in the winter. Come to that, there were loads of cars parked by the walking tracks on the Darley Dale Road. Must have been the sunshine.

We lunched in The Peacock. We always do. I wonder, sometimes, whether we shouldn't branch out and try one of the other pubs. It's not as though Bakewell is short of them! I quite enjoyed my scampi and chips, but I fear I have been spoiled by the excellent quality of the chips at our local chippy, not to mention the chippy in Bakewell. Pub chips taste over oily to me these days! The crowd outside the Bakewell chippy was about 20-30 minutes long. This is why we didn't go there - I knew it would be!!
A visit to the Bakewell Farmers' Market shop, then off we went to Pilsley to the Chatsworth farm shop for some vegetables. We were in dire need of veg and fruit, but not of much else. The freezer is full of stuff. We didn't even need bread. It was busy there too. Always is, mind, but even so.

Back at home, The Builder went down to look at the doomed laburnum trunk. It was hollow in the middle, which was making it awkward to chop down. Steve Next Door, leaning over the garden fence to watch what was going on, hollered down that he had some large metal chocks. The Builder set to with vigour. In the meantime, I was cautiously and carefully stepping down from the flower garden into the kitchen garden and tentatively making my way over the rubbish. I really wish that rubbish wasn't there. Makes it ever so awkward getting down to look at progress. Shining light bulb moment. If it makes it awkward - then MOVE IT! So I did. Sorted out the burnable stuff for the bonfire, recyclable stuff for recycling, re-usable stuff for re-using and the rest in a huge pile behind the fence. Makes a significant difference.

But oh boy, was I knackered. Absolutely knackered. Poured a restorative gin and tonic and retired for a National Trust Gardener's Bath salts bath. That was nice! But I was early to bed. And for the first time in several weeks, did not wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 03:00!!!

In fact, I didn't wake up at all until really quite late. Wasn't disturbed by the boiler kicking on at 05:30. Missed the radio coming on at the same time. Was peacefully oblivious to everything until well after the time I normally leave for work. Just as well it was a Sunday, then!

I do like Sundays. We took the plastic and electrical rubbish to the tip late-ish in the morning. Took half an hour from when we started to queue to get in until we came out, rubbish free. There's still quite a lot to bring; we are considering whether to take it ourselves in dribs and drabs, or whether to hire a skip. A skip would certainly be easier, but will cost about £150+ where the tip is more effort but cost free. Will ponder a while longer. Then we went out to Sunday lunch, at the Three Horse Shoes at the wonderfully named hamlet of Spitewinter. And oh boy, was it a find. It's more of a restaurant than a pub, the food is home cooked, the Yorkshire Puddings were crisp and fresh, the vegetables beautifully cooked and the view over the valley absolutely spectacular (though there was quite a lot of industrial pollution along the eastern horizon). It's a pretty building, too. And very popular. IT was quite full when we got there just before 1; we had to go into the overflow restaurant. By the time we left, even that was filling up. WE are very slowly beginning to build up a collection of places to eat. The three horse shoes comes at the top of the pub listing, so far, and very close to the top of the complete listing (The Old Post beats it, narrowly),

We came home along winding country lanes. I have finally been and looked at the Great Lake of Stubbings (though not yet the Stubbings Court). I'd hardly call it great, but it was rather fun. We found the Wingerworth Garden Centre, which I knew existed because I have seen ads for it. Didn't know where it was, though. An excellent trip out, all told.

We've been to the allotment. The overwintered broad beans are not really doing well. They never do. I don't know why I bother overwintering them. I don't think I will again. I realise that conventional wisdom says you should, but the spring sown seeds have a vastly superior germination rate and a better crop. Only seven seeds germinated from the November sowing. Learn, Frances, learn! I'm going to hoe them in as a green manure and use the bed for the shallots, which I have now found again. We won't get a bed dug for them in the next couple of weeks, I don't think, and they could do to go in. At least, they could if you follow the allotment books which say to sow in winter. The kitchen garden books say to sow in spring. Sigh!

Home made pea and ham soup for supper last evening. No need for another full meal after the roast beef followed by pannacotta and fruit I'd had at lunchtime. And early to bed for me and the cat. Knackered, I am. Knackered. Back to work today for a little rest and relaxation! I did wake at 3, I'm sorry to say. Drifted back to sleep around 4 and had a weird dream in which the VC had decided we were relocating proceedings to Leeds City Centre (but won't that annoy Leeds Met?) and Roger, Bea and I had been sent on a reconnaissance mission to suss out some vast, tumbledown building. For some reason Bea had taken her cat Archie and I was carrying around a miniature dachshund for the whole event. My arm doesn't half ache today!