There were choices on Saturday. Quite a lot of choices.
First, we could choose to do absolutely nothing, stay at home and do useful things. Hmmmmm.

We could have gone to the York Food Festival. This was a serious temptation.

We could have gone to Cambridge for the weekend and gone to the Cambridge Food Festival on Parker’s Piece with Tabitha and Gareth. This was also a temptation, except that we are away next weekend and possibly away the weekend after and we didn’t really want to be away for three weekends in a row. Not only does the cat get lonely when ruthlessly abandoned in this way, but also so many things just don’t get done around the house and garden that when you are eventually at home for a weekend you have to spend all of it playing catch up.

Then there was the Pot to Plate produce fair at Calke Abbey, a National Trust place near Derby. I found out about the produce fair when the NT sent a “What to do around your local area this weekend” email. Neither of us had ever been to Calke Abbey and we had no idea what the produce fair was. So we went to find out.

It turns out that the produce fair was really the village fruit, veg and preserves show. It was really cute and quite fun. Probably wouldn’t have been worth making a 75 mile round trip for, but we were glad to go and look at it. We didn’t go into the house itself. It was such a beautiful afternoon that we had a spot of lunch and then went for an inspectorary tour of the walled gardens and estate (not the whole estate; that would have taken rather more hours than we had available). The gardens were lovely (the photos are here if you want to look) and we had a very pleasant couple of hours pottering around and investigating.

To get to Calke Abbey we went over the Swarkestone Causeway and bridge. I didn’t take photos partly because we weren’t expecting to come across an ancient causeway and a rather pretty Georgian Bridge so weren’t prepared for parking the car. But also, I had forgotten to take my camera and was using the camera on my iPhone. That is a perfectly serviceable camera, but you can’t do as much with it as you can with my proper camera. I think we are going to have to go back and have a proper walk along the causeway and inspect the bridge more closely. And generally just have a potter about. Lots of interesting things to look at around about there.

Sunday was an absolutely glorious day. The sun shone. The sky was a deep, deep blue. There was a mild, gentle breeze. It was just lovely. And we, of course, had a long list of things to do. Did we do them? Well, I did get the washing done and hung out. The Builder managed to replace the power sockets in the spare room which either wouldn’t work or, if they could be persuaded to, were making worrying spitting noises. We got a few things done – but not the allotment or many of the other things we had planned. Instead we went to the Three Horseshoes for a rather nice Sunday Lunch (Memo to self: Do NOT, NOT, NOT, NOT have a starter, no matter how tempting. You’ll never eat one of their carvery plates unless you are Very Hungry Indeed). I also had quite a lot of wine. The bottle we bought was a litre bottle. No worries about that, we could have taken the rest home. But somehow it just seemed to gradually disappear until there wasn’t much point in re-corking it and taking it away. The Builder did his best, but he was driving and couldn’t have much.

Didn’t buy much in Chatsworth. I wasn’t remotely hungry. So not hungry that the idea of buying food wasn’t particularly appealing! But that’s OK. It’s not as though we are especially short of things to eat.

Didn’t have much to eat at all after lunch on Sunday. Was strangely hungry by the time I got up on Monday!

We have made our way back to the beginning of the academic year. Off we go again. The new students are wandering around looking bewildered and confused. The returning students are making their way back. I am busy this week with the post-graduate students. The intense teaching with the under-graduates doesn’t really kick in until October is underway. But this year I have a side-kick to play with. Peter decided that I had far too many students to support and found me a friend. So it’s not quite as daunting as it has been in previous years.

It looks as though The Builder’s job is about to disappear on him. The kitchen and bathroom fitting on the estate is all but finished. And it doesn’t look as though there will be any other work for them to do. I think the firm is planning to make most of the staff redundant. This will be very unfortunate from a monthly income point of view. It will be extremely fortunate, however, from a me getting back my domestic staff point of view. The return of the Under-gardener will be particularly welcome!

Fingers crossed everybody. The Japanese classes at King Edward’s in Broomhill aer scheduled to start tomorrow evening. I’ve had a letter confirming my place. I am moderately confident that this time it may all work. Freyja also sent in an expression of interest. We don’t know if she got a letter cos she’s swanning around the Carolinas, the Virginias and Tennesee this week and next. I shall enquire tomorrow. If the class goes ahead.

Poor old Bernard has had his Facebook account suspended. Not a nice thing for a respectable (cough), mild mannered (cough, cough), sedate (choke!) retired business hippo to have happen. I mean, if he’s sentient enough to be a ring bearer at a wedding, then he’s certainly sentient enough to have a Facebook account, even if he isn’t human!! Fortunately his Twitter, blog and Picasa sites remain active. I knew there was a reason I opened a Twitter account. Twitter’s not prejudiced against non-humans!