Spectacularly failing at doing Lent

We appear not to have done any Lenten fasting at all this year.  Not even a vague nod towards it.  We intended to. We kept saying we really ought to be doing it and perhaps we should start.  But we were hit by a terrible dose of "mañana" and never quite got around to it.  Even Holy Week more or less passed us by.  And now it is Easter weekend, and much too late to be doing anything about Lent.  We may have to do a May Fast instead :-S

Some weeks before The Builder's birthday, my parents asked me to buy something for him on their behalf.  A little while before that I had been exploring in the new indoor market in Sheffield and had noticed a little shop which sold mostly locally produced artisan beers.  The Builder loves nice artisan beer so I decided that that would make a good present for him.  But it would be an even better present if he got to choose the beer for himself.  And he hadn't been in the new indoor market, so after I finished work on Thursday we met up and went to investigate.  I think he was very pleased with the little beer shop - although he was less pleased by carrying the box back to the car. It was a touch on the heavy side with 11 bottle of beer in it :-D

We made a quick trip to Costco for some Eastery supplies and decide to head home along the motorway. We made a snap decision to go right around the roundabout that leads to the M! when we saw that traffic was stopped in both directions.  Right.  We'll go back through Sheffield and along the Dronfield bypass.

No we won't, because the bypass was closed and all the traffic was being diverted through Dronfield itself.  We're not doing that. We'll never get home. So we went right around that roundabout too and headed back to Meadowhead and drove home to Tupton along the pretty little backroads that go through Barlow and lead to Cutthorpe. It was, of course, Maundy Thursday and lots of people were heading away for the Easter weekend, but that was a level of traffic chaos which was unusual even by long weekend standards.

Some time ago, we noticed that the (not very enticing) New Inn in Hasland, which we drive past almost every weekday evening when The Builder collects me from the station, had closed.  Then it became clear that it was being renovated. It reopened not long ago, renamed The Three Cottages and painted a fetching shade of pale blue and with a revamped and quite interesting website.  We decided that, much like The Wingerworth had, it deserved a visit. I decided that Thursday evening would be a good time to make an exploratory visit. After all the traffic chaos, I didn't fancy cooking dinner.  So we ambled up and found that it was absolutely packed. We settled in with a glass of wine and perused the menu.  It's not a huge menu, but there is plenty of choice.  I gave it my customary burger and chips test, and it passed with flying colours.  I have added it to our list of places to eat at.  But I think we will book next time!

Good Friday saw us out and about, shopping mostly.  Chatsworth. The Garden Centre. The supermarket. And home.  Bother. We forgot to go to B&Q to buy the replacement toilet seat and barbecue that we need (the existing toilet seat had cracked right through at the front and was biting people's bottoms; the barbecue had died when The Builder had burnt a whole shed, bit by bit on it). So we got back in the car and headed back into Chesterfield - and were stunned to find that the main road was at a complete and utter standstill heading from Chesterfield towards Clay Cross. Traffic as far as you could see. And the queue went on and on and on and on, all the way to the main roundabout in Chesterfield itself.  And all the way up the road to the motorway (not that we went that way, but you could see the chaos from where we turned off).  It turned out that the M1 was closed southbound from the Chesterfield turn off to the net one down and everything was being diverted along the road from Chesterfield to Clay Cross.  We acquired the toilet seat and barbecue - and came home by another way!

That's two days of traffic chaos in a row.  And I'm very glad we had no need to go to Clay Cross yesterday afternoon.  Although there is a back way we could have used, I suppose.

Right.  We might have been doing mainly Saturday things yesterday, but today really is Saturday and there are (real Saturday) things to do.  Like a hair cut from me. And Tabitha, Gareth and Cally are coming later today.  I suppose I ought to clear a bit of a space for them :-D

Sunshine and blue skies on Good Friday

And cheerful spring flowers