MBSW

It's very pleasant working the odd day here, the odd conference there, another day or so at work.  The difficulty, though is that it really does get very difficult to work out what day it is. I woke up on Tuesday morning absolutely convinced that it was Saturday and that there was something vital that I had forgotten to do.  In the (highly unlikely) event that I ever retire, I'm going to have to work out some sort of weekly routine that makes it possible to identify the days otherwise we're never going to work out what's going on.

Fortunately, there was nothing vital that had been forgotten.  All we needed to do was to clean and dust and tidy and organised for the arrival of Matthew, Belinda, Sage and William on the lunchtime train from London.  Not that they would be likely to notice if we hadn't but they do count as proper visitors, having not been here before.

Anyway, they rocked in in time for lunch. Then we pottered up to the allotment for an inspection tour.  We were going to stroll round the wetlands but there was a HUGE black cloud hurtling in so we headed home instead. We still haven't done the wetlands, but I hope we will do before they head off again.

People scrumping raspberries on the allotment

When we were in Kilkenny and visited the castle, Matt and Belinda were much taken with the Long Gallery.  We have long galleries around us.  We had been intending to head out to Bakewell on the bus, but then I thought that we could go to Haddon Hall on the way home.  Only if we had the car, though.  And we won't all fit in the car.  The Builder said that he would stay at home - until he realised that we were intending to meet Gareth and Cally and then have lunch in the Peacock.  He decided to come to Bakewell on the bus.

We had a lovely lunch in The Peacock, and a nice potter around in Bakewell. Then The Builder, Cally and Gareth headed off on the bus, and the rest of us went in the car to Haddon Hall

Oops, I appear to have dedded the family

The long gallery in Haddon Hall is much less ornate that the galleries in either Kilkenny or Hardwick Hall but it is none the less beautiful for that

Oh - and some of you may know that I have a photo of the beautiful little packhorse bridge on the bridge wall in our lounge room.  I take a photo of it every time we go - not sure why, because I have loads of them now.  You can see it from the walled garden, if you stand on a little step, but you can't get anywhere near it.

Yesterday's photo of the bridge

Yesterday, however, they had the gate open so you could get down to the river, and ever so, ever so close to the bridge.

But not actually to it

Unless, of course, you are Sage and William who just hopped over the wall and ran across it.  William paid the price for his misdemeanour though when he got stung on the legs by stinging nettles.

A quieter day today, we went into Chesterfield for lunch