Whoo Hoo 61st birthday!!!!!!

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Be up at 4.00am" Roger said. "4.00am?" "O.K." As dawn broke we were in the middle of a field in Shrugsborough, Staffordshire.... and we were going on a balloon trip. YES!!! I just LOVE IT! A fantastic serene trip with views of patchwork countryside, country halls, farms, cattle and crops.

Back to Derbyshire... a quick visit to Cauldwell's Mill... always a favourite of mine and then a delicious lunch at the Peacock!! SO GOOD....Dignified, Derbyshire Decadence... mmmm.

Oh wow! but it didn't end there........Off to Thronbridge Hall...........what a place! Acres of gardens, fabulous 12th Century manor fully updated with indoor swimming pool., but best of all. A fabulous cast who led us through the gardens, courtyards and hall in a magnificent performance of 12th night. The actors, acted, danced, sang, played instruments ...entertained beautifully. So just before midnight a perfect birthday which started at 4.00am drew to a close.

Look forward to my 62nd Roger!!!!!

Graves Park

One of the great memories of childhood is Graves Park. We would go here to picnic, play cricket, go boating and when the weather was right...go skating on the frozen lake. The lake seemed to be enormous and I remember struggling to row around it.....sadly no more boating but beautiful all the same.

Go Cromford

Bought Roger this book of Derbyshire Walks last year for his birthday and we are just getting to use it. It has spectacular circular walks across varied landscapes. The Cromford walk took us up steep woodland hillside, past spectacular millstone grit formations, tiny villages with their three storey mill cottages, remanants of an industrial age with its canals and steam engines that hauled the products of the mills to the Manchester Ship canal system and off to the world.

Lovely walk along the canal to the end of the walk

Wonderful Derbyshire

Lucky to go on a wonderful walk in Derbyshire with Maria and John. I went to schools with Maria and so we always have lots of news to share.

Buxton Festival

What an amazing event this fabulous Spa town puts on. Hundreds of musicians, actors, singers, artists put on a three week festival in the wonderful buildings. It takes you back to another era. Hard to believe Buxton sits in the middle of the rolling Derbyshire countryside. We booked in 4 events, Budapest Cafe (a swinging quartet which included Alec Dankworth son of Cleo and Johnnie), Stephan Grapelli tribute, Teleman and the London Concertante! Brilliant.

Loved the wealthy farmer types in the their brogues and twill suits... yes even in summer.

Well dressing in Buxton

Haddon Hall

Strange to see school children being taken around Haddon Hall...just as I did as a child. Its only now though that I see the beauty of the buildings, its artwork, furniture and grounds. I remember singing at a baptism in the small chapel that has an amazing monument to the young Lord Haddon. Though why or how I could have been there is a puzzle as it is definitely at protestant chapel and we would not have been allowed into a protestant church. Mmm maybe someone can remember the story!

For his mother to have created such a beautiful piece of art to celebrate the life and death of her son is so sad.

The Manners though were no ordinary family. Nor is the Hall .... created as a fortified medieval manor house in 12 th Century, it is now the home of Lord and Lady Edward Manners whose family have owned it since 1567.

English Country Gardens

Gardens here are in full bloom...the topiary a work of art. Haddon Hall gardens fantastic

Visitors to Hardwick Farm

Love the fact that we can invite people around for lunch or dinner.. Mark is looking good with Corey. Ella (Lizzie's little girl) is getting into lunch and Roger is just sitting around enjoying it all!

Walks around Ashover

Don't you just love the sign from the frustrated shop owner! Unfortunately we haven't had time to go back to take a peek. Glorious countryside and stunning sunsets.

Around Ashover

Hardwick Farm

We had hired a lovely "barn" at Hardwick Farm through the Home Exchange scheme. Great people, beautiful setting, fantastic views and peace and quiet. One of our first visitors was mum. Looks as if she is pretty relaxed.

Sheffield Jazz Festival

What fun! After allthe rush and hassle of getting from Gilsland to Sheffield it was great to catch up with everyone. Yummie food. Great company... terrible modern jazz and a great sunset!

The last of the B & B's

Our final evening brought us to a rather fancy B & B, but service alas was of the usual inflexible offhand variety. Everything was regulated... lined up and guests expected to fit in. Our problems were exacerbated by the fact that there was no lift back to the train to Newcastle. The only cab had been booked and so we were left between a rock and a hard place as we had booked to see friends on the way back down to Sheffield. We were also meeting Maria and John for a picnic dinner at the Sheffield Jazz festival!

Ho Hum! Managed to get a later train, picked up our gear from Chris & Sues house, collected the key for our cottage and then rushed off to meet Maria and John. Only an hour late!

The final steps

After the wonderful Vindolanda experience we headed off on the last 10 km of our Hadrian's wall walk. Past 14th century castles made from plundered stones from the wall (as are most of the farm houses in the area!). The skies were amazing. Looking in from of us at the castle... blue skies, behind us thunderous rain clouds!

Vindolanda dreams

Vindolanda is still being excavated and they estimate that it will take another 50 years to complete. What was incredible was that they found an altar while we were there... thrilling stuff. Felt really enthusiastic about volunteering and then the next gust of wind and rain came through!

Loved it though and would love to be there for one of the reenactments. Maybe next year!

Vindolanda

A fantastic morning here. This Roman Fort was founded about 90AD. There have been some amazing finds here including the Vindolanda tablets. These were found mainly in a waterlogged rubbish heap at the corner of the commander's house in the pre-Hadrianic fort. The vast majority of them date from the period AD 97-103. More have been recovered from other parts of the site since. In all, there are over 400 tablets, made from thinly cut slivers of wood between one and three mm thick, about the size of a modern postcard, on which the correspondent wrote in ink before folding the leaf in half and writing the address on the back.

They tell of every aspect of everyday life. How much the soldiers were paid, what people ate, who did what tasks. Made for fascinating reading

"My fellow soldiers have no beer. Please order some to be sent"

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"I have sent(?) you...pairs of socks from Sattua, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants, two pairs of sandals...Greet...Elpis...Tetricus and all your messmates with whom I pray that you live in the greatest good fortune."

The diet of the inhabitants of Vindolanda was pretty varied. Within the Vindolanda tablets, 46 different types of foodstuff are mentioned. Whilst the more exotic of these, such as roe deer, venison, spices, olives, wine and honey.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes, thousands of them in the moat, where the mud preserved them. Only one pair though, all the rest odd!

Walkin the Wall

Stunning scenery, lonesome sheep, glorious flowers and lovely hopeful handmade signs which promised tea and cakes. At the end of our second day, we dripped into the Twice Brewed pub. Why twice brewed? One theory is that on the eve of the Battle of Hexham in 1464, Yorkist foot soldiers demanded their beer be brewed again because it lacked its usual fighting strength. The ploy worked – the opposing Duke of Somerset’s Lancastrian army fled after an early morning raid... who knows?

Our host for the evening picked us upfrom the pub...300yds from the official pick up point. She bounced into the pub...obviously unhappy at this inconvenience. She chatted with everyone else in the pub and then roughly told us to hop in the car.We had bought a bottle of wine which evoked a severe reminder (not that we had ever been told) that corkage was due as the hotel was licensed and she had staff to pay!

We began to relate to our friends from Canada who had horror stories of every B & B they had stayed in. A hair raising drive to our hotel (not a B & B) where we were dumped in our small rooms. Roof so low even I could touch it. Will whinge no more even though there was much to whinge about!

Our walk from Chollerford took us to Housesteads Fort. Just mind boggling. Housesteads is the most complete Roman fort in Britain.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/launch_vt_housesteads.shtml. 800 soldiers lived there and the technology was fantastic. Central heating in AD122!.

Mmmmm one of the amazing things for us though was the group having lunch next to us were from Vancouver Island. They knew all of the people we knew from when we lived and worked there! Lots of stories to exchange and gossip to catch up on!

We climbed high up to Steel Riggs. One magnificent view was looking down over the craggs to two snowy white swans etched out against the blue water below.

The B & B with no choice!

At the end of the first day of forts, walls and walks we were grateful to arrive at Halls Barn... the B & B who didn't do choice! Huge salmon steaks for dinner...great if you love salmon (as I do!) but poor old Roger had a veggie dinner! As for lunch the next day, our host's eyes rolled as we asked what choice did we have?

Response...We don't do choice here!

Good on yer Hadrian

This walk takes us on the wall built by Hadrian in AD 122. It stretched the breadth of England, keeping out the warring scots and providing a regular income as people paid taxes to cross. It now provides a fantastic track with 360 degree views of the countryside; Roman forts, Mile castles and a change of weather every five minutes.

This was the most popular guy on the track.... double shot cappucino in the middle of a wild wild track!