Saturday

Good morning from sunny Baslow in the Peak District.  It's chilly but lovely and I'm on holiday.  I've been looking forward to this for so long, I can hardly believe it's here at last.

First of all, the cottage.  It is bijou, tres, tres bijou, but delightful.  It's actually half a cottage really and the other side is empty, I think.  I'll take a photo later on.  Maybe they have plans to do it up once this one takes off or maybe it belongs to someone else, I am not completely sure, although the garden and front path are shared.  There's steep stone steps to a cellar and equally steep wooden stairs to the bathroom and bedroom, both of which are a jolly good size and the bed is enormous and very, very comfortable!  The stairs are just a bit too steep and narrow for comfort and with a turn at the bottom so I will take them carefully and use the hand rail.

The kitchen looks good - fairly well supplied with tools, etc, and I have brought Thermione with me so I will cope fine.  In fact, I shall put a loaf on to knead soon because fresh bread is one of the joys of my life and there's a little freezer in the kitchen as well as a bigger one in the cellar so it will stay fresh.

It's not really a Thermo-sized kitchen so a bit of a squash.  Never mind!

It was an OK journey but a lot longer than I expected (in terms of time) because there were hold ups on the A1(M).  Maybe I should have gone M1 but you never know, do you?  Just as I drove into the national park it started raining and, because I was late, I got there just as school was out, just what I didn't want to do.  Of course, there was no parking anywhere close by so I popped off to guess where.  Yes, the Chatsworth Farm Shop!  It's developed since I was last there (which has to be well over a decade ago now) and is a great experience, despite the crowds.  I can see that I will eat well this week and I can also see that frugality will fly out of the window.  Well, I have saved up so that's OK, I'm not spending what I haven't got.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do today.  I'm feeling rather tired so maybe I will just get into the car and follow my nose, seeing as the second star to the right will have gone to bed.  It's actually virtually impossible to get lost in the Peak District as there are so few roads and anyway, my sat nav will sort that out.

A few more photos, taken in rather dull light.

View from the front door.

Autumnal tints showing - this will be a colourful week.