Easter Holidays :: Part 4

Hello Lovelies, 

I have more photos from Sunday that I hope you will enjoy....not as many as my previous post :0)

Back down in Tissington village the weather was warmer and still sunny......a different world to those exposed hills. After our rest stop I couldn't resist a wander around this picture perfect estate village. 

We walked downhill.......

To the Duck pond where daffodils flowered..........

Oh, so pretty.......

Another lovely scene..........

We were in search of a certain shop and wandered along footpaths, past neat gardens..........

And the cutest stone cottages..........

This one was called " Nurses Cottage".  

The traffic in the quiet lanes was mostly feline and very friendly.......

Everywhere I looked there were pretty places.......

I loved the bunting and washing on the line here.........

And mossy stone walls with abundant  wild flowers.........

Wish I could remember the name of this delicate yellow flowered plant.....it's one I remember from my own childhood.
edited to add :- thank you Susie.....it's Yellow Fumitory

This village is famous for it's wells , which are dressed in May..........

You can read about this tradition HERE

Ahhhh, this is the place.....

Isn't it gorgeous

Look, Sweets are off ration today!

Eeeeek, how I loved all the vintage paraphernalia.........

"Edward and Vintage" is an old fashioned sweet shop I had come across on the internet....it looked too good to miss and I wasn't disappointed.

I did take photos inside but they came out fuzzy as it was quite dark. This is the only decent one......

 If you want to see some better photos of this nostalgic place THIS Daily Mail article has lots.

 We made some purchases of course. One whole room is "pick-n-mix" :0)

Outside again I loved the hand cart........

And there was a footpath too.......

How lovely it would be to buy some sweets and take them on a walk across the fields..........

But by now we were feeling a little weary. Just time for a couple more photos. More neat stone cottages......

And one of TISSINGTON  HALL its self. Not easy to photograph into the setting sun, but I love the way it makes these bushes glow..........

Thank you for all your comments on my previous post about this special day.
I can't quite believe what stunning weather we are enjoying this Easter holiday........I do hope it's sunny where you are.
Jacquie x

P.S. Jane at the lovely blog Plain Jane is kindly offering to organise a bloggers meet up for the end of May .
Details are at the bottom of THIS post if any of you lovelies are interested.
And maybe you could spread the word too?

Our National Trust Adventures....part 1

Hello Lovelies,
on Saturday we decided to make our first National Trust visit as members. There are quite a few properties we can choose from that are less than an hour away in the car.
The wonderful picture in the handbook sold me on Sudbury Hall ...........

It was an easy trip , but the sun we had been enjoying at home had vanished by the time we arrived. I must say I was little disappointed with the exterior. It was grand and interesting, but I didn't think it was  beautiful........

We walked into a dark hall and were met by friendly volunteers. It was great to simply show our membership cards rather than handing over hard cash :0)

The first room we entered was impressive, with a huge fireplace and high ceiling, but it was dark as well. I didn't see anything to photograph ( that's not like me! ) .......this wasn't what I expected.

But thankfully I didn't need to have worried. The next area we arrived in was the hall, with it's wonderful 17th century cantilevered staircase. It's amazing to think it's about 400 years old and still looking wonderful.....

Here's a second photo, just because I loved it so. I think the luminescent yellow walls really bring it all to life....

This is the Saloon, a very ornate room full of beautiful family portraits ...........

And amazingly intricate plasterwork on the ceiling...........

The library was slightly more relaxed, but it still had those super high ceilings............

This is lady Vernon's sitting room. It was warm and cosy. You could really imagine a family living in this room, I liked it a lot..........

And I loved the details the Trust had taken the trouble to display............

It had a pretty view of the gardens and lake from the window...........

The "Small Dining Room" was another place you could really see the family using every day.....

Next the arrows we were following pointed downstairs, oh great.... I really like to see "behind the scenes" :0)

There was a lovely volunteer in this room who told us this was not the site of the original kitchen, but a smaller one created in the early part of the twentieth century when the staff became reduced.

The small cupboard you can see near the sink is an early fridge. Ice was placed in the top and food stored below.............

I loved all the baking and cooking  equipment on display . I was particularly interested in the Be-Ro recipe books . Be-Ro was a make of flour and you had to send away for these books in the post.........

And this is mine, it's from 1982 and older than the one far right :0)

Another nostalgic fact I learnt about Sudbury Hall is that it was used as one of the locations for the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.........

how I loved that series

Next it was back upstairs and on the first floor  we entered the Long Gallery. This photo doesn't show it's full length. It was very impressive and flooded with natural light despite the blinds over some windows, that prevent sunlight damaging the paintings.............

Here's an image of the same room when it was used in Pride and Prejudice. It was the interior of Pemberley........

source

Here's another image from the show.... a painting of Mr Darcy that the BBC commissioned for this room..........

source

There is an interesting story about what happened to this painting HERE

Anyway, back to the present. This was a beautiful bedroom, with an impressive four poster bed.......

And impressive scaffold tower. This young lady was cleaning the fireplace , it was interesting to see how some of the maintenance is done.........

 a soft brush is used to sweep the dust into a hoover  worn around the waist.

This cosy bedroom showed how later generations  had adapted the building to suit their needs. I loved the window seat.........

Outside again I was happy to see Sudbury hall looks nicer from this side.......

And I loved the golden ball on the roof.........

What a treat the inside of the hall turned out to be, but this is not the end of our visit to Sudbury.
 I'll save the next bit for another post.
Jacquie x

Random Nostalgia

Hello Lovelies,
I feel a bit daft even sharing this strange little project of mine, let alone giving it it's own post. It's slightly odd, but I'll share it anyway.

Here goes.
Last week I was washing up an empty passata jar ( it's sieved tomatoes, brilliant in Bolognese ) when it struck me how similar the shape was to the old milk bottles we used to have when I was a child

An internet search turned up these pictures of the 70's milk bottles I was thinking of...........

source

Our milk came directly from the farmer, he delivered it himself and the name of his farm was printed on the bottle rather like this............

source

I'd love to own one those bottles today. They were an everyday item that we took for granted but which seem so nostalgic to me now. I decided to make my own version 

I considered crocheting a cover for my bottle , but I've done that before HERE

So instead I simply drew a  version of the design used on these bottles on paper and taped to onto my bottle.........

The green ribbon covers up the screw top and is a reminder of the green foil top our milk  had....that was green for raw, unpasteurised milk..... not green for semi-skimmed :0)

I picked some forsythia from the garden at the weekend and now it's flowering beautifully in my wacky, "random nostalgia vase" 

Do any of you lovelies remember these bottles or suffer from random nostalgia like me?

I'm only in my forties but many of my sentences begin with " I remember when......" I do wonder what I'll be like in years to come!

Actually there are quite a few reproduction milk bottles being manufactured today....so maybe I'm not that odd. My favourite are the Emma Bridgewater ones, of which THIS is my favourite design.

Jacquie x