Life is a journey....follow the path!

After a pretty awful week at work, we decided to make the most of our saturday. So we were up early and off we set for Warwick. Its about an hour away from here, and a place we love to visit. When we got there we headed to Costa for coffee and then headed to the market for a look around. Its a small market but lots of nice things to look at. We bought the most enormous cherry scone (could have sunk a battle ship!) and there was a stall selling all sorts of interesting crafty things too, where  I found a lovely little bottle of fairy dust.  

We made our way through the town looking around the shops and walking down all the side streets to explore. We discovered parts of the town we had not seen before. We came upon St Mary's Church, and decided to go in and have a look around. Its a lovely church, steeped in history, with a tower that if you're brave enough you can climb to the top of. There are 162 steps, today neither of us felt we had the energy. But as we explored the church, we found a corner set aside for brass rubbing, and there amongst the plaques was an Alice in Wonderland scene - needless to say I just had to have a go. You pay your money at the gift shop and they provide you with everything you need, paper, wax, masking tape etc. I really enjoyed it, and I have a lovely reminder of the day. The rubbing turned out really well. 

When we left the church we went in search of the post office, which thankfully we posted. I had a whole of letters to post.  They are all on their way now. Luckily the Post office was right next to the market square, which is where the Thai restaurant was that we wanted to try for lunch. Paul and I both love Thai food, and we weren't disappointed. My green Thai curry was delicious.  It was nice to have lunch in quiet  and pleasant surroundings.  After lunch we continued our journey through Warwick, a few shops to look in and of course I had to go check out Aspire. Then we carried on to St John's Museum, its free and full of interesting telling the history of Warwick. We love to go there and look around. When we came out of the museum we went to sit in the garden, while we were there we noticed a gate. Curious minds wanted to know what lay beyond, so off we went. Once through the gate, we found a path which we followed, it led us to St Nicholas's park. What a gem, its beautiful! There are lots of places to sit and chill out, or you could go boating. There was a large children's play area, and cafe too. The park was full of families, and surprisingly lots of teenagers too. Some were playing with a Frisbee, something we haven't seen in ages. It was nice to see so many people outdoors enjoying the park, even though the weather wasn't great today. At times it was sunny, but then the clouds would blow over again. Thankfully tho we only had a light shower, which didn't last long. I was so sad when we had to leave. I loved the park, and could have stayed a lot longer. But we had done so much walking today, we were both shattered when we came home.

Recipe for the perfect week end......

......take one beloved husband and one best friend, throw in some half decent weather, some fabulous meals out, a visit to a Hobbit like house, and some serious shopping. Throw in some unexpected fun, and mix well with a half baked evening of charades.  Serve in a relaxed atmosphere and enjoy.

So there you have it! This sums up last week end, which yes.....I am only just writing about. This is what happens when you are spending  every minute of your spare time job hunting. Now there is a soul destroying occupation. But I have happy thoughts of last week end. Friday saw Mandy arriving, and we had a lovely night out at the Chesterfield. Just us girls, a nice meal, wine and so much to catch up on. The evening flew by, and can I just say there were some rum characters in the pub!! Paul came to collect us, he came in time to join us for a drink before we headed home.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, but COLD!!! we were up early and off to Derby we went. First stop was Intu to do some shopping. We all found something we wanted, for me it was mostly stationery from Paperchase, boy have they upped their game! It was wonderful to look around, and nice to come away with some shopping. We had lunch at Papaya Thai, lovely quiet restaurant tucked away in a side street. Their lunch time specials are a bargain at a fiver and very tasty. Its a haven of quiet away from the busy and noisy mall! After a very pleasant lunch break we walked into town to enjoy the St George's day celebrations. We didn't know about these in advance, so it was a wonderful surprise. There were Morris dancers, live singing and a lovely craft fair! Loved looking around the craft fair, lots of nice things to look at....and buy! It was actually the high light of the day for me. It was a lovely afternoon albeit a bit chilly in the wind. We finally walked back to the car park, and headed back to Swadlincote. We had to call in at Sainsburys to do some shopping. But we stopped for tea and a wonder around the clothes dept. It was fun, we were quite late getting back, but what a great day.

Saturday night saw Christmas come to Gresley, complete with Christmas dinner, crackers and presents for all. What a hoot, and presents are always nice. You know, I love Christmas.....so why limit it to December!

Sunday saw us up early to head to Stoneywell, it was a grey day but still not too bad. We arrived there around 10am and were whisked off from the car park in the mini bus. We took the tour around the house, sadly we were herded around with a tour guide this time and not exactly rushed around, but not  allowed to linger either. I think we would all have liked more time to soak up the atmosphere. Once we had done the house, we went for a walk around the woods, oh my gosh we found fairies!!! I love walking around the woods, so calming. We explored the gardens too, but there was a little drizzle in the air. What a shame. We headed back to the car park at about 1pm and drove over to Flagstaff park for lunch at the Brewers Fayre...YUM! Then we headed home, sadly housework and stuff to catch up on. 

We did go out for a lovely meal at our local Indian restaurant in the evening. Lovely food, and excellent company. We walked home, all very full up and happy. The evening was spent playing charades much to Paul's horror. Bless him, its really not his thing. But with much protest, he did have a go. All to soon the week end was over, and with heavy heart I had to say good bye to Mandy of  Monday morning. But at least I am left with happy memories.

windy week ends!

Why is it that it can be warm, and sunny all week and come Saturday morning the sky is grey, its cold and its raining? But you just have to get up and make the most of it! So for us Saturday was a fairly quiet day, we headed into town to do the usual food shopping. A wonder around town, and a visit to the supermarket and the post office and most of  our errands were done. We decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Cafe Zen, and then headed home. A busy afternoon followed, a spare room needed making up for a special visitor! This is the first time our new sofa bed will be used and boy did we find out the hard way that making up a sofa bed isn't easy. The sheet did not want to be tucked in, and the duvet put up a fight too. But we got there in the end!

Today we woke up to a nicer but VERY windy day. We got a couple of things done and then headed off for an adventure. Our journey didn't get off to a good start, the sat nav's charging lead burned out, luckily it had just enough charge to get us to Wellesbourne and back! It took us about an hour to get to Charlecote House, i had been wanting to go here for a while. Charlecote Park is a grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles east of Stratford-upon-Avon. Its been the family home of the Lucy family for over 900 years, and with this in mind we took our very own Lucy with us. She was very excited at the prospect of a road trip to rediscover her heritage!! We were astounded at how busy it was,  but once we started exploring the crowds seemed to disperse. First we had tea in the orangery restaurant and then explored the house. What a beautiful place, and clearly steeped in history. Once we had done the tour of the house, we made our way outside to explore the gardens and outbuildings. There was a coachhouse with a collection of the families former carriages, a wash house and brewery and the kitchens were also open to look around. We found the gift shop, and a used book store. Paul found a very old children's book that looked like it had a history of its own, so I invested 50p and bought it for him. Books fascinate both of us, not always for the story itself, but like in this case, the actual history of the book. 

The house is actually surrounded by a deer park, there were lots of them about. They are very tame, and totally at ease with the many people walking near by. They occasionally look up and peer at you, then carry on with whatever they were doing.

We brought lunch with us and braved the wild winds to sit outside and eat. LOL....that was fun! I really loved the place and hope we can go back again. We didn't have the time to visit the garden centre next door. Maybe next time.

The drive home was uneventful, and we were back in under an hour. I have to say I love being a member of the National Trust, definitely something i will continue to do. Though following a comment from Paul earlier today, I shall be careful not to let myself be cloned into a typical NT visitor! LOL! Break out the pink tutu and feather boa!