A piece of heaven in the Peak District

Last weekend 'P' and I took a trip to Hartington in the Peak District for a little weekend break.  The kids and dog were unceremoniously dropped off at Mom-in-laws and we headed off for a weekend of walking and relaxation.  Although we only live 90 minutes away this was the first time either 'P' or myself had visited the Peak District, but now we've been we can't wait to go back.

We arrived in the small village of Hartington around 7.30pm on the Friday evening.  The Charles Cotton Hotel where we'd chosen to stay looked very welcoming and we thought the lanterns that had been lit and scattered on the outdoor tables was a lovely touch.  The reception staff were very friendly and we were shown to our room which was small but clean and comfortable.

We ate in the bistro, just off the bar area, on both nights and the food was to die for, both times served promptly and by friendly service staff.  We were also surprised that there was entertainment on both evenings which we didn't expect in a small village hotel.  Friday nights entertainment far outweighed Saturday's though, it has to be said.  After an hour of Alan 'Shakin' Dakin (aka Vic Reeves 'in the style of a club singer') we almost gave up the will to live and retired to our bedroom :).  The bar area is very 'country' and has a super open fire to sit by.  We found that not only were the hotel staff extremely pleasant but also the locals who would pass the time of day whilst propping up the bar.

"'P' and I in the Charles Cotton bar

Breakfast on both mornings was served in 'The Cotton Room' which had a beautiful hand painted mural around the top of the walls depicting a countryside scene.  Once again the food was delish and the lady that served us on both mornings was a treasure.



Saturday unfortunately started off foggy so we had a short stroll around the village and then back to the hotel for cappuccino's and read of the paper.  The village itself is very small with just a couple of general stores, an antique shop, cheese shop (?) and another inn.  Luckily by lunchtime the fog cleared, the sun appeared and we headed off on a circular walk using a map purchased from the hotel.



The walk took us out of the village and onwards to Wolfcote and Beresford Dale which was very scenic and great for photographs.  Lots of little bridges over the River Dove and many unusual rock formations jutting out from the landscape.  Being fairly early in the season it wasn't too busy either so all in all we had a lovely peaceful 5 mile walk.



Circular Walk from HartingtonBridge of the River Dove

Both 'P' and I returned thoroughly relaxed from our weekend in Hartington and have already enquired as to their availability for May so that we can visit again for our wedding anniversary.

The Gallery - Winter White

Yes, I know you'll all be cursing me for this one especially with Tara's pic of the exact opposite but for my Gallery 'Colour' theme, I've chosen Winter White brrrrrr.

I guessed most people would take advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having over the last couple of weeks and post scenic shades of blue and green so I thought, not for the first time, I'd be different.

[caption id="attachment_1152" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Winter White"][/caption]

This picture was taken shortly before Christmas last year when we had week upon week of the snow.  Our Border Terrier Arnold didn't know quite what to make of it!  Consider me evil for even mentioning the 's' word but I do love it.  Don't get me wrong I love the Summer too and was quite happy to give my sandals one last airing but I'm one for the extremes.  You see, I'm a weather fanatic - you can keep your murky, drizzly rain and your average temperatures, for me it has to be baking or freezing, hail showers or thunderstorms, blizzards or hurricanes!  I guess I just like the excitement, although I'd probably feel differently if I lived anywhere other than England, where our extremes only stretch to a tornado swiftly relocating your peg bag or a heatwave that lasts just long enough to get the barbecue fired up! ;)



 

A bank holiday stroll

Last Sunday saw us taking a lovely trip to Ludlow, in particular Whitcliffe Common.  We decided to have a family day out and asked Mom-in-law, Mom, Dad and bro along.  Our original plan was to head down to the Cotswolds for the day but unfortunately at the last minute we discovered the M5 had been closed due to a major accident so Mom suggested heading over to Whitcliffe.

[caption id="attachment_1051" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dinham Bridge"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1057" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Weir along the River Teme"][/caption]

We parked the car in a little layby right next to Whitcliffe Common and then headed down and along the path towards the River Teme taking in the very scenic bridges and weirs along the way.  Arnold as ever felt the need to lead the group and wasn't happy unless out in front, showing the way!  When we arrived at Dinham Bridge we realised that our last visit there had been around 14 years ago when 'S' was just a baby.  We decided to try recreating the photo we'd taken all those years ago.

[caption id="attachment_1052" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Me and 'S' at Dinham Bridge, Ludlow in 2011"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1053" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Me and 'S' at Dinham Bridge, Ludlow in 1997"][/caption]

(Sorry terrible photo! Original was awful and then a photo of a photo is never good lol)

[caption id="attachment_1054" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Arnold has an afternoon swim"][/caption]

After our leisurely stroll, which included a lunchtime swim in the River Teme for Arnold, we headed back to the car for lunch.  I'm glad to say that this is when we had our one and only heavy shower of the day which we thankfully missed whilst tucking into sarnies galore.  We headed on further up the road after lunch to Mortimer Forest.  This was a real little gem of a place and not too busy, even considering it was bank holiday weekend.  Again, the showers held off and the weather stayed clear and warm.

[caption id="attachment_1055" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A stroll through Mortimer Forest"][/caption]

A little detour was made on the way home to Titterstone Clee Hill.  Although we'd driven over the Clee Hills many times this was the first time we'd headed right up to the top.  The views were magnificent and well worth the trip.

[caption id="attachment_1056" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="View from the Clee Hills"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1058" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="'A' and 'S' on top of the Clee Hills"][/caption]

Hats off!

Updated my Florida scrapbook about a month ago and completely forgot that I'd not posted the new pics.  I did a couple of new pages, one based on Disney's Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safari's and another based around our addiction for trying on hats at the various parks.

[caption id="attachment_951" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Wild Things"][/caption]

I managed to get some super animal print cardstock from Ebay and used my newly bought Craft Robo to cut out the elephant and giraffe templates and also the 'Wild Thing' lettering (although I have sold this now as it did get to be a bit of a faff continually setting the pc up with it).   I wrote a short section of script from the tour onto the elephant.

[caption id="attachment_952" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Hats Off!"][/caption]

I had a rather random selection of backing papers already, from various packs I've bought on Ebay so decided to use some of these to make the page colourful and fun.  I managed to download a superb 'Willy Wonka' font which I used for the title and once again used the Craft Robo for this.  This was then attached using sticky pads to give a 3D effect.  I'd seen an article in Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine on crinkled paper flowers so had a go at this as an embellishment, using a flower shaped brad from WHSmith to finish off.  A Martha Stewart Deep Edge 'Flower Bed' punch was used for the edges of the spotted paper which I purchased from Secretcrafter recently.  A fantastic buy as I've used it loads!

Here's a close up of the 'Hats Off!' piccies:

Silent Sunday

Gorjuss crafty creations

There were some lovely free backing papers with my last couple of card making magazines so had a go at a few new designs this afternoon.  Had a go at some new techniques using crushed paper circles to create flowers and inking paper edges to create a shabby chic effect.

My friend Emma bought me a lovely card for my birthday back in March from the Santoro's Gorjuss range.  I was really chuffed when I found some super decoupage packs in Hobbycraft in the same range and had a go at creating a couple of cards today.  Now looking forward to making more of these.

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The Gallery - I'll remember April

April, in my mind, was a good month.

As far as I'm concerned nothing can make you feel better or remove stress more efficiently than waking up to a bright sunny, cheery day and April definitely had lots of these.

April was our first opportunity to take pooch off for his first holiday and it's also been a time for extended dog walks along wooded paths, admiring the flora and fauna along the way.  Add in the fact that school was shut for a huge part of the month and a beautiful royal wedding saw us all celebrating in various styles and I think we have as pretty near perfect in 'month' terms as you can get.

So to sum up I'll Remember April, not as in the lyrics of the Frank Sinatra song but as..............

Woodland walks..................

Picnics in the park..................



Wonderful wild flowers and....................

Beautiful blue skies and glorious green fields as far as the eye can see.

We have returned.........

Well here we are, back in 'not so sunny' old England after our lovely 3 week holiday in Florida - what a contrast!  We've gone from temperatures in the mid 70's - mid 80's to temperatures closer to 50f and even snow up in the North! I mean, come on, it is March now after all, I did expect to come home to at least a little warmth!

So, the holiday of a lifetime, where do I start?!   It's hard to believe now that we were there for 3 weeks as the time just seemed to fly by. During our stay we visited all four of the Disney parks - Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios, Universal Parks - Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Centre, Discovery Cove plus Downtown Disney and Universal Citywalk.  After such an action packed vacation I think I'll have to break my 'report' into separate blogs or I'll never get it all in! :)

So here goes............blog number 1..............

The Villa!

We chose to stay at a villa located on 'Tuscan Ridge', Davenport which we found online through a google search.  We'd looked at so many villas that it was hard to choose but we liked the fact that 'The Elm' had a great website packed with information and pics and the absolute selling point was the fact that it had both a pool and jacuzzi that were South facing.  We contacted Gary & Anne the owners and right from the start the communication we received from them was first class.  We were offered a discount due to our long stay and even received a Christmas card from them which we thought was a lovely personal touch.  Prior to the holiday itself Gary sent through super detailed directions to take us from the airport to the villa which included photographs of signs and junctions to really make things clear.

The villa itself was just lovely and exceeded all our expectations.  It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room with dining area, family room, large kitchen / dining room, games room, laundry room plus of course the most important part.............the pool and spa.  The villa had a wonderful light and airy feel and felt like a real home from home.  There were TV's in pretty much every room along with a Playstation 3 in the family room and Playstation 2 in the smaller bedroom.  The family room sideboard was stacked with family board games and 'A' was chuffed to bits to find a basket full of Jacqueline Wilson books in her bedroom.  The villa was so spacious that we found ourselves only using the family room and kitchen area during our stay with the living room / dining area being as untouched when we left as when we'd arrived!  Each bedroom had plenty of storage space and the master bedroom had a walk-in wardrobe that put 'A's bedroom back home to shame!

The kitchen was well stocked with plates, cups, glasses and so on and the appliances were just fab especially the washing machine and tumble dryer which I used on numerous occasions.  For the first time ever I returned home with almost no dirty laundry which was just wonderful!  The games room housed a very good pool and football table.  We found this was great for the kids to play on especially 'S'  who tended to play whilst we were getting ready to leave for the parks each day or after returning in the evening.

Due to the length of our stay we were lucky enough to be able to have quite a few leisurely days by the pool.  We'd heard many people say how tiring the parks can be but we didn't quite believe just HOW tired we were!  It was lovely to have a 'day off' every few days where we'd sit in the sun, swim in the pool then head off shopping or for a meal later in the day.  There was a great selection of outside furniture and even a box of inflatables to use in the pool (which we made great use of!).  The pool truly was South facing which meant that we got the sun from early on a morning until it set around 6.30 each night. 'A' made great progress with her swimming while we were there and is now able to swim quite confidently under the water.  Even I made progress with my fear of water as by the last day I'd managed to submerge myself and swim and whole length with my face in the water!  This may not seem like much, but will come as a great surprise to those of you who know me well!

I tried to think of some negative points to make about 'The Elm' to make this a really unbiased review but I honestly can't think of any! We loved every minute we spent there and it just felt so comfortable returning each day after a hard day of disney-ing.  I would recommend 'The Elm' to anyone who's looking for a good value, luxurious villa whilst visiting Florida and I just hope that we can return again in the not too distant future.

For further information on 'The Elm' please visit http://www.tuscan-ridge.com/ where lots more photos and information are available.  You can also email info@tuscan-ridge.com and I'm sure Gary or Anne will be very pleased to help you.

Please mention that you read great things on Tales from a Mother, Musician and Multi-tasker!

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Tuesday's Treasures - Baby Memories

Tuesday's Treasures - Baby Memories

Whilst sorting the bedroom during the week I got a little sidetracked and started sifting through some of the books and photo albums on our bookshelf.

We have two lovely 'Baby Record Books' from when 'S' and 'A' were born and I adore looking through these and reminiscing.  Along with photo's and baby details we kept copies of newspaper cuttings and other announcements, cards, locks of hair and gift tags.  I could spend hours looking back through these especially reading about all their 'firsts' and how we felt when they said their first word took their first steps etc.  It all seems like such a long time ago now they're 14 and 10!

I'm so glad we took the time to keep these books updated now as 'A' very often loves to also have a read through and asks questions about what she did when she was little.  They really are something we'll always treasure.

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If you'd like to take part in Tuesday's Treasures please feel free to copy the image above and post to your blog with your picture for this week, with a link in the comments below.

Alternatively, for Facebookers and Twitterers just post your 'treasure' pic along with a link in the comments below.

Hoping you will join in the fun and can’t wait to see your weekly offerings!

The Gallery - Mother Nature

This week's theme over at 'Sticky Fingers' is.........Mother Nature.

For this theme I thought I'd show you some of my favourite sunset pictures that were taken at Pershore, near Worcestershire.  When the children were little we used to spend many a weekend down at P's mom and dad's caravan.  It was always a lovely relaxing time when the children would play outside, ride there bikes and we'd end the day with a lovely stroll by the river.

The theme Mother Nature for me made me think of the many beautiful scenes we see everyday and as our river walk was one of these it was only right to include it.  I loved the way that Mother Nature can paint the same scene in so many different shades and colours to make it look like a completely different display each time.  I hope you can see this reflected in the pictures below.  I have to say though, the first picture is definitely my favourite with the whole landscape bathed in a beautiful orange glow.

Tuesday's Treasures - Choir memories

Thought it was about time for another of Tuesday's Treasures!

My treasure this week is a group photograph that was taken last Summer of our 'then' school choir with Jo and I.  Although we have now been running the choir at our children's primary school since January 2008 this was the first time I'd been around and available to have my photo taken with the children (we're normally away on holiday that week...........yes I know, shouldn't take them during term time blah blah blah!).

If you count up you can see there are 40 children on the photo which includes our own daughters.  Choir started up again last week and we welcomed a new batch of year 3 children along with new members from the other key stage 2 classes.  We now have the grand total of 55 - our biggest choir to date..........a much wider photo required this year I think!

PHOTO REMOVED due to request of an 'anonymous' party

Tuesday's Treasures - Feathery Feeding Time!

For this week's Tuesday's Treasures I decided to post a picture of something that's very needed by our feathery friends at the moment.

On my birthday wish list this year was a bird feeding station which was kindly bought for me by my brother.  When I was growing up my Dad was a avid ornithologist (and still is!) but to be quite honest I could never see the fascination! Since getting older however I now have more of an interest in all things 'wildlife' and there's nothing I like better than sitting at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning, nice hot cup of tea in hand whilst watching a garden full of birds enjoying their Sunday brunch.

I like to put a variety of food out but the blue-tits, great-tits and goldfinches particularly love sunflower hearts.  Although, I must have got through at least 8 seed feeders in this year alone as the rather annoying squirrel (gun at the ready) keeps attacking them! I've now had to resort to a metal nut feeder but the feathery numbers seem to have dwindled recently so I really don't think they're impressed with the menu choice!