Blogs from Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 19

John Geddes wrote " Decembers wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summers memory" As I looked out of the window on Sunday it looked like December. It felt like December. The snow had fallen overnight and coated the trees in white. The green grass was covered with 4" of the white stuff. The paths were invisible hidden under their winter coat. The mini beast from the East had arrived bringing with it snow showers. Being a Sunday there was little traffic on the roads and they remained impassable until the afternoon. Myself, the driver and a neighbour took our snow shovels out and cleared the path, cleared a route through our road and gritted what we could. Swimming was impossible and it looked like the haircut tomorrow would go on the ... read more

Where in the world is Gabby and what has she been doing? Sadly still standing on the drive. She has not moved an inch. We sat and thought about the electrical man who would be fitting the TV socket. After much thought we decided we did not fancy him touching Gabby. Somehow we felt we could not trust him. So in the end Glenn drilled the hole himself and we have another guy coming next week. Let's hope we have made the right decision. We had ordered the Camperstop book and it had arrived and a few days have been spent browsing its pages. The weather has been unpleasant. Rain, cold and wintery and dull. Not quite what we would want in February . In particularly not the sort of weather I wanted for my activity ... read more

Where in the world is Gabby the panel van conversion ? There I have said it. Our Gabby isn't a motorhome. She is a panel van conversion and a pretty one at that. She has not come to Alfreds Town with us. She is at home languishing in the bitter cold of this February morning. I get rather complacent in February. It is the second month of the year. The buds of the Azalea and the Magnolia are fattening up for Spring and the mauve crocus are pushing their little heads above ground. The nights are getting lighter by the week and I have a false sense of Spring just being round the corner. I even saw a host of golden daffodils last week. Not quite a host - a couple of stems King Alfred variety ... read more

Well hello there - it's me Gabby. I really think Jen has been rather remiss in not telling you all about me. She didn't even bother putting a photo of me on the last blog. So what shall I tell you? They bought me weeks ago and I had to sit on a neighbours drive because they could not get me on the drive. It's not that I am large , in fact I am smaller than the other old girl Suzy. I am 2.58metres high. I am 6 metres long and 2 metres .05 wide although you shouldn't ask a lady how wide she is. I am a PVC apparently - a panel van conversion otherwise known as a camper van. I'm German and very efficient. I am gold coloured. I stand out much more ... read more

We set off from York to go to Bakewell today. This is a halfway stop on our way to Wales, so we are just staying the one night. Our aim was to visit Chatsworth house, before going on to a small B and B near Youlgreave. We arrived at Chatsworth mid morning and parked the car. We were surprised at how full the car park was, especially as it was not a weekend and the weather was not fantastic! ( We later found out that Chatsworth is the most visited stately homes in England) We started our visit in the house. As the Duchess of Devonshire is interested in fashion- as is one of her children as well, Stella Tarrant - the emphasis on the display in the house at present is fashion. It also has ... read more