I know it is not the start of Summer until Monday but the weather is defintely summer like!!!  We have had wall to wall sunshine all week with warm temps during the day and cool at night.  Poor Treacle is not happy with all her fluff and only has to get to next Thursday when she will be all skinny again!!!

I thought I would show you some more pictures of the garden.

Now that we have widened the drive my Jeep looks quite lonely when it is the only one parked!!!!!

This is looking across the valley from our home and as you can see all the trees are now fully clothed!

Looking down our Hill and the trees in the farmers’ fields.  They have been muck spreading today!!!!!

Our back door into the garden. 

It is all looking very tidy and the flowers are starting to appear

Our trees are all in leaf now.

We put the outside lights up.  They are solar powered.

The flowers starting to come out.

My various veg plants.  I still have a few pots to fill.

The top of the garden and the Boys Den which needs to be re-stained.  Hopefully we will be able to get that done next weekend along with the shed and the patio furniture.

Busy getting dinner ready for tonight and will set the table outside in a bit.  I will remember to take some pictures!!!! 

Have a great weekend you wonderful lot and of course stay safe.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

#TBT of Lockdown Week 8!!!  Not much seems to be happening although they did say that garden centres would start to open.  However when they opened a rubbish tip in Birmingham last week they had 150 cars queuing to get in!!!!  So I suspect there will be long queues to get in to the garden centres especially with the social distancing still being a requirement and not too many people in at a time.  I don’t think I am going to bother.

Anyway I thought for my #TBT for this week would be DH and my trip to The Chelsea Flower Show last year.  It should have been on next week but obviously, as with everything else, it has been cancelled, although they are doing a virtual one on line. 

We were very lucky the day we went as it was sunny and warm.  The bees were out in force.

This company sell green houses but their garden in front was very much a cottage garden.

This garden was in the big tent and went from very pale colours moving through to very dark.  I just loved the pinks.  It was my favourite stand.

The other side of this stand was a great veg plot.

These are my most favourite of flowers ever, Delphiniums.  I used to be able to grow them at our old home but cannot here as the wretched slugs and snails eat them.  However I have sewn some seeds again this year to see if I can get them to flower. 

This was my favourite Garden at the show, The Welcome to Yorkshire Garden.  Unfortunately  because of the crowds I couldn’t get a complete picture!

This is a tiny sweet pea that I have not been able to find to buy just yet!!!

I hope you enjoyed a look back at the flowers from last year.  We are still hoping to be able to go the RHS Hampton Court show which has been moved to September but who knows.  We are now waiting to hear if we will be able to go up to Scotland in August.  At the moment they are saying no travel to The Highlands at all, so it is another wait and see!!!! 

I hope you are having a great Thursday, it will soon be the weekend!!!!  Stay Safe.

Hugs & Love Susie xx

We almost, but not quite, got the Spring Cleaning finished at the weekend!!!  We only had the dining room, sitting room, laundry, downstairs bathroom and kitchen to do and we were doing okay until DH had to go out and get some parts which were ready earlier than normal!!  That meant we lost a day so Saturday and Sunday we got the dining room and sitting room done so I am going to do the rest this week!!!  We are still in Lockdown so it is not really a hardship to do it in between working!!!!

The weather was quite strange over the weekend too; it rained all day Saturday and was realllllly cold!!!  Sunday it was bright sunshine but not that warm.  Today it has been lovely and sunny again and a bit warmer and over the week it is going to get warmer again!!!  I think that at least with the sunshine out it is making this Lockdown feel a little bit easier!!

Here is your Daily Treacle!  She is sat outside Eldest’s room waiting for him to get up!!! 

I got up with DH this morning at 4.45am and got my work done and then started some of the cleaning jobs!!  I have managed to get all the pots out of the dresser in the dining room run through the dishwasher and those that can’t go in I have hand washed.  When Eldest was up and had breakfast he cleaned all the silver, brass and copper for me so another job off the list!!!!  The laundry and downstairs bathroom will be easy to do but the kitchen always seems to take the longest to do!!!!

We are keeping up with the garden and doing odd bits here and there and some of the seeds I have planted are growing!!!  DH and Eldest are going to tidy the garage at the weekend and then we have to just tidy the attic!!!  We cleared it out this time last year and it just needs a quick tidy up.  I always take our vacuum cleaner up there and get the cobwebs up and any creepy crawlies I find!!!

I only then have to wash three pairs of curtains and some cushion covers and get them out on the line at the end of the week when it is warm and it will then all be done!!!  I don’t think I have ever got all my jobs done this early in the year ever, so in that sense the Lockdown has done me a favour!!!!  Of course I can always find other jobs, some of the rooms could do with decorating but we don’t have the paint for that but maybe we can get those done later in the year!!!!!!! 🙂

When I have finished the cleaning this week I will then get my quilting out and take some pictures to show you what I am up to.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

Stay Safe.  Hugs & Love Susie xxx

Here we are in Week 4 of Lockdown and the day after the Easter break.  This past weekend the weather here in Derbyshire was amazing and so we spent a lot of it in the garden getting those final jobs we have put off for a while done as well as more tidying and planting seeds for summer.

All the trees coming into bud.

We sorted this border at the front of the garden above and also planted some seeds.

This is the border on the other side and we have cleared  the space for some new herb plants, the old ones had not done very well over winter so I have planted some seeds and hopefully they will come up.

With the few days of warm weather everything has started to come awake and now looks very green. 

Eldest was helping and one of his favourite jobs is to pressure wash the patio stones. The above is what they look like before they are washed.

The above is what they look like when they have been done!!!!

The effect is very bright!!! 

The afternoon sun just disappearing behind the trees and the white of our Cherry Tree in full blossom.

I did still decorate for Easter, although it was only the three of us as Youngest is with Girlfriend as they are having to look after her horse, Simon, every day.

Our Easter Table.

This is new this year, bought before the Lockdown (!), an Easter Tree with eggs on although Eldest says it is a Christmas tree!!!  I like it as it has little lights on it!!!!

Some Happy Daffodils for Easter.

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday here in the UK although that does not mean much at the moment as we are all in Lockdown anyway.  The weather dropped 10°c from 20°c on Sunday to 10°c yesterday which was a bit of a shock to the system!!!  However I did get the Boys’ rooms and the main bathroom Spring Cleaned yesterday!  Four down, six to go!!!  I am hoping to get the rest done this week and next weekend and then I have a few more little jobs to get done.

I am also going to get my quilting sorted and have a go at sewing at my desk as before, I will take pictures and let you know how it goes!!! 

They say they are going to review the Lockdown at the end of this week depending upon how the figures are from the hospitals etc so we shall see, although there is some worry now that the general public will be worried about going out, not to work of course, but social things and shopping and I must say I would be a little wary until we definitely know how things are going!!!!  We shall see.

Stay Safe.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

We are doing some business work and then I am getting some jobs done at home as well.  Today has been a really warm Spring day so I had a walk around our Estate (garden to everyone else!!!!).  Here are some pictures, the garden is beginning to really wake up now.

A few of my pots which need filling in a few weeks time. 

My little Herb Garden stone which also needs a few plants replacing.

You can see the green coming out in the sunshine.

Shoots coming through.

Treacle taking advantage of the sunshine.

The Buddleia starting to sprout!

The afternoon progressing.

The Perriwinkle coming more into flower.

Primroses and Forget-me-Nots

The Conifers we have trimmed and still need to do a bit more to the Mahonia on the right by the deck.

Pink Primroses

Your Daily Treacle!

Our Home from the garden.

The Peonies coming into bud.

I even managed to sit outside with a cup of tea earlier as it was lovely and warm.  Of course at this time of year it is very changeable and it does drop very cold at night.  At the moment we have not had too many April showers!!!!  Although we had enough rain over the Winter to make up for it!!!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone and stay safe.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Although we have lived in Derbyshire for thirty four years, DH and I were born in Nottingham. 

Nottingham is eighteen miles away from where we live but if you speak to people who were born in Derbyshire, Nottingham could be a thousand miles away!!!!  We go back regularly to see family who still live there and to shop! 

So today I thought I would show you some pictures of our Home Town (picture heavy post!).

Nottingham’s most famous Resident, Robin Hood!  There was some talk about he was really from Yorkshire but we Nottinhamians just ignore that!  We have all seen the films which have been made about Robin Hood and his fight with the Sheriff of Nottingham well this is his statue which stands outside the grounds of Nottingham Castle.  For years when I was a little girl and went to see the statue the arrow was always missing, as people would steal it as a souvenir!!  However the City Council managed to make one and affix it in a manner where it cannot be stolen!!!

Nottingham Castle, which is in the City Centre, is always quite a disappointment for visitors as it really isn’t a castle at all.  A structure has stood on the rock above the city since 1067 shortly after the invasion of William the Conqueror.  It was made of wood but three years later was rebuilt of stone.  It was a Royal residence for the House of Normandy to Henry II who was quickly succeeded by Richard I (Richard The Lionheart) Robin Hood’s Time.

Richard was busy with the Crusades and left his brother, Prince John, in charge who had ambitions above his station.  He took Nottingham Castle and began to rule the country from here.  In 1194 Richard returned from abroad and took control back off John by siege tactics.  He stormed the Castle and wrested control of it away from the soldiers loyal to his brother, making it the only time the castle fell to an attacking army! 

It continued to be a Royal residence until James I of England (James VI of Scotland) sold it to the Earl of Rutland.

The original Castle was demolished in 1649 and the Duke of Newcastle built a manor house on the site (just like today when they knock an old building down and replace it with a modern monstrosity!).  Anyway in 1831 rioters burnt it almost to the ground but it was re-built in 1878 by the Nottingham Council and now houses a museum and art gallery.

It is currently closed and being refurbished inside and out and is due to re-open in 2021.

The Castle and lots of other places in Nottingham City Centre have caves beneath which were used for lots of purposes including tanning of leather and the brewing of beer, as above which at the bottom of Castle Rock in the Brewhouse Yard.

The picture above is of the Brewhouse Yard Museum (you can jus see the Castle at the top of the picture) where staff used to stay who worked at the Castle and lots of jobs were done here for the Castle including the brewing of the beer.

 

The main entrance to the Castle.

This is St. Mary’s Church, High Pavement and is the oldest religious foundation and largest Medieval building in the City.  It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and is belived to hail from Saxon times. 

The above picture is Nottingham Council House where the City Council meet and lots of offices to do with the Council are and the Dome houses the Bell, Little John who strikes the hour, quarter and half which can be heard up to seven miles away.  If we, when I lived at home, could hear the bell strike it was always going to rain!

The above building was opened in 1929 by the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor.  The land in front of the Council House used to hold Nottingham’s Goose Fair and today plays host to one of the largest Christmas markets in the country and a summer “Nottingham by the Sea” event.

Two roads, which are now paved, run each side of the building and are named Long Row, above.  This stretches for a long way and is made up of fancy shops, restaurants and hotels over the years and was seen as the upmarket side.

This is the other side of the Council House where the new tram system runs and is called Cheapside.  This side used to house the butchers and there is a Poulty arcade. There wares used to be in baskets out in front of their shops.

Lots of other roads in the city centre are named after the trade which used to be carried on there.  Fletcher Gate – makers of arrows, the feather end is actually called a fletch.  Bridlesmith Gate – Bridles for horses.  Wheeler Gate – Wheelrights.  Beastmarket Hill – sale of livestock. 

The Council House from Long Row at Christmas.

The Council House in the summer “By the Sea”

The Dome all lit up for Christmas.

We are lucky in Nottingham to still have some glorious buildings.  These three were all built by Watson Fothergill, a Nottingham Architect between 1870 and 1906.  He was inspired by the Medieval buildings and churches.  The above building fronts onto Long Row.

This building sits at the junction of King Street to the right and Queen Street to the left.

As you can see from the writing on the building this is the oldest inn in England and it is where the Knights used to refresh themselves before leaving for the Crusades, no doubt including King Richard!  It is very tiny and gets very busy but when you are in there you have to hold your hand over the drink as the rear of the inn is actually in the Castle wall and it is made of sandstone so you get bits of sand in your drink!!!!!

There are lots of little yards and alleys which connect various road, the above one being Hurts Yard which connects Parliament Street with Long Row.  Tiny shops and restaurants are in these areas making them very busy places. 

This is Weekday Cross, in the Lace Market, and was the original site of all the markets in Nottingham before they moved down into the centre in front of the Council House.  The original Cross was erected in 1529 and the current one above was put in place in 1993.

This is Nottingham Theatre Royal built in 1865 by two Lace Barons John & William Lambert.  One of it’s notable claims to fame is in October 1952 it made theatre history as the World Premiere of “The Mousetrap” as part of the pre-West End tour, the play has gone on to become the longest running theatrical production in the World and we all went to see it in London a few years ago!  It was bought by the Council in 1969 and underwent a full restoration and was opened by Princess Anne in 1978 and has been open since. 

We are also very lucky to have a lot of green spaces within the City Centre this being one of them Wellington Circus off which there are several roads which had some very nice homes built for some of Nottinghams top residents.  It’s layout was influenced by London’s Regent Park and the surrounding roads bear some of the names; Oxford Street, Regent Street, College Street and Park Row!

This is one of the Trent Bridge’s which used to be over the river and is still standing, albeit currently in the middle of a traffic island around which the current Trent Bridge goes!!!!!

Finally this building is outside of the City Centre, Wollaton Hall and was built by Sir Francis Willoughby between 1580 and 1588.  It was owned by the fmaily up until 1881 and was eventually bought by the City Council in 1925 and is now another museum. 

In 2011 it became the home of Batman in “The Dark Night Rises” as Wayne Manor.  The Hall is five miles north of Gotham, Nottinghamshire and it is believed this is how Gotham City indirectly got its name!

My Grandfather worked as an Engineer for Nottingham City Council before, during and after World War II and part of his job was to look after Wollaton Hall.

I hope you have enjoyed my tour of our Home Town of Nottingham.  Some of the photographs are mine and some are from a great website http://www.nottingham21.co.uk  Run by a Gentleman named Ray Teece a former Policeman who has taken a lot more pictures of Nottingham.  If you would like to have a look at some more please click on the link above. 

I hope you are all doing okay and Stay Safe.

Hugs & Love Susie xx