Hardwick Hall

After a slight detour caused by 'Jane' taking us to what turned out to be the exit road, we arrived at Hardwick Hall on a day which was bright enough to show Autumn leaves off well, but was always threatening rain.

The first view of the hall showed a surprising amount of glass. However this is not the impression you have from the inside because the NT keep the interior very gloomy - on account of the fact that natural daylight is a killer to the huge number of tapestries which cover the walls inside. We had 'homemade' soup & roll in the old kitchen before checking out the old hall.

Despite beng essentially a ruin, the main staircase is still usable and provides some grand views of the countryside and back to the new hall.

The Abbey that isn't, and a duck called Roger

As new National Trust members we naturally want to get our money's worth so we decided to visit Calke Abbey
at the start of Jacqui's half-term week, which also coincided with our wedding anniversary.



It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the visit, but we were left feeling a little bewildered because firstly the place is not an Abbey and secondly since they acquired the place the NT have merely halted the decline so that you can see the place "just as the last owners left it" (which in some rooms was a mess!). Also it would be hard to find a place with so many rooms so full of stuffed birds and animals.

In their shops the NT have a range of ducks which I have been going 'coo' over (or should that be 'quackers') - and on this occasion I found one called Roger - and it was finally decided that 'he' would come home with us and go into hiding until a suitable birthday/Christmas opportunity arose.

Harvest-time with the Male Voice Choir

I rewote the words of a Chris Bowater song "I delight greatly in the Lord" for the Male Voice Choir to sing at our Harvest service. The new words go "Now's the time to celebrate with joy and count the blessings from our God. For he is a God whose love has never ever faltered and no-one can match for generosity". It is a bit of a tongue-twister and is sung in two parts and we asked the congregation to try and join in.



You can hear a recording of the result:

More details on stonebase web

Dancing to the bang on the wall

The Church's Harvest Barn Dance was held at Humphrey Perkins School and featured "The Bang on the Wall Band".



Although Robin was out of the country to attend a stag night, we had company for the weekend.

On the importance of punctuation

I have always remembered an (apocryphal) story from school about an inspector coming into an English class. The inspector noted that the teacher was placing much emphasis on correct punctuation and told the teacher in front of the class that it was more important to get the students express themselves than to learn correct punctuation. Straight away the teacher went up to the blackboard and wrote:

"The teacher says the inspector is a fool."

Just as the inspector was about to get angry with the teacher, the teacher went back to the board and added in some more punctuation, so that it now read:

"The teacher, says the inspector, is a fool."

Anyway the sight of a dragonfly glinting past the window moved me to take the camera out into the garden yesterday. I couldn't find the dragonfly but I took this picture of a butterfly on our Buddlea without knowing what it was

On consulting the internet I found out, much to my surprise that that white mark was not a mistake, it has given the butterfly its name - the Comma


This is what it looks like with its wings open.