Twelve weeks late, worth the wait

Way back in December, a few weeks before Christmas, we made plans to visit extended family to have a Christmas get together.  They were last minute tentative plans as they have been for the previous two years, but the thought of being able to get together with grandparents, cousins, siblings felt possible.  Sadly it was not to be, my brother and his partner tested positive for Covid two days before Christmas.  We were all so disappointed that our plans had not been possible, a week later my Mum had found and booked a large holiday cottage big enough for all of us who had been meeting at Christmas and some more members of my extended family.

Twelve weeks later we all congregated together, fourteen of us, together at last.  It was worth the wait.

There were late nights with many games played and so many words exchanged.  There were trips out, walks and so much sunshine.  The skies were big and blue with not a drop of rain in sight.  We sat and ate lunch outside everyday, together.  The lovely weather was a wonderful bonus, the sun is always so welcome whatever the time of year.  I also know that if the weather had been very wet we would still have enjoyed each others company we would have just done it in other ways.

The place we were staying was in the grounds of a large house.  The main house, the holiday cottages and 50 acres of land are currently for sale, if you have seven million pounds to spare they are yours.  We were allowed to walk around some of the gardens which were an interesting and rather wonderful mix of landscaped and wild, there were huge areas of snowdrops which were pretty much finished, wild garlic was in abundance amongst the trees the smell was heavenly, if you like that kind of thing.  The walled garden above was full of raised beds which were clearly used to grow a wide variety of fruit and vegetables.

The wavy walls were on the edge of the property next to a road.  They are known as crinkle crankle walls in some parts of the world.  They were often used to grow fruit against, we could not see if this was the case here as we were not able to view the other side.  This design of wall uses less bricks than a straight wall as they don't need buttresses or more than a single thickness of brick to give it strength and stability.

The cable car was not Cameron's favourite, he suffers with vertigo and the ride made this feet tingle.  He chose to walk back down the hill to the car park at the end of our visit.    It was a great way to travel to the top of the hill over the valley below, the views from the car were amazing.

At the top of the hill there were caves (old mines) to explore, views to soak up, exhibitions to be viewed, ice creams to be eaten, picnic benches to share food on, butterfly trails to be explored, playgrounds to be tested and the best slide I have been on in ages.  It was perfectly wide enough so those bigger 'children' in the party could have a go to.

We spent a morning at the National Stone Museum which was much more interesting than the name suggests.  There was a fascinating geology trail through the grounds which was a series of very large quarries.  There were many fossils to be seen in the limestone areas and evidence of the previous industry dotted about.  A series of drystone walls from different parts of the UK had been built as an exhibit to celebrate the millennium.  The area I live is abundant in these walls.  The different styles, rocks and methods of building were really interesting to see side by side as were the way lichens and other plants that had grown one each one after 20 years of them standing, there was a huge variation and variety depending on the stone used.

Those of us who wanted more activity spent an afternoon exploring the local area to the holiday cottage on foot, a short walk up a hill behind the cottage gave us wonderful views of the area (sorry there are no photos, it was facing the sun and impossible to photograph).  We were aiming for this disused railway line which was busy with walkers and cyclists.  It had an impossibly steep incline on it, one of the steepest in the country at the time, it made the one near my house which is still in use, look positively flat.  It is incredible that trains managed to get up it, there was a siding for the extra engine that was used as a boost.

It was a truly wonderful three days.  I remember family gatherings like this from when I was a child.  We used to visit a cousin of my grandfathers who we all called Aunty every Easter.  Over twenty of us would descend on her house for the Easter weekend there was no spare floor space at night.  She also ran a dog kennelling business, we were a sight to see when we all went out for walks in the woods next to her house accompanied by twenty or so dogs as well.  Christmases at my Granny's were similar.  It is wonderful that my now adult niece and nephew still want to hang out with their aunt and uncle.  It was lovely to see cousins getting to know each other again after the long enforced break that Covid bought with it.  We all left agreeing to make it an annual gathering, I am already looking forward to next year.