Pages

30 March 2022

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.

23 comments:

  1. What a wonderful few days you spent together. It must have been even more special in that you had needed to wait that little bit longer to meet up. Fingers crossed for next year. Xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jules, it was wonderful. I really hope we can make it an annual thing, it would be so amazing.

      Delete
  2. What a wonderful few days, and you got the weather for it too. It's lovely to be able to meet up with extended family again, I think relationships have suffered through the pandemic, so it's good that we're able to build on them again. It sounds like you stayed in a wonderful area with lots of interest around the cottage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We did get the weather, it was the beginning of the long run of sunshine we were so lucky. It is so lovely to be able to meet with extended family, I have really missed it, I love big family gatherings. It was a wonderful area, my mum chose it as there was lots to do close by.

      Delete
  3. Perfect weather for meeting up and it sounds like you had a lovely time. Seven million pounds - maybe I'll not be purchasing this week, then!
    Best wishes
    Ellie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know this might sound strange but £7 million seemed like not very much when you looked at what was for sale. It is a big estate. I only discovered as I looked it up online to work out where it was and the first thing that came up was the site with the particulars for the sale!

      It was absolutely perfect weather and not at all what we were expecting when we arranged it. It was a totally wonderful weekend and I really hope we can do it again next year.

      Delete
  4. I'm so very happy you were able to gather with your family for such a lovely time together. How wonderful! And what a fabulous location to share your time together! XO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kym, that is so kind of you. It was a fabulous location and central to us all, we were blessed with the weather and location.

      Delete
  5. I am SO glad you were able to be with family, it's been quite a long time for gatherings that are normal. Lovely photos!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Karen, it seems like it has been ages, longer that two years. Family gatherings are so special, I have really missed them.

      Delete
  6. That sounds wonderful and it's a nice idea to make an annual thing of it. We have a family get together planned in Scotland in the Summer, so looking forward to that. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was wonderful, I do hope we can make it an annual gathering. I hope you enjoy your gatherings Scotland, another beautiful part of the country.

      Delete
  7. Wonderful that your planned reunion went ahead, so lovely to see the ties of the wider family coming together and something to look forward to to meet up and share memories, family stories etc, which can sometimes just get lost over time xcx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Chrissie. You are so right that coming together is such a lovely way to share family stories. A very elderly relative died not long before we had our weekend together and my mum had got hold of some really old photos of family going back five generations from my children. We all sat together looking at them, talking about who they were and mum shared what she knew about their lives. It was fascinating for all of us.

      Delete
  8. That looks like an amazing gathering! The house and grounds are beautiful and it looks like fun activities for all. Last time I went on a slide as an adult was a harrowing experience, so I hope it went better for you! Kids don't have bones so they can just fly off the end of a slide with no problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sarah it was. It was a lovely place to stay, with perfect weather, beautiful countryside and loads to do close by. The slide was such fun I went down it several times, once was not enough! I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience on one that sounds really painful.

      Delete
  9. That was certainly worth the wait. How lovely that you all finally got together again. The house and local area look wonderful too with so much to do and see.xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It totally was worth the wait. It was so lovely to finally get together, the location was perfect and the weather was the icing on the cake!

      Delete
  10. That sounds like you all had a wonderful break away together. These things are always tricky to organise (even more so in recent years) but also always worth the effort. Although we had to avoid the board games for fear of rifts over the scrabble! Glad to hear you had a lovely time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Tonia, it was a wonderful time. Things have been so hard to organise recently haven't they but the effort is always worth it, I agree.

      Delete
  11. Wonderful! Your family weekend sounds fabulous. Unfortunately I have to pass on the seven million property....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was fabulous, thank you Christine. You mean you don't have seven million lying around?!!!!

      Delete
  12. I'm so happy to imagine you all enjoying your time together. Truly special, especially after such a wait. It seems you had the glorious weather, too!

    ReplyDelete

Hello......would love to hear from you :)