Sutton on Sea.......and relax

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We have just had the most relaxing couple of days at the seaside. We managed a little bit of light exercise, a swift pint at the pub, lots of sleep, a trip to the cinema and some sitting around reading and fiddling with new phones. It really could have done with being a longer break but 2 nights away has been marvellous. The exercise part of it included some gentle walks by the sea where there is a lot of digger activity on the beach. Nope, not giant sandcastles, but a lot of beach nourishment. I have always thought that 'beach nourishment' was a strange term for pumping a load of sand from offshore and piling it up on the beach for sea defences, but that's what it is called. It certainly feeds my strange fascination with big diggers which I will share with you in the video below.

Christmas at Chatsworth House

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We are very fortunate to have Chatsworth House a short drive from where we live and the Christmas decorations are a special attraction and well worth a visit, although it is really busy. I had a sisters day out - myself and my sisters have a trip out and lunch instead of buying each other Christmas presents. This year we had a bigger party as my niece and her little boy came too and also our dad, so it was extra nice with 4 generations of the family represented. Here are a few photos of the decorations, though they barely do them justice. I've also included a photo of my favourite sculpture of the Veiled Vestal Virgin. This year the theme for the decorations is 'The Nutcracker' so there were ballerinas dancing around too ("the pretty ladies" as described by little Oscar). My favourite room had a tutu tree and a bauble bath :) 

Golden Valley and Codnor Castle Walk

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The sun was shining and I have a new leg (so to speak), so it was time to test it out and try out a walk that will be a local walk when we move to the barns. 

It's a very historical walk which sort of goes back in time from the industrial revolution back to medieval times. We started with the industrial revolution by walking along the remains of the Cromford canal at Golden Valley. We have spent many a happy time with the kids over the years visiting the Cromford canal at Cromford near Matlock, but have never really investigated the canal on our doorstep. We parked near the Newlands Inn which is a sad shell of a grade 2 listed building destroyed by fire in 2011 with no sign for years of it being rebuilt.

Across the road from the Newlands is the footpath along Cromford Canal towards Codnor Reservoir. This is quite overgrown in places but is a pleasant walk and well used by walkers and birders. We saw a kingfisher which was very exciting - apparantly there are a pair seen regularly.

We continued along the canal past the reservoir until we reached the start of  Erewash Meadows Country Reserve where we turned off to cross the railway line. The nature reserve will have to be a walk for another day! Across the railway line we walked through the woods until we reached a farm track and fields near to Codnor Castle. Fortunately for us the castle was open as they have open/maintenance days on the 2nd Sunday of every month. There is an excellent web site with lots of information about the castle here, and we were really quite shocked at our lamentable knowledge of our only local castle. It was featured on a Time Team program which we watched on YouTube when we got home.

After a little photography break at the castle we headed back towards the start of the walk, but first we took a little detour to see the  Codnor Park Monunment, another local landmark which we can actually see from the barns. It was a tower and hall built in the memory of William Jessop Jnr 1784-1852, a local industrialist active in the Butterley Company, founded by his father. It was actually a bit of disappointment because it's on private land and you can't get near it. Bah. The photo below shows the view across Golden Valley and you can just see our barns (with the help of the arrow!)

To finish off our walk we retraced our steps back to the track and walked back to the main road. We crossed the road and carried on along the footpath opting to walk on a high bank under the electricity cables after walking through the woods to a) see the view and b) it was easier walking because all the vegetation had been cleared underneath the wires.

All in all it was an unexpected lovely walk and one that we will do again. If you have enjoyed this post or would like to make a comment, please click on the buttons below.

Sunrise at Sutton on Sea

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A beautiful sunrise is much more accessible at this time of year.....a civilised 08:00 start meant that even I was tempted out of bed (and outside) on a chilly dewy morning before breakfast. 

The beach hut decoration is pretty good this year. I love this one with the 3d solid wood sailing boat. Some huts just have amusing names like number 40 which is called Winks. Geddit?

Back at home and it's family tea Sunday. I'm actually able to potter about baking without the awful encumbrance of a crutch so have had a baking splurge. Some easy sourdough cheese scones and a new Orange and Almond cake recipe. The interesting thin…

Back at home and it's family tea Sunday. I'm actually able to potter about baking without the awful encumbrance of a crutch so have had a baking splurge. Some easy sourdough cheese scones and a new Orange and Almond cake recipe. The interesting thing about this cake is that you poach a whole orange for about 30 mins in a pan of boiling water and then blitz it in a food processor until you have a puree. The eggs and sugar are whipped until light and frothy and then the flour (I used spelt) and ground almonds and baking powder are folded into the eggy mix, followed by the orange puree. So easy to do. It's then baked for about 40 mins at 160C until the top is golden and springy. After cooling for a while I mixed some icing sugar with clementine juice and drizzled over the top.
1 orange
3 eggs
140g castor sugar
85g flour (plus 1tsp  baking powder if plain flour)
150g ground almonds

Golden Plover Murmuration

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We visited Donna Nook National Nature Reserve on the Lincolnshire coast this weekend to see the grey seals and their pups and found that we had arrived largely before the seals. Only 6 bull seals have arrived and none of the lady(!) seals or newborn pups. Never mind.......we were treated to a fantastic display of murmurating golden plovers. We know they were golden plovers as a warden handily was there to give a running commentary. The reason they were in flight was because of a peregrine falcon out hunting which we saw but unfortunately didn't capture on video. 

Saltfleet Haven

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Saltfleet Haven

I may have given the impression that we have had perfect weather on our holiday. In the main that has been the case, but as I write this thunder and lightening are crashing and flashing all around us, as has been the case for the last 2-3 hours. This has been accompanied by an absolute deluge of almost biblical proportions and we now appeared to be sitting on a freshwater marsh. This morning dawned beautiful and sunny, although by 'dawn' I mean around 8am, which has been our usual lurch out of bed after a cuppa and good book.... well, we are on holiday! Seeing the weather forecast we decided to eat a less leisurely breakfast and get out for a walk. We thought about going to the nature reserve at Gibraltar Point, but that would have meant driving through Skegness on a bank holiday weekend and we really didn't fancy that, so instead went in the opposite direction to Saltfleet Haven. This is very close to the Rimac Nature reserve and is a tidal creek for boats. Today it was a haven for birds and we saw redshanks, curlews, sandpipers, egrets and seagulls. In fact is was our best walk ever for spotting birds. The sea was a long way out so we walked along the creek almost to where it bends to run parallel to the shore before going into deep water. It was a bit muddy so our trainers are now platform trainers, I suppose it makes a change from having sand everywhere:( There was a huge amount of samphire everywhere which I guess is due to the recent spring tides. I picked some to eat but by the time we got home the seaweedy smell was so strong that I didn't fancy cooking it, let alone eating it.

It's a bit shaky but here is a video of sandpipers (we think!) at Saltfleet Haven creek.

Lincoln Castle Poppy Wave

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Lincoln Castle Poppy Wave

During our seaside holiday we took a break from the sea and sand and visited Lincoln. The weather was absolutely perfect if a little too warm so we strolled around the marina and shops and visited the castle to see the poppy wave. The wave is just a small section of the poppy display from the Tower of London during 2014 for the 100 year anniversary of the start of the first World War. We decided that the weather was too nice to do the full castle tour so just walked the walls and sat in the castle grounds. Steep street is still really steep which is a good work out on your way up to the castle, although there are interesting shop fronts to look in and catch your breath if you need to. I really liked the enterprising shop front which features a wave of remembrance day poppies.

Gunby Hall

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Gunby Hall

We had a family get together weekend whilst on holiday. Two daughters came to stay for the weekend and were joined by the other children, one son in law, one sister in law and two dogs for the day. Before the rest of the crew joined us we decided on a trip to visit Gunby Hall near Skegness. It's been a while since we last visited and it was interesting to see the difference since last time when the hall was only open on Wednesday and had a sitting tenant. Now it is open most days and there is much more to see in the hall. The house had a last hey day in the early 1900's so there was a lot of victorian and early georgian displays and photographs. I particularly liked the William Morris wallpaper in the hall and some bedrooms. Some of the furniture appeared to be William Morris fabrics as well. The music room was also very interesting and the grand piano was played by one of the Nation Trust volunteers who described how the piano had been made with the screw heads showing so that it could be dismantled and rebuilt in India. The garden is really lovely with a walled vegetable garden with lots of espalier fruit trees. It was really tempting to pick the fruit and vegetables as we walked around.......