Christmas at the Old Byre in Derbyshire 2013.

Saturday 21^st December 6am. Alarm ringing. Time to get up, it is holiday time. Hmm, it is cold, dark, pouring with rain & blowing a gale as it has been most of the night. Shall we stay in bed? Noooo get up.

Soon the car is packed to the rafters with Christmas pud, wine, beer and PRESENTS!! We leave around 7.15  destination Derbyshire. Once it got light & the further north we got the better the weather. Soon we arrived at the Old Byre, actually sooner than we thought & the owner had not left the key in the designated place. I was in desperate need of the loo and I mean desperate. Luckily Ian managed to wake the poor woman from her bed, well it was 9.30. Soon we were in the house, I immediately visited the downstairs loo… and relax. Perhaps too much info for you, but it is my diary after all.

Anne & Joyce were only a few minutes behind us and soon we were unloading cars & filling the house with all manner of Christmas cheer and trash. A quick and uneventful trip to Sainsbury’s to top up supplies. (Anne & Ian had to be stopped from purchasing additional items as usual)  Back to the house, unpack, open champagne & Christmas cards, eat choclit and relax.

Sunday we had a visit to Chatsworth House as they had it decorated in the style of the Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe. It was excellent, bit pricy but well worth it. We made the effort to go there early and by judging the queues of traffic for a few miles out of the estate when we left, we made the right decision.

 We then went to Eyam, a Village that suffered the plague in 1665. Eyam isolated itself to prevent the disease from spreading, much of the population died during that time. We were told it is quite safe to live there as long as you do not dig in the plague burial sites! Right ok then. Seriously lovely village and very interesting place to visit. Managed a hot chocolate & very nice sandwich in the local café. Checked for signs of plague later none visible so far.

Monday. Kept awake most of the night by wind & rain lashing & howling against the velux  windows in our room. We venture into Bakewell to pick up our goose from the butchers, oh and 2 pork pies that were so fresh they were still hot. Good job Anne & Mr. F Did not know that or else they might have been devoured on the short trip back home.

The Winnings are going to visit us today. We were supposed to meet up in Bakewell but the weather is so bad they are coming to the house. Ian lights the fire. We are in the kitchen preparing the food. I can smell the fire. More prep, smell gets stronger, well it is windy out there. Smell now very strong I mention it at about the same time 5 smoke alarms go off. DON’T PANIC.

The living room is filled with smoke, we run around opening doors, windows anything that will open is opened.  We manage to put out the fire (Log burning stove so no open flames) Ian suffered a slight singeing of the thumb. The Winnings arrive to a cold a quite smelly house. However it was really lovely to see them and spend a couple of hours together, I think they eventually warmed up.

Christmas Eve we attempt to light the fire again thinking it must have been the wind blowing the smoke back in, same thing happens so we have to get the owner to come & have a look, He is quiet calm about his beautiful house filled with acrid smoke and in a few minutes has the fire blazing away. Cold chimney syndrome we are told (Air block) which means it wont draw and blows all the smoke out. Soon Ian, he & I are chatting away about Rugby and peace reigns again.

Christmas day.

Still no signs of plague.

Soon Santa arrives and we spend the day opening our lovely presents, drinking champagne, excellent wines and eating a wonderful goose for our Christmas dinner.

Guess what Santa brought Anne

Ho Ho Ho

Not much else to report, no eventful burnings down or other calamities, Just a nice relaxing time. We did not manage to complete the very hard WASGIJ before we had to depart although we gave it a good try. Ian & I had to leave on the Friday morning as yet again work calls me in. By 9.30 I was sitting at my desk, while Ian ran around and unpacked at home.

I am sure Anne & Joyce missed us after we had left but they seemed to have a very good time in Bakewell on Saturday morning just the 2 of them. The text “We are in Bakewell having a coffee and enjoying the shops” did not go down too well with me as I picked it up from the office. (yes Saturday) Jealous? Me? Most definitely.

Might now have signs of plague or is it just melancholy or over indulgence?

Now I have almost forgotten to mention Mr. Rudolph words cannot express the fun that he brought to us. I hope that the video clip work on here.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Memo to self - remember to Google for incubation period of plague!

Pre Fire, fire

Ian doing the usual