Mines and Mansions

Another couple of photos here from our little foray into the Peak District over the summer... Towards the end of our long day of walking, we passed through the pretty little village of Sheldon and joined a footpath leading across the fields back to our campsite. Just outside the village and a field or so away from the path, we spotted these ruined buildings and I couldn't help but go and have a look...


A small sign on a nearby fence told us that this was the site of Magpie Mine, and that the remains here form one of the best preserved 19th century lead mines in the whole UK! Workings on this site are first recorded in 1740, and the different buildings here now represent almost every era from then up until the mine's closure in 1954.


I had to put a cheesy antique effect on this photo because the quality was so bad but it almost works with the mood of the mine site. (My camera is dying - a new one is on my Christmas list! The first photo is taken on an iPad so it's ridiculous that it's better quality when it's not even really a camera!)

A bit of googling also uncovered an interesting story about the mine - apparently the mine was involved in several disputes with neighbouring mines over which tunnels belonged to who, and miners would light fires underground to smoke out their competitors (obviously modern health and safety regulation was lacking...). In 1833, 3 miners from a rival mine were suffocated. Eventually, all Magpie miners were acquitted, partly because it was difficult to identify individual culprits, and partly because of the aggravating antics of the rival miners. But it is said that the wives of the dead miners put a curse on Magpie Mine, which ultimately caused the mine to temporarily close for some time during the 1830s as a result of financial ruin.

Chatsworth in the rain...


From one historic site to another, the day after our walk we took it easy (our legs wouldn't let us do otherwise!), packing up at the campsite and driving into Bakewell for a super-long and leisurely lunch. We then headed out to Chatsworth, where unfortunately the weather turned and the heavens opened, lucky for you as you get to see me looking a bit special in my rain poncho! Haha. We'd visited the house and gardens before so as it's quite expensive, we decided to just walk around the surrounding parkland instead (although if you haven't been before/are not strapped for cash it's definitely worth the money). Even in the rain, it's such a beautiful place, if anything the weather made it even more atmospheric!

The best type of flea

So I was planning to walk up to Beeston Library this afternoon to return my Edward St Aubyn books but it suddenly started pouring down with rain. So I am stuck in on the sofa, getting a bit emotional listening to Ed Miliband on Daily Politics Conference Special. But there is a benefit to you, dear readers, and that is that you get a lovely blog post!

Last Saturday we headed into Nottingham for a lovely brunch at Jam Cafe followed by a trip to the Pretty Dandy Flea Market held in the Congregational Church on Castle Gate.

The church was a great venue for the flea. You can see some photos of the day taken by one of the stallholders on their blog, here. It was the first time the market had been held, but I hope they do another one soon as it was amazing - so many wonderful stalls with artists and collectors selling beautiful handmade/secondhand homewares.

It would have been very easy to spend a LOT of money at the market, but we restrained ourselves as I am still out of work right now. One thing we have been doing recently in our home is trying to build up our cushion collection - it's amazing what a difference they can make to the living room! There were a couple of stalls selling cushions made from vintage fabrics and we this one really jumped out at us as soon as we saw it...

The front is a screenprinted fabric from 1964 called 'Stanhope' (you can see it in the V&A textile archives). The back is a Harris Tweed. We got it for £35 and it makes such a statement, it looks amazing on the sofa!

Most of the sellers at the market had online stores so we collected fliers from the stalls we liked so we can buy from them another time. In particular there was a lady there selling her own prints, I can't remember her name right now and Mark has the flier, but they were really nice and bright and hopefully we'll get one to hang on our wall soon.

Otherwise, Mark picked up a few records from the second hand record stall and we also bought this set of 4 bowls for only £4!

According to Pretty Dandy's Facebook page they are looking at trying to arrange another flea market before Christmas, which would be brilliant for present-buying! *fingers crossed*

Sunny afternoons....

So I couple of posts back I made the somewhat grumpsome indication that proximity to the Peak District may be the only good thing about living in Nottingham. This isn't true, there are a (very small) number of other good things about Nottingham too. One of them is Wollaton Park. An Elizabethan stately home (Wollaton Hall) lies in several hundred acres of beautiful parkland, less than a mile from where we live. The park is a deer park too, so wonderful if you like a bit of wildlife spotting! Anyone who's seen the new Batman film may also recognise the Hall as Wayne Manor, residence of Bruce Wayne/Batman!


We spent several sunny afternoons over the past couple of months at the park, with picnic basket in tow, relaxing and sunbathing. Although the weather is cooling down now, I'm still looking forward to some autumnal walks as the trees turn golden red.


I even brought out my old Australian sunhat! Haven't really needed that in the UK so much, sadly. That dress is one of my old ones from my Australian days too. I love it *sigh*.


The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit on the Kindle - one of my all time favourite children's books. I always go back to E. Nesbit's Psammead series when I'm in need of calming - they're such magical books, perfect escapism for any age!

Book review: 'blueeyedboy' by Joanne Harris

I've had an account over at Goodreads for a while. I really like it as a website and the way it works as a social networking site with a difference, and I post up the occasional super-short review. I like doing this mainly because it helps me remember what I've read and what I thought of the book in the immediate aftermath of turning the final page. I just wrote one and noticed it gave you the option to share your review through a blog so I thought I'd give it a go! If this works well and my readers are interested, I may post some more in future!

Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I would love this, as I recently read Joanne Harris's 'Gentlemen and Players', which I thought was a superb book, and was told this was in the same vein.

It has considerable similarities, based again on the idea of concealing your identity, and even set in the same town (the fictional school that formed the setting of 'Gentlemen and Players' also features in this novel). I liked the concept - the idea of characters hiding behind online identities, the blurring of the boundaries between fact and fiction. But I ultimately didn't get drawn into this book. The way it's told, through a series of fictional/semi-fictional blog posts by the two main characters, caused the narrative to lose momentum a little, and as a result the suspense didn't build enough for me and the twist at the end, while clever, didn't deliver the punch I was expecting.

Still, it's interesting, intelligent and well-written. I would still recommend this book, but perhaps not as strongly as some of Joanne Harris's other work.

View all my reviews

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I am a massive book lover and something I always wanted to do on my old blog but never got around to (there was always too much fun day-to-day stuff to write about while I was in Australia!) was to share some of my all time favourite books, what brought me to them and why I love them. Hopefully I'll get started on that soon!

Summer Holiday

One of the (only...?) benefits to living in Nottingham is its proximity to the Peak District, and we took advantage of the good weather in the first couple of weeks of August to get away with the tent for a few nights. We managed to get a spot on a site near the village of Monyash, about halfway between Bakewell and Buxton and about an hour and twenty minutes drive from Nottingham. Mandale Farm was a brilliant site - basically just a couple of fields near the farmhouse and very rural and peaceful. Very basic facilities but really good value. After setting up camp we walked across the fields to The Bull's Head in Monyash for excellent pub tea and beer. The following day we did an 18km circular walk from the campsite. I thought I was going to collapse at one point or my legs might fall off, but it was amazing! The morning began rather misty and we started with a walk through Lathkill Dale, which was lovely and idyllic, and is also the site of Bateman's House.




The house is now ruins, but in the 1840s was the house of Thomas Bateman, agent of Lathkill Mine. It was actually built to conceal a 12m deep mineshaft, directly underneath the house, which of course meant that the house was a structural disaster! The site has been made safe now, and you can go down a ladder to see the shaft underneath.


It was really dark, and you couldn't see the bottom of the shaft even with the torch on. This photo has the flash on so you can actually see better here than in real life!

We came out of Lathkill Dale into the lovely village of Over Haddon, and continued over the fields to Bakewell, where we stopped for lunch and smoothies in a lovely cafe with a sunny courtyard. Still left room for a Bakewell Pudding though....




From Bakewell, we joined the Monsal Trail, which is a disused railway line, in the 19th century part of the line connecting London and Manchester. It includes a number of railway tunnels, and our section had Headstone Tunnel, a VERY long dark tunnel, which would have been quite spooky were it not for there being so many other people on the trail! It opens out and the line continues over Headstone Viaduct, which you can see in this photo, taken from Monsal Head. Monsal Head required a tough climb up (there is a road you can drive up if you don't fancy it!) but was well worth it for the incredible views.


The last part of the walk took us back across country (with a pause for Bakewell Pudding!) and through Monsal Dale back to the campsite. We also unexpectedly passed the fascinating site of Magpie Mine and stopped for a look - I'll post about that another time. After a hot shower at the campsite and a bit of a sit down, we drove back into Bakewell and had a wonderful pub tea at the Peacock. Two nights of scampi in a row. Amazing.

Growing your own...

I'm quite good at growing my own stuff. I grow my own hair, toenails, waistline, occasional lifeforms in the back of the fridge.... Last year however we started growing out own food, albeit on a fairly basic level (chillies and tomatoes). We intended to branch out a bit this year, but time constraints at the relevant times meant we just stuck to what we knew, but on a slightly larger scale.


We have four tomato plants this year and are currently revelling in tomato gluttony. Last year we found the tomatoes had quite tough skins (which happens when you grow them outside), but this year that's not been a problem at all. I guess the weather has made quite a difference - our garden is quite sheltered and south facing, and the latter part of August/early September has been quite pleasant this year compared to last. As a result, the little tomatoes didn't need to toughen up so much. We have three varieties and are scoffing them every day!


This is last year's chilli plant, back in full swing! Everything we read about chillies told us that it was unlikely to produce a second year crop, but we looked after it well all winter, keeping it inside in a sunny spot, and moved it back outside in May when the weather warmed up. Until late June it didn't do anything and we thought that was it, but all of a sudden it seemed to have all its seasons at once - dropped its leaves, regrew its leaves, flowered and started producing in the space of about a fortnight!

This was good news as the new chilli plant we got unfortunately failed on us - the appalling weather at the start of summer made it too depressed and barring a few new leaves it hasn't grown at all.

Next year we want to try some beans of some description, possibly some courgettes but I enjoy courgette flowers more than courgettes themselves! Mmmmmm courgette flowers stuffed with cream cheese......mmmm. Tomatoes again and of course chillies. If like us you eat a lot of asian/spicy food I would absolutely recommend growing chillies. If you get good weather (or have a greenhouse so it doesn't matter so much) just one plant will keep you in chillies from July through to January/February (and beyond if you freeze/dry them). Saves SO much money.

Irish Soda Bread

I must admit to not having eaten much soda bread in my life - I think a few times on holiday in Ireland, and, strangely, a few times in Sydney. In Sydney it was always with my friend Aisling, who was on a constant quest for good soda bread to remind her of her Dublin home.

I have been slowly working through the bread chapter of my copy of The Great British Book of Baking and this recipe is in there, so I thought I'd give it a go. It quickly became a firm favourite. It really is one of the easiest recipes I have ever come across and takes no time at all (no yeast and no kneading like 'normal' bread!), and is UTTERLY delicious. You do need to get hold of wheat germ and wheat bran, neither of which were in my local Sainsbury's or Tesco, but find yourself a good health food shop and you'll be sorted in no time.

Mix 200g wholemeal plain flour with 200g white plain flour. Mix in 25g wheat germ, 25g wheat bran, teaspoon of salt, 1.5 teaspoons of bicarb. Add 350ml buttermilk and mix in with your hands to make a soft, sticky, rough-looking dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. Set on non-stick baking tray, gently flatten to 4cm high, score the dough with a cross and dust with flour. Bake for about 35 mins, until it's golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

See? Easy. I'd really recommend this whole book too, if you are newish to baking or want to expand your repertoire. The recipes are super-easy and it has all the greats, from Bakewell Tart to pork pie, treacle tart to hot cross buns, challah to focaccia and everything in between. Also the best Death by Chocolate EVER.