Keeping friends and family abreast of our adventures in Cambridge
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Peak District Freeloader Family
2-4 April, 2012
Stephen's college roommates, Loz & Norma, rented an awesome farmhouse in Derbyshire (Peak District) as a family getaway. They are English but live in Norway with their three lovely children: Lewis, Natalie, and Oliver. We mooched our way in for 3 days and 2 nights and it was little of everything. Seriously.
We were on a farm in a converted barn, so there were sheep and cattle, etc. (Not in the barn, silly.) There was a bouncy castle. Yes, you heard me. And a trampoline. And a covered, heated pool. That's just the beginning.
The day we got there it was in the 50s, green, and "spitting." By the time we left there were 8 inches of snow on the ground and blustery winds. For the first time in my life I built a snowman and went swimming within a half hour of each other.
Loz and Norma's kids are old enough to be left alone without worrying that they are choking on mud (ahem, Ellis) and old enough to kind of almost be trusted with our boys, which was just lovely for being able to put our feet up and relax a little.
Thanks again, Loz, Norma, and Co. for having us AGAIN. (They hosted us in Oslo in 2010!)
Side note: As I write this (and I am way behind!) Ellis is taking his time learning how to walk. He is a fantastic cruiser but prefers not to let go. However, he has gained a vocabulary of like 30 words in the past week I kid you not. I swear he keeps gurgling things that sound like full sentences and I have to do a double-take. Wasn't it yesterday when he was losing stuff in those thigh creases and cooing at me with a toothless grin? What's happening?!
Hello! I like it here!
Oliver, Bryce, Ste
Oliver, Bryce, and wait, who let the glass bottles by the pool? Still don't know how to behave 25 years later...
Chillin' rustic-style on the farm
Note bouncy castle on the right. Sadly Bryce didn't want to go on it without me and I think I was too big for it.
Baaaaah! (I think this was Ellis's first word)
Oliver being a cheeky monkey
Ellis not-so-happy (that is some serious bottom lip action!) and...
... 15 seconds later he's fine.
Ollie and Bryce sharing the wheel
"C'mon Ollie, put your back into it!"
What're you looking at?
Fearnley family with all the milky cows
Welcome to Derbyshire (pronounced Darbyshur)
On the way to Blue John Caverns
The Williams/Richardson gang
The minerally deposit known, appropriately, as "Miner's snot"
This is what they were mining for: Blue John, a semi-precious mineral
I had more than one Goonies moment and almost got my head bashed into the rock by my husband after the tenth time I told Stephen that "down here it's OUR time!"
Trying to keep dry in the misty mist!
Mmmmm, pub lunch. Cheese and apple chutney sandwich.
What happened to the bouncy castle?
Loz flipping Ste the V's
Ste standing on an imaginary snowboard, apparently.
Nice pics! Some good memories of our time in the Peaks.
The glass bottles in the pool was my responsibility. I performed a risk assessment beforehand and concluded that as long as we stayed under 8 pints there was no risk to personnel. However, property risk wasn't accounted for (this is normal when Ste is around, ask him about Reynolds Road).
Nice pics! Some good memories of our time in the Peaks.
ReplyDeleteThe glass bottles in the pool was my responsibility. I performed a risk assessment beforehand and concluded that as long as we stayed under 8 pints there was no risk to personnel. However, property risk wasn't accounted for (this is normal when Ste is around, ask him about Reynolds Road).