General Chat

Amanda... the lakes are beautiful anytime.

Diane...Spotted dick is a firm fav up here...with plenty of custard.
Your culi and brocci cheese dish sounds delicious.

The Lake District in early Autumn is heavenly.........when I was a youngster we often went to the Lakes for our annual holiday and always right at the end of the season ( as it was cheaper ). The quality of light / air , in the Autumn on a bright day is second to none ( especially in the lakes ).

Ooh Diane it all sounds so nice and homely.
Can't wait for your homely cooking and lovely countryside.
Sounds delish. There is a farmhouse in Warkworth (Northumberland) which does the most scrummy homemade foods.
Oh dear...I will have to pay a visit again...just thinking of it makes my mouth water. x

Hells bells...I will have to call on the expertise of Eldrick for this one.

We have castles a plenty, beaches, countrysides not to be outdone by anywhere... beautiful heathers, flowers, walks, tours, ramblings, smoked fish (originals), countyside so beautiful ...you would die for...weather...crap.

In Autumn 2008 we spent a week in a converted chapel near Allendale Town, wonderful walking country during the day and a nice pub to drink and eat in at night. Great holiday.

With you on that Bernie..except in my case its Northumberland...Gods Country... beautiful to see.

Not a lot Julia. I live a mile on the Staffordshire side of the Dove.
Wife and I try and get into north Staffs or Derbys most weeks at least once.
The High Peak and Tissington Trails are good, so is the Cromford Canal near Whatstandwell. Shipley Park is nice, we have Keddlestone Park close to us and also Cannock Chase is only 30 minutes away.

I was a seaside boy, born near Folkestone in Kent but moved to Midlands with job in 1972. Quite happy here, great scenery and the beers in the midlands are superb.

ps Went blackberrying yesterday, we got over 5 lbs. Lovely pies and crumbles for the next few weeks.

Bernie my Boy, I don't get up the Peak much these days, but have to agree with you. On my doorstep I have the wonderfull Shipley Country Park with all it's beauty. Walking boots on, on an autumn afternoon is so exhilerating. Even pick my sloe's there fo the Gin. Then home to a nice dish of stew that has been in the slow oven since 8.00 in the morning. What more could you want.
Julia in Derbyshire

I am with Amanda on this, Spring and Autumn are my favourites, especially when walking through the Derbyshire and Staffordshire countryside when its peaceful and pretty. The Spring with the flush of green in the hedges and trees and the Autumn when everything is turning yellow, brown and red. Summer is OK but the countryside gets a bit overrun with noisy tourists and yobs leaving litter everywhere. How anyone can visit beautiful scenic places like Dovedale and Cressbrookdale with MP3 or IPod ear phones on or walk through the lovely vales while texting on a mobile beats me.
Winter? Yuk, cold, wet, Yuk, I can't wait until spring returns.

Lol Hoobity...........perhaps its me that needs psychoanalyzing......lol

Julia..........I wisk I had the confidance and skill to make clothes. I managed a cloak once ( years ago ) and nearly turned my brain inside out trying to understand the patten...........lol

Got to go now as son wants the pc.

Thanks for the chat : )

So no need to worry then Amanda...phew...I thought spring and autumn were the opposites of each other.

Wipes sweat from brow. I thought I had completely changed myself from top to bottom.

Amanda - year ago I used to make my OH's three piece suits, and flowered shirts for a hobby, so was used to a nice length of fabric. Some hobby, but I liked it.
Julia in Derbyshire

Hoobity boobity..........Autumn is about fruition and completion ( but I do know what mean about death and decay because it is those things too ).
Spring and Autumn are my favorites ( two sides of the same coin I suppose ) and we wouldn't get one with out the other.

Julia.........my Mum was a lover of the Tweed fabric ( mind you she loved all fabrics and sent me a long list once of fabric names........lol ).

Autumn was always my favourite season and I used to worry, why?...because Autumn is all about death and decay.
This year when spring had sprung I decided Spring was my favourite season. I don't know why but i have changed my mind about which season is the most preferable..is it cos I am getting old and I want to hang onto Spring in my mind?...I will have to psyco-analyse (quite poss (sp) )my reasons.

There is only one Margaret Rutherford.

Amanda 2003, Not quite s old as Margret Rutherford,LOL or now, thankfully, not as rotund. But give me a market selling fabrics,(hard to find these days I know), and I always have to buy a length of tweed. Years ago, when the kids were little, we used to have an autumnal trip from our village to Bakewell, up Derbyshire. Oh the market, boy oh boy, and it was always cattle day. Always came away with a few lengths of tweed, and bundles of knitting wool suitable for cable sweaters. Just thinking of it now is bringing back many happy memories. Be awfully glad you have no motorways yet.
Julia in Derbyshire

Julia..........I'm getting visions of Margaret Rutherford : ))) ( one of my all time favorite people I might add ).

I agree completely with you Diana on the scenic route. I live in Norfolk and we don't have any motor ways here........lol ( yet ).

Yesterday we went to a garden centre that is east of Derby. We are north of the city. But instead of driving along the main roads, my request was to take the 'scenic' route. Driving through all the little villages and hamlets, is always a pleasure, and even more so in the winter, when there is just a crack of the sun. Why hasten to the end of the journey, just to get there abit quicker by taking the main roads. No, it is the 'scenic' route for me every time, and seeing natures beautiful, bountiful, earth.
Julia in Derbyshire

Edited to say, the Autumn is my favourite time of the year. Possibly because I was born in the Autumn. I used to love wearing 'tweed's in the autumn, many years ago. Still love a bit of nice tweed, and good leather walking shoes, highly polished.

Wonderful - learnt this at school and have always loved it.

Thank you for that Sue and Rose : ))

Do you know I've never read the words properly before.........such beauty .

I was looking at the harvested fields around my area today and reveling in the golden colour of the empty land.

Even if the Autumn brings melancholy moments , I don't mind as the beauty of it all never ceases to astound me : ))

Thank you .

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies

Passed on to you, via me, from Rose

Sue x