Burton Joyce day - and Culture Show

Before I leave Hardwick I wanted to show you one corner of the Restaurant at least, to try to convey something of the atmosphere of eating in the old kitchens. I know it's probably a bit pseud but Yvonne and I both thought that the idea and the design worked very well. We are determined to return to the House and Park at least once more this year and that is the sincerest recommendation isn't it? It will be pleasant to go when the gardens are further advanced.

They have had much trouble with perennial bindweed in the herb-garden and have had to completely dig it all out by hand. I suspect that in Bess's time that would have been my sort of job! While Yvonne was scrubbing out the above- mentioned kitchen. The thought, that we might have been sitting down to a meal upstairs, never occured to us.

Ricola, a herbal extract firm, have given a grant of £20,000 to facilitate the replanting of the herb-garden. I hope they get some well-deserved publicity. My readership is strictly limited - but maybe this is 20p worth!

A warmer start to the day. 3c but it rose to around 10c albeit heavy rain mostly. No comparison with yesterday. But I suppose this is what April is all about. My friend Bob liked yesterday's picture of the Hall and understood the reason for the tree to block the scaffolding. He said "Not another bl**dy conifer" As I understand things, and from my reading of the relevant Hansard pages, further legislation will be necessary to sort out what exactly is meant by the word 'removal'. Yet another shoddily drafted piece of legislation by this appalling government. (I might edit this bit out tomorrow - I'll see how I feel)

My computer problems continue - if somewhat abated. I followed Ray's trouble-shoot and although, when I try to access my home-page, I get the message 'this page cannot be accessed offline' when I click the 'connect' button it does open my page. Also, whenever I download pictures from my camera I have a new problem. The pictures download OK but then when I 'safely remove my camera' the system goes into standby-mode and I have to restart. Minor problems and they don't seem virus-likely. It would be nice to fx them though.

The Culture Show was good again. Interesting Architecture piece about London skyscrapers - another good interview with Brian Eno (he has been and still is such an influence on modern music and design), a charming bit about Morris Dancing and a modern troupe who are bringing things up-to-date abit. And loads more ! They are off-air now but only till May, at the new time of 8pm Saturday - which will be great and suit us much better. Fetching Y back from Burton Joyce and sorting out food by 7pm on a Thursday has been less than ideal. I know we could record it, but then we would have to decide when to watch it.

When Yvonne walked Miles (4yrs) back from nursery-school this morning a funeral passed them and pulled up at the Church. He wanted to know all about it and Yvonne explained that it meant that someone had died and they were going to the Churchyard to be buried. He immediately expressed concerns about sharks eating children. Yvonne reassured him that that hardly ever happened and that it is mostly old people who die. She thought it a good opportunity to say "Grandma and Grandad will die one day". He then said "But you and Grandad aren't really old". It made her day.