Surprise trip to Hardwick.

A lovely morning, this morning. Clear blue sky and little wind. But cold - distinctly cold! The internet told me it was 2c but I could see that the bird-bath and a gravel-tray full of water, were solid. Within 10 minutes the local weather station had changed their minds to -2C.

Mr and Mrs Goldfinch had invited some guests at breakfast-time and altogether there was a party of 4. Well - you know what it's like when you find a good restaurant !

By mid-morning it was clear that the day was going to be good and we decided to pop over to Hardwick. The property manager had captured our imaginations last night. She had said that, if one wanted to visit at a time when the scaffolding was at a minimum, now was the time to go. If you are wondering why I have included in the shot, the socking-great conifer on the right - it is there on purpose. To obscure the last remaining columns of scaffolding. The first thing we did, because the house doesn't open till 12noon was to go to the restaurant and be first in line for an excellent meal. Hardwick now has it's own herd of longhorn cattle and Hardwick beef sausage-casserole was an obvious choice for me. Yvonne settled for the chicken & tarragon pie which was also delicious. The restaurant is in the old kitchens and unfortunately can only seat 60 people - but in such an atmospheric setting. As we went into the house we were fortunate to find an introductory talk just starting. Bess of Hardwick was a helluva formidable lady! Alongside Elizabeth 1, with whom she was good pals, they probably created the original mould for formidable ladies. Bess was married four times, each time to a man of greater wealth and importance. She had loads of children and stepchildren and created the Cavendish dynasty. If you need to know more, google her.

Hardwick has it's own quarry and after lunch Yvonne decided on the Stonemasons' tour which involed a walk of several hundred yards down a fairly steep hill to the workshop. Then, of course, the same distance but uphill back. It just wouldn't be possible for me, so I mooched about the interior of the house and eventually the bookshop and restaurant again, until Yvonne returned. It was fortunate that we had decided on a place to meet because our mobiles didn't work. My guess is that Bess would have sorted that out double-quick! Yvonne was given a little square of quarried and finished stone, which will be a potent memento. In the bookshop I couldn't resist a Quotation Dictionary reduced from £15 to £5. I know! Yet another one. But while I was browsing, I found an Aristotle gem that must be worth a £1 all by itself -

"Wit is educated insolence" .......Aristotle 384 - 322BC

We returned home via the motorway which was extremely busy. At home I switched on my laptop only to find myself unable to make an internet connection and the screen littered with 'error' 'not responding' etc., messages. I eventually managed to connect and raised Ray via 'talk' and he gave me a link for VBS sys/res which he uses before installing or downloading anything new, or making substantial alterations to his system. I had of course installed the Panorama programme, also an Art one and Ihad messed about with 'working offline' (which honestly I don't think I'm experienced enough to do yet). No criticism at all of the research Madeline did for me, for which I was grateful - but I'm not really computer-literate enough yet to follow it safely. So, in future, I shall follow Ray's advice and create a restore-point before making any changes.