Hot sunshine at last

Last weekend we had two glorious summer days of hot sunshine.
On the Saturday, we took Soph our guitarist to the Peacock Inn
in Redmile, one of those quaint villages in South Notts,
featuring a lovely old church and two vilage pubs. There were
shops in the old days, but these disappeared some time ago
with the advent of the big supermarkets. The event at the
Peacock Inn was a wedding reception, where we met up with our
eldest daughter Em, who was playing her traditional harp also
at this wedding. It's a busy time of year for Em, as she's
booked up with weddings most weekends. Last Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, she did 3 weddings in a row ... Sunday's was in
Norwich in East Anglia, when it took her 7 hours to do the
journey there and back.

Mrs C and I sat out at the front and had a couple of soft
drinks each while the wedding guests all swirled around us ...
and we were well placed to hear all the music that Soph and Em
played. A really lovely day, and a very colourful one with all
the posh clothes all whe women were wearing ... and one elderly
bloke who was wearing some tartan trousers.

On Sunday, Mrs C and I went up the motorway to revisit Hardwick
Hall, which was built for Bess, Countess of Shrewsbury in the mid
1600s. A grand old pile, which is now owned by the National Trust
and so is open to the public. What's so special about this place
is that loads of Bess' tapesties, furniture, portraits and the
drapery around the beds is all there, to which her successors (the
Cavendish family) have added lots more stuff. The portraits of
a lot of royalty and other big whigs from that era and since, hang
in the Long Gallery, portraits similar to what you'd see in the
National Portrait Gallery in London. There is one of best portraits
of Queen Elizabeth 1st that I've ever seen, dressed in all her
finery.

The kitchen area in the basement is now partly a shop for the
National Trust, and a restaurant for visitors too -- where we've
sometimes had our Sunday lunch/dinner. The shop sells the usual
array of books, ornaments, cards and other bits and bobs, that you'd
see in any National Trust shop. I was amused to see three mugs for
sale with various witty remarks on them ...
"Everyone is entitled to share my opinion"
"If at first you don't succeed, pour yourself a gin and tonic"
and the last one: " The older I get, the better I was".