50th Anniversary Meet Up

So, after a couple of days doing laundry, finishing off cake orders and football camp, we packed the car again and headed to the Peak District to meet up with Simon and family and Mum and Dad to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary - yep this year marks 50 years since they tied the knot, quite an achievement: to still be together, still be in love, and still be here - well done you two!!!!!

Africa or Derbyshire

Two tourists crossing the savannah

They had generously paid for us to get together in a house in the Peak District (another Air B&B find) which turned out pretty perfect: the size, layout and location were all pretty lovely and the weather, well, it was amazing - not a drop of rain, hot most of the time and a warm, warm wind on the hills which felt very foreign.

Clare, Simon and family got there first after spending a couple of hours in Bakewell, then we arrived around 3pm after a pub lunch and supermarket shop and lastly Mum and Dad.  Got a hello and hug from Jake this time for the first time ever - he normally looks straight through me and refuses to acknowledge me so that was a huge bonus.

3 Cousins

The kids were as giddy as could be - lots of thumping, jumping off beds and basically being loud, excited children.  Can't really blame them.  Simon and Clare ended up taking them for a little walk whilst I prepared tea and waited for Mum and Dad to arrive.  Mum and Dad arrived around 4.30 and got to enjoy the peace for half an hour or so before Jake, Amber and Tom came running in.  Everyone seemed happy to see everyone and alcohol was flowing in no time - it pretty much stayed flowing for the rest of our time together.

As I said, I was on dinner duty the first night - so deconstructed 2 chickens and roasted them with lemon, boiled some potatoes, made cous cous and 2 salads.  We sat outside: kids at one table and adults at another, along with cider, wine, beer: whatever had cooled down enough to enjoy.  No-one went to bed early, and I think all the adults maybe had one drink too much.

Pop Pop and his grandchildren

Thursday dawned a lovely day.  We decided to do a bit of exploring in the valley we were in, Lathkil Dale.  Simon & Clare had done the walk yesterday with the kids, but were happy to do it again.  We walked down a very steep road to a dead end and a river and then walked along the river.  It was very tranquil, very quite and the water was extremely clean - in fact the cleanest water I have seen in years (you could easily watch ducks feet when they were swimming)  The kids had a play in the water and mud for a while and then we continued on.  We got to a second road, but decided to continue over a bridge for an extension to the walk the others did the day before.  Mum decided to sit on a bench whilst we did so.  We are very glad we did as we came across the most beautiful setting of a horseshoe weir with lots of shrubs landscaped around and a pretty bridge.  It was idyllic, such a shame Mum missed it.  We then had to walk up through a steep wooded section before ending up in dry, yellow field full of spiky dry grass.  We walked through them back to Over Haddon.  It was hot but overcast so not roasting, perfect.

Beautiful landscaping

Me and the boy

English Gentleman

We had lunch at the house - a picnic on the dinner table and then we did cake and presents.  The cake make Mum blub (result) and then the frame made her blub again (double result)!  Simon and Clare had got them a voucher for a meal at Nathan Outlaw (never heard of him - but a famous fishy chef who has a place in Cornwall).  They were suitably happy, but Mum wouldn't cut the cake!  In fact the cake went back to Devon untouched!!!!!!  After all the exercise and emotion Mum needed the afternoon to lie down to recover, so we left her in the house and headed out to Ashford in the Water - a village we saw on the way to the house yesterday with easy access to a river to play in.  When we arrived, we didn't think we were going to find it, but a friendly local sent us in the right direction.  We found a lovely riverbank with very easy access to a wide, calm and shallow river.  The water was lovely too - not freezing but just refreshing.  The kids were a bit hesitant about getting in (well Tom and Jake - Amber is definitely the bravest of the three by quite some way) so I rolled up my shorts and waded in - it was delicious.  When I looked round the kids were all in and enjoying themselves.  Matt joined me in the water and we spent the best part of an hour splashing around.  I found a painted pebble and Pop Pop went for a recce around the village to find ice cream.  He then treated us to one each - which was welcome, it was quite hot.

Mum and Dad with their cake

Think we got back to the house around 5pm.  Simon and Clare were on cooking duties (BBQ).  I cracked open the Champers and we enjoyed being outside.  We ate too much and drank too much (again).  Tonight though we got the kids to bed at a reasonable time, although we weren't that far behind!!!!

Friday, our last day.  It was supposed to be a rainy day, but it didn't happen - a good thing.  We had decided to go to a cave somewhere - the Peak District is littered with them.  After a bit of research I realised that there was one that Mum would be able to do: Poole's Cavern (which is also where Wilberforce comes from) it only has 14 steps and is accessible for wheelchairs.  Also there was a picnic area and walks in a forest park.  Sounded perfect.  We arrived to find the car park almost empty (where is everyone?) we got into the next cave tour.  The caves were lovely and cold -  7 degrees (it was a good job we had a jumper each) and we were wowed by big caverns, stalactites, stalagmites, and poached egg formations amongst others.  We came out and warmed up in the sun before having a picnic where we used up pretty much all the left over food and then headed out into the woods to walk a couple of trails.

Poached Eggs

A crowd of Branches

We made our way to Soloman's Temple - a round tower on top of a hill.  The map we had didn't show the relief - it was pretty steep, but Mum is nothing but stubborn and determined.  She made it to the top of the hill and not only that but came to the top of the tower, which was pretty ridiculous as the stairs were stone, steep and very narrow. She won't be told - I learnt that a long time ago!!!!

...like son!

Like father...

We had a photo taken at the top of the tower, Tom and Amber then re-hid (not very well) the pebble I found and then we took another route back down again.  The kids ran most of the way, not a bad word was heard and they even submitted to have their photos taken 'for Granma and Pop Pop'.  We stopped in the cafe at the bottom for drinks / ice-creams and cake before heading home.

Last dinner

We then had a very lazy afternoon.  The kids watched films on the telly, Amber made mud pies, and the adults were allowed to relax.  Simon and Dad even sunbathed in the garden.  It was a hot afternoon and the warm wind felt like being blown by a massive hairdryer.  Matt and I took a quick walk around the village and had a sneaky drink in the pub - the view from the pub was of dusty, brown fields,  if an elephant had wandered past it would not have looked out of place!



We all had showers and put some vaguely smart clothes on before heading to the pub for tea.  Everyone was on good form and hungry - 3 courses were had by most.

Just as we left the pub the heavens opened and big splashes of rain hit us - we ran back to the house but poor Granma and Pop Pop got a little wet.  Of course as soon as they arrived, the rain stopped.  The kids went to bed - they all went to bed very easily all three nights which was lovely, we weren't far behind them.

Class 44

Saturday morning we ate up the remains of the breakfast food and packed for home.  The Branches were keen to get off early as they were moving home on Monday and still needed to pack.  Mum and Dad were having a 2 day journey back home.  We had decided to stay for the morning and go for a ride on the Peak Rail - a short 4 miles of track between Rowsley South and Matlock - carriages being pushed and pulled by a diesel and a steamy.  It was very pleasant, nice scenery and with it only being 4 miles long, it was quite slow in order to give us a journey.  Tom spent most of the journey with his head stuck out of the door, getting smuts in his eyes.  We didn't get off at Matlock, but came straight back.

Head out of window

On our return to Rowsley we headed to a flour mill / craft centre for lunch.  We thought the tea rooms would have lots of lovely treats made with the flour, but we were wrong, no sandwiches, lots of salads which looked lovely but were massive.  We all ended up having a cheese scone each which were a little disappointing - oh hum, you win some and lose some, Matt did pick up some bags of nice looking flour for his bread making though!  We then crossed the road to the Peak Shopping Centre an outlet centre which was pretty big but very empty.  We sort of lost interest quite quickly, but Tom did well out of it, getting a new raincoat.

Then we went home, this time we headed towards Manchester in the hope it would be quicker that way.  Not the case, still very slow, oh hum, we made it home in one piece, unpacked and had cupboard tea.

A good mini break, think we all enjoyed ourselves, must say Jake seems to have grown up a lot - i.e. he acknowledged me, gave me hugs, spoke to me, all things that haven't really happened in the past.  Amber on the other hand lost some brownie points.  She is in a 'no' stage, doesn't matter what you ask her, her answer is no and she goes out of her way to be difficult and non-compliant.  Oh hum, you can't have them all behaving at the same time.  She was nicer to Granma and Pop Pop.