May 2025

We started the month with some very warm weather, it was actually a relief when it cooled down a little, but it wasn't long until the gorgeous weather returned.

We haven't had as many days out this month, mainly because Mick's cricket season is back in full swing and so Saturdays are now, once again, taken up. We can still enjoy our little jaunts on a Sunday though and that's exactly what we did on the 11th when Nunnington Hall held their Loving Local event. We're National Trust members but as it was free to get into the estate on this day, Eleanor, Jacob and Jack came with us. It was a lovely day out.

I've read four books this month.

I picked up The Appeal by Janice Hallett in a charity shop and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. A murder mystery set within an amateur dramatics society, and with a charity fundraiser for a little girl's life-saving medical treatment thrown into the mix, but written in a unique way. This is a whodunnit with a difference. The whole book is a series of emails and messages which have been written by each of the suspects. This correspondence could solve the case. Such an original way to write a crime novel, I loved it, and no, I didn't solve the case though I picked up on various clues and it was a compelling read. I'm not sure I'd like all books to be written in this style but I enjoyed it for its novelty factor.

The Ghost Fields is the seventh book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. I'm really enjoying this series, not only for the murder/mystery aspect but also because of the characters. I was recently asked by someone if they should read the books in order and I would say most definitely yes. The murder/mysteries are standalone stories but the characters lives and relationships progress in each book. Another great read.

Amanda Prowse is a prolific author, she's written many books about women and family life. I enjoy the subjects she bases her stories around, many are hard-hitting and emotional but you can tell she writes from the heart. This One Life is Madeleine's story, it explores the choices that women make, their reasons for doing so, and asks the question can you really have it all? It's quite hard to understand why someone would make a different choice from the one you'd make yourself but it can be for all sorts of different reasons.

Back to my reading of classics and this time I chose Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I didn't know anything about this story before I read it. Emma Bovary is the wife of a village doctor, he loves and adores her, but for Emma, that adoration is one sided as her husband just doesn't live up to the men she's read about in romance novels and so she goes on to have adulterous affairs as well as getting into debt to buy her lovers expensive gifts. I didn't like the central character and the story was very slow. I kept waiting for something more to happen, it picked up a little at the end but to be honest, I found it rather boring and it wasn't for me.

After visiting quite a few bridal boutiques, Jasmine has finally found her dream wedding dress. The wedding is a year away yet but it's advisable to get this sorted early to allow time for ordering from the designer and alterations. Jasmine's family live in America so I was honoured to be asked to go dress shopping with her.

Eleanor and Jacob moved house on the 7th. After Jack arrived, they realised that they needed somewhere bigger. The new house is marginally closer to where we live, about half an hour's walk away. It's got four bedrooms so there's space now if they want to extend their family. There's a nice size garden for Jack to play in and it's well established with shrubs and flowers, it just needs a bit of tidying up as it's been left to its own devices while the sale was going though. I had Jack for ten hours on the day they moved while they were getting sorted out and I've been on granny duty quite a bit since too, it's much easier for them to get things done when they don't have Jack to look after.

You may remember that I started the Nature's Walk Blanket by Sandra Paul last year. I've now finished all the squares and I've spent some time sewing in the ends (remind me never to leave this job till the end again) and blocking them. I'm now at the point where I'm ready to join the squares together and add the border but I'm putting it to one side until we get some cooler weather again. I don't think this is the project to be working on during the summer months.

We're away on holiday at the moment. When we got Archie, we decided that we never wanted to put him in kennels, we wouldn't ask other people to look after him either. Consequently, we took holidays in the UK so that he could come away with us. Looking back I'm glad we did that. There's some lovely places to visit in this county and we made so many happy memories with Archie by our side. Our last holiday abroad, before we got Archie, was in 2008, and our last proper holiday in this country, for one reason or another (looking after elderly parents, covid, Archie aging) was back in 2018, though we have managed a few weekends away since then. A couple of weeks ago, Eleanor and Jacob booked a holiday to Majorca at short notice, they've gone for eleven days. Mick and I, as well as Daniel and Jasmine, decided to tag along (with Eleanor and Jacob's permission of course) for a week, and that's where we are now, hopefully soaking up the sun and enjoying a cocktail or two. I'm writing this post in advance so there's no photos to show here (though I may be posting on my Instagram account(jothroughthekeyhole)). Instead, I'll leave a photo of Archie enjoying time on the beach at Trebarwith Strand in Cornwall back in 2016. He was just six here and though he had recently been diagnosed with a heart murmur, went on to live almost nine years more.

June, one of my favourite months is upon us, the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Days with the most hours of daylight and the summer solstice. It's also the month that Jack was born, can you believe that he will be one already? I can't. We're beginning the month in Majorca but it won't be long before we're home again.

Inside Hardwick Hall

Following on from my previous post about the gardens at Hardwick, we'll take a look inside the Hall now. I didn't take many photos, many of the rooms are rather dark in order to preserve the exhibits inside. Things such as textiles and watercolours are light-sensitive and would deteriorate so light levels are carefully monitored.

Looking down from the gallery at the west end of the Great Hall. This gallery is the only link on the first floor between the two ends of the house.

Hardwick is famed for its tapestries, there's a huge collection hung in just about every room. They were mostly sourced and collected by Bess in the later part of the sixteenth century. Even the walls in the staircases are covered with them.

Bess used tapestries to show her wealth and status.

The Gideon Tapestries are hung in the Long Gallery. This room runs the whole length of the east side of the house and was used for entertaining guests and for taking exercise in the form of walking when the weather was bleak. The Gideon Tapestries are a set of thirteen Brussels tapestries which portray the Old Testament story of Gideon. They cost Bess £326 15s 9d in 1592 and it was the largest and most expensive purchase she made for the house.

The Best Bedchamber was the State Bedroom reserved for Bess's most important guests.

The curtains weren't drawn in this room, you can see that the windows allow plenty of light to enter.

My favourite areas of any large house are the servant's quarters and the kitchen. At Hardwick, the servants were housed in the Old Hall so there was nothing to see here but I did enjoy looking in the kitchen.

The kitchen lies below the level of the other rooms in the coldest part of the house on the north side. In Bess's time, cooking was carried out over huge open fires.

Such a stunning collection of copper pots and pans.

This is the earliest surviving cooking range in the kitchen. Each 'stove' was heated separately by burning charcoal in the grates beneath.

The room next door, still on the north side of the house, provided the perfect, cool conditions for making pastry products.

The ovens.

Through the window at the rear of the house, there's that view again.

Bess of Hardwick died on the 13th of February 1608 at Hardwick Hall. She was in her eighties. She's buried in Derby Cathedral. After her death, Hardwick Hall passed to her son, William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire. His great-grandson, William, was created 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694. The Devonshires preferred Chatsworth for their principal seat so Hardwick became a hunting retreat. During the Second World War, the army leased 53 acres of the estate to establish a camp where the 1st Parachute Brigade and later the 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions were formed. After the war it was turned into a Polish resettlement camp for allied soldiers. The last occupant of Hardwick Hall was Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire. Upon the death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, it was decided to hand the house over to HM Treasury in lieu of Estate Duty. The Treasury handed the house over to the National Trust in 1959 but the Duchess remained in the house until her death in 1960.

If you get the chance to visit Hardwick I would highly recommend it. Bess of Hardwick was such an interesting woman in history and the property is fascinating.

Hardwick

We had a lovely day out at Hardwick in Derbyshire at the beginning of April, I thought I'd take you along with us.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an Elizabethan country house which was built between 1590 and 1597 for Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, known more commonly as Bess of Hardwick. Bess was an interesting woman from the Elizabethan age. She had a series of well-made marriages, rose through the ranks of society and, being a shrewd businesswoman, became extremely wealthy. The most famous of her building projects is Chatsworth, the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire who descend from the children of her second marriage. Her last husband was George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury who was entrusted with the custody of Mary, Queen of Scots, for nearly fifteen years. At periods during this time, Bess of Hardwick and Mary worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings, needlework bed hangings which are now housed in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk.

Bess was born around 1521 on the site of the old Hardwick Hall, shown above, to a family of Derbyshire landowners. Little is known about her early life but by her mid teens she was at court in London as a Lady in Waiting to a member of her extended family. From here she married well, accumulated her wealth, and after the deaths of four husbands, Bess commissioned the building of Hardwick Hall.

It was a beautiful day when we visited, sunshine and blue sky, but there was a chill in the wind.

We visited Hardwick at around the same time last year when we had Archie with us. Dogs weren't allowed in the gardens at that time so we were surprised to see that's since changed, dogs are now allowed everywhere except inside the Hall.

The gardens, although a little bare when we visited, are planted with herbs as well as flowers and I'm guessing vegetables as there were rhubarb plants in one bed. In fact, Hardwick has one of the finest herb gardens in the country, over 150 varieties of common and more unusual herbs are grown here.

There's also an ornamental orchard as well as a fruit orchard.

Plants are grown which produce natural dye and I believe there are occasionally demonstrations of historical dyeing techniques given by the staff and volunteers here.

One of my favourite spring plants, the primrose.

I love this area beneath the tree which has been left to run a little wild. The daffodils which had been blooming had faded and the snakeshead fritillaries were now doing their thing.

There's a long yew avenue to the side of the house. At the crossroads of this avenue are four lead statues nestled in niches cut into the yew hedges.

Here we are at the gate to the rear garden, let's go and take a look inside.

The rear view of the Hall. I wouldn't like to clean all those windows. Glass was a luxury material in the 1590s when the Hall was built.

There are several yews in the rear garden which have been topiaried into mushroom shapes.

The borders were nicely filled with spring plants and bulbs.

What a fantastic view looking out from the rear of the Hall.

Bess herself looking out upon that view.

I'll leave this post here, I think that's enough for one day, but come back next time and I'll show you inside the Hall.