Project 365 2022 Week 17-18 Day 114-127 A fortnight full of adventures and I finally got to enjoy time away in Castleton with my best friend after two years of cancellations.

Sunday 24th April – Day 114

My eldest niece turns 26 today.  Crazy!

We headed off to the Severn Valley Railway to catch up with an old friend – the steam locomotive, Sir Nigel Gresley, who has just returned to service after a major overhaul.  This would also be the only opportunity to see the loco in wartime black livery before it has its new paint job.  We also got to see Taw Valley which has been renamed Elizabeth II and painted purple for the forthcoming Jubilee weekend.

Monday 25th April – Day 115

Back to school for my son and work for me.

It’s not often that I get totally sucked in by advertising but these cat tins hooked me in completely.  The chocolate truffles inside them are rather nice too.

Tuesday 26th April – Day 116

After work, it was time to get my nails re-done.  They’ve lasted four weeks but they obviously needed infilling and I decided to treat myself with some of my birthday money ahead of my weekend away.  This time around I decided to keep my original nail lengths, I’ll probably regret that in a couple of weeks, but it’s nice to have decent nails for a change.

Wednesday 27th April – Day 117

On my day off, I picked up my SIL and we headed over to Blenheim Palace to see the new Battlefields and Baroque exhibition. We also got to meet the Harris Hawk who is employed each Wednesday to scare away the pigeons.

Thursday 28th April – Day 118

That’s all of our caterpillars off to become butterflies.  It’s a process that still fascinates us.

Finished work for the week and got my packing finalised for my weekend away.

Friday 29th April – Day 119

Finally, after rescheduling two years running, I headed up to Castleton with my best friend for our seriously overdue weekend away together.  Sadly there won’t be anywhere near as much hiking as we’d planned for back in 2020 as she’s got an injury but we’ll still have some fun.  It’s somewhere I’ve never visited before and we’ll make the most of our time together anyway. The sun was shining as we arrived so after we’d checked into our cottage and popped to the pub for dinner we had a walk around the village and took in all the views.

Saturday 30th April – Day 120

The weather was much better than forecasted and we ended up walking for hours, along Cave Dale, up to Mam Tor, past Hollins Cross to Back Tor and then back down the valley into Castleton again.  This was our lunch break view, not too shabby.

Sunday 1st May – Day 121

The sunshine had left the Dales but we avoided rain all day.  We started the day with a look around the shops in Castleton before having a look around the ruins of Peveril Castle.  Our cottage garden was right below the ruins and this view was from the castle keep looking down at part of Cave Dale that we’d walked up the day before.

We walked out of the village up to Winnats Pass and along to Treak Cliff Cavern (home of Blue John rock) before making our way back into the village for a late Sunday lunch at one of the local pubs.

Monday 2nd May – Day 122

On Bank holiday Monday, my bestie was struggling with her injury, so we packed up and headed back to her house first thing, after a quick pitstop with her I drove home.  My son had been to the Spring Gala with his Dad yesterday at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and he wanted to show me all of the visiting locos.  So pretty much as soon as I got home, we headed back out again.  No rest for the wicked!

Tuesday 3rd May – Day 123

Back to work and I could have done with another few days off to catch up on sleep!

I wonder what these three are plotting?

Wednesday 4th May – Day 124

When my son headed off to school I headed to the doctor’s surgery for a blood test before catching up with my hairdresser to get my hair sorted out. Back home to catch up with a load of washing – strange that the washing machine can only work when I’m at home.

I’d complained to the council a while ago about overhanging trees at the bottom of the garden and today a couple of workmen turned up.  When I asked how much they would be taking down it became clear that the issue had got lost in translation and that they could only deal with foliage up to head height.  I’d need to contact the council again to get the ‘tree’ team involved to deal with the issue.  If I hadn’t been at home when they started ‘work’ I’d have had no idea that they’d been/done anything.

Thursday 5th May – Day 125

Poling day for the local elections and I headed off first thing to cast my vote before work.  After work, I caught up with some overdue blog work.

Friday 6th May – Day 126

Nice sunny day, and once I’d finished work and caught up with some shopping I got to spend half an hour in the garden before my son finished school.  It was nice to see a bit of colour in the garden.

Was really impressed with my son this afternoon.  He had some homework to complete which could be done in pairs.  He’d figured out how to share a document with his best friend and they Facetimed each other to chat through the topic, split the workload and cracked on with it together, online.  No meltdowns.  It made a refreshing change and showed me just how much he’s grown up and what he can achieve when he puts his mind to it!

Saturday 7th May – Day 127

Big excitement here this morning when we realised that the first of our Painted Lady butterflies had emerged.  It looks like another one is emerging now too.

I’m off for dinner and drinks with my NCT group later, hopefully, I can find something to wear that actually fits me! My excess pounds don’t seem to want to say goodbye sadly.