Terrafirma Travels

Late up. Breakfast, then off to Quarry Bank Mill. We have been there before, but this 18th century National Trust mill is extraordinary, set in a deep forested valley not far from Manchester. We did 6k steps around the extensive grounds. Saw a large fluffy heron on a lake and a weir which fed the mill stream when the looms were water powered. We encountered endless dogs and children - for once the majority of visitors were not as old as us. After the walk we had coffee in the cafe and L whizzed around the mill, watching and filming one of the looms in action, and one of the cotton spinning machines too. She was especially interested in the mill office, a perfect example of a Victorian office.  Finally we had a walk around the garden and on the path back to the carpark we saw an NT employee in a field of English Longhorn cattle. He was scratching the back of an enormous bull with giant horns and everything else (!) to scale. The bull was drooling with contentment. When the worker wa...

The Forecast was rain and gales so we planned a day in. After the usual-for-Gatley slow getting up, we walked to the Coop for Guardian, milk and alcohol - the stuff of life. L had a poetry zoom, N wrote a first draft of episode 1 of The Discussion Group, then it was lunchtime. Barney really enjoyed having us both here all day - the feeding on demand functioned well. The afternoon disappeared with reading and resting. We cooked in again because we've had enough of eating out for a while. Then Strictly and two episodes of The Reluctant Vampire with Lenny Rush (he carried it). The cat sleeps soundly beside us, now we've stopped sitting in his favourite space. 

Today we got up late, had a slow breakfast and packed a lunch to take with us. We drove to Lyme, a very large NT estate which we have visited before. L had forgotten our previous visit until we arrived. It was a drizzly wet day. No photos because we had been there before! The house was pretty wonderful, huge 18th c pile, and there were v few people in it, plus some new signboards in each room that were v effective and easy to read. However we whizzed around it and drove home for lunch after all. Later L went off on a trip to the nearby John Lewis for some bowls, cutlery and pillow protectors.  Dinner was tuna we had bought at Preston market and then it was time for Traitors again, watched with Barney on the sofa.

L went for a run on a cold, sunny morning while N stayed in bed. Once the M60 had calmed down we drove the hour up to Preston and headed straight to The Harris for elevenses served veery slooowly. L immersed herself in the special Horrockses frocks exhibition while N remained in the cafe, making notes for a script idea he has had.  L loved the Horrockses show.  The cotton company based in Preston made very fashionable cotton frocks through the 50s to the 70s, worn by royalty and film stars as well as middle class Lancastrians. Lunch was had in a small, minimalist cafe apparently just opened, again rather slow but delicious salad and omelette. It was interesting observing the young, mostly Pakistani, clientele coming and going. On the way back to the car L spotted the traditional old jewellers where L's nana bought her 18th birthday present. Surprised and pleased it still survives. Back to no.38 for tea and plum bread, reading, sitting with cat, early dinner before L's Greenwic...

Pete and K left at 7am. We had a shower, porridge and whizzed off to Crewe for Nic to have some private blood tests.  Crewe wasn't a lovely spot. Onward to Little Moreton Hall, a NT Tudor mansion, black and white half timbered.  There were beautiful windows, a great hall, and a bloody brilliant cheese and onion pie for lunch. This is the motto at the end of the Long Gallery, whose floor was very sloping.  We looked down the long drop of the Tudor toilets, down to the moat. Some of the glass was original though the windows in the chapel date from the 1930s. It was a really great NT house, quite spookily dark and moody, with original oak tables and cupboards.  After the Hall, we went north to Sainsbury's to buy food for the week, and went off to M & S to get nice salads for L's lunches. Then we went home to the cat, who greeted us enthusiastically. We fed him, medicated him and later snuggled him. We cooked a whole chicken and had it with ordinary veg. L had her gi...

Up at 0545, cuppa & biscuit, in ferry queue by 0645, searched by Customs (!), on ferry by 0745 and departed at 0755. Au revoir, IoM, it's been a lovely 36 hours. Could not find our assigned seats in Nahrbyl lounge. Sat anywhere. No-one checks. Big cooked breakfast, our traditional early ferry treat. A damp grey morning. Dozed and read.  Disgorged into Heysham at noon. Drove up to Morecambe where the tide was dropping rapidly. Many oyster catchers and a single bar-tailed or black-tailed godwit - beautiful long straight beak. Brucciani's for a toasted sandwich lunch, comes with salad and crisps of course. Lovely cafe, largely unchanged since est. in 1939. Quick charity shop, v downmarket but L found trousers - £2! Morecambe looked v quiet and scruffy in the grey Oct rain as we drove through towards motorway and Manchester.