For once we weren't heading north towards our Harrogate chums but instead started off with a 2 nighter at Ross's sister's place in Derbyshire. In a very sweet little place called Hope, so yes, the very lovely Hilary & Jim do indeed 'live in Hope'…. There's a stunning view from their house, which seemed to have its very own pheasant parading up and down the front wall in search of a mate, or two.
And I just had to take a photo of the sign we passed while walking the hounds, though I suspect that not a vast amount of Hope is indeed to be found in there..
We were mostly there for Ross & Hilary's Mum's 99th birthday – yup, Majean is now a whopping and impressive 99. She seemed to enjoy the family (plus hanger on, me) visitation and my gift to her, a furry black & white cat, is now called Binky and resides on the window shelf in her care home nearby. Also Ross's 66th birthday, here with his birthday titfer from me and Mr H. I turned into a total kid and rather loved feeding the next door donkey, Willow, with chopped up chunks of apple. (Note to self, don't pause too long having photo taken while feeding a donkey, as the apple is swiftly eaten and your fingers seem to be next..)
Huge thanks to H&J for hosting us so generously, putting up with Maddie peeing on their carpet and generally being a rambunctious puppy. We even managed a nice group photo in the sun..
Ross, Janine & I were then off to Manchester, to stay with Stewart & Helen Macintosh for the next 2 nights. Stewart has lost 6 stone (!!!!) since I last saw him. Massive kudos for sticking to the keto diet – although he def strayed from it during our 48 hour visit! We were walked all over Manchester looking at the architecture and it's def a lot more glassy / apartment-y and funky since I last spent time up there. Hats off to Ross for trying to get Maddie to walk to heel for hours on end, she can be a bit of a trial when not running free!
It turned out Stewart lived less than a mile from my chum Rachel, so while the footy was on I managed to whip over to hers for a cuppa and to meet their very naughty new Staffy puppy Minnie, who it seems has eaten every bit of skirting and kitchen cupboard she could get her little sharp teeth into. Anyway – great too see Rach and two of the kids before I scooted back and we all headed out for dinner.
A busy 4 days but amazingly dry & sunny considering the damp forecast for both places, so nice one our Northern chums! x