Flowers

Today we have been married for 27 years, how quick the time flies, 

this bunch is from Hubby, I love the colours.

 Win (next door) gave me the Cyclamen plant below, as a thank you for watering her garden this summer, she also got a nice tea towel, which I have given to Kev, Win knows how much I love plants, it brightens up my kitchen.

 We have had a great long weekend away in Peake District, we stayed in The Railway Inn, Ashbourne, which was great, 

and visited a cotton mill and shopping centre near Matlock Bath.

Massion Mills has loads of interesting machines and history of the cotton industry.

 Above Kev is looking at the cotton after it has been carded, and before it goes into the machine which spins it into cotton, this lot has been coloured grey, at the time the machine was running all cotton would have been white and coloured after spinning.

 They had various machines showing the different ways the cotton was spun. As a working mill, all they did was spin the cotton and then ship it out to be woven into fabric. 

 Loads of coloured threads, 

can you see in the back ground how full every where was.

 They had a few working machines set up to show the final process, the machine above was late 1890's and the one below was 1970's, same process but different types of method.

The tour was very interesting, and to be able to see all the different machines working was fun 

Our guide was very knowledgeable.

 Every where we looked was full of historic artifacts,
I was like a child in a sweet shop.

Hubby enjoyed the tour as well!

 I have never seen so many different bobbins and reels, these baskets were full and every where, it looked as if a shift had finished and they are waiting for the next days workers to arrive. 

In the bobbin room, there is an area where they carve the bobbins all sizes out of blocks of wood, but every where, all styles of bobbins, there were hundreds hanging from the ceiling, with my love of wooden things I was in heaven.

And a shop, most of what you see here was from the museum shop, bobbins, thread, fabric chalk.

I also purchased some gold thread, not shown here for my cross stitch, very shinny and very soft. 

PS, the shopping center was OK.

 Back home, and plenty of crops to pick, we have salad leaves and cucumbers as well, the items below is going to my daughter Su's tonight, she is cooking vegetable lasagna.

The rest of our time away was in the country side and beside lakes, loads of photo's, Kev had a Bakewell tart, in Bakewell, to many almonds for me to try, but he did enjoy his.
A true relaxing time for both of us. I did get a small amount of stitching done, but a counting mistake, means I will not do any more to it, so back to Grand Marquoir.

Hubby is away until Tuesday evening, so I am having a lazy weekend on my own, which I think I need, we have been so busy for so long.

If you are still with me, well done, hope your weekend is good.