Alien Abduction and the Fires of Hell

I intended to write this blog a week ago when many of these first pictures were taken, but time really runs away from you when you have a massive paper to work on, and an essay to study for, not to mention grabbing a pint every now and again. Well lets see, a day in the week of Brandon...
Last Saturday, Half the flat, enough to squeeze into the back of Mark and Carol's car. We were off for a day trip to Hardwick Hall, another one of the many grand estates built throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in England. Before arriving at Hardwick we made what was supposed to be a "quick" stop in the little town of Makeney to see their well. Well-dressing is a very old tradition in many of the small towns of England, and they make mini works of art for the occasion like the board above. It is always decorated with flower petals, seeds and other bits and pieces of plants. very intricate work and actually quite impressive. Our quick stop became near 2 hours in order to hang around for their light hearted ceremony of Morris Dancing. Many towns take this occasion very seriously, but not Makeney. They theme the pagan celebration every year and this year it was after the TV show "Dr. Who" which stumped even the TV whiz kid Kevin. It apparently is a popular and older tv show that involves aliens and investigators.
Note the "alien" costumes.

Next stop, was at a little Flour Mill still run on a waterwheel that is still in operation but also turned into a museum. Got to see everything operate watching the whole process down to the bag at the base. Very impressive. I think this has sparked a new plan for the future. After becoming a teacher for a few decades and then becoming a landscape architect for the second half of my life, I will finally retire, by or build a water powered flour mill and run a bread bakery made from fresh, stone ground flour daily. Boy would that stuff sell! I like my life plan, now if only there were no unforseen obstacles to get in my way.
This particular House was at one time one of the grandest in all of England. It was built by the wealthy Bess of Hardwick, who was in fact so wealthy she was second only to Queen Elizabeth I herself, and entertained many royal and imperial guests. Bess ran many different estates including another one that we had been too which was Chatsworth. (see earlier blog from fall).
Most of these windows arent't even functional. Gotta keep that symmetry.
By the last 15 minutes before we left, it started pouring rain. Snatched a bag of the best crisps I've had this year on our sprint to the carlot, and drove bumpily home.
The Landscape of Derbyshire, beautiful. Right before the clouds came in.

Tuesday:
Kevin's 21st Birthday
Fun night celebrating both these folks special days. Got started late (around 10:15 we actually left the house which was mistake number one) and then, we arrive at the tram stop to take us into town to go out, and there is an announcement that there has been a car accident further up the line and the trams are out of service until its cleaned up. Now we have to spend the next half hour walking up to a stop where the trams are in operation. This gets us into town near 11. Too late to go to all the places we had wanted and we have to settle for a few less than preferable city pubs. At least the first Hog's Head had nothing impressive. Lloyds, in the location of an old bank was actually pretty cool and open til 2 so we settled there for a while. Ended up being a short night and everyone caught the last tram home and was in bed by 2. Earlier night than most oddly enough.
Wednesday:
Hilary's 21st Birthday
Sorry I don't have pictures of you and your cake Hil, but I wasn't there for the unveiling of another one of Carol's wonderments.
Carol always tries her best to theme here cakes or make them as much to the Birthday boy or girls tastes as possible. Can you guess what Kevin's is....

It's a TV Remote! That is absolutely Hilarious. She hit that one right on the head. She used all kinds of different kinds of candy for the buttons. Wrote numbers on all of them, and had Power written in frosting, along with all the standard vcr buttons. Modeled off ther real things she says. Absolutely Brilliant!


Tonight, Friday I was supposed to be going to the last Football home game for the Nottingham Forest Team, yet sadly I found out last second that prices were double than normal and above my humble means of survival. Everyone else went and had a great time. Thus, I was at home debating about watching it at a pub, wandering the neighborhood streets trying to find a pub that televised the game on Skye sports and found none, and decided to just bum around home. On the walk back to the flat I noticed a lot of smoke in the sky. Walking more quickly, I dashed into the flat grabbed my camera in case some rare oppurtunity like a massive explosion were to occur (i was not wishing, but one must be prepared) and rushed out to investigate.
Turns out that the Fireplace factory near our flat, set in the dingy and dangerous streets across Bobbers Mill Bridge had caught fire. Not anything too extraordinary, but since I now sit wondering if the Forest have won or lost and right this to you folks instead of yelling myself raw at the game I gotta cling to what excitement I can find. First fire this year, and that's a good thing!