VickyP

Featured

On a Wick & a Prayer

November 25, 2019 VickyP 0

As places go‭, ‬Tissington is a picture-perfect crowd-pleaser‭. ‬From the minute you pass the towering lodge gates and meander along the lime tree lined avenue‭, ‬there’s a sense you have discovered a magical village that time forgot‭. ‬ Tissington’s popularity‭ (‬as many as 35,000‭ ‬visitors during well dressing week‭) ‬explains why a village with around […]

Featured

The Isles of Scilly

November 25, 2019 VickyP 0

T‬he Isles of Scilly form an archipelago of five inhabited islands‭ (‬six if Gugh is counted separately from Saint Agnes‭) ‬and numerous other rocky islets‭ (‬around 140‭ ‬in total‭, ‬lying 45km‭ (‬28‭ ‬miles‭) ‬south west of Land’s End‭. ‬Access is by the Scillonian ferry from Penzance across a notoriously rough section of the North Atlantic‭. […]

Featured

Cruising gently along the Rhone

November 25, 2019 VickyP 0

Part One – Arles to Vienne ‭T‬ravelling with Midland Mainlines meant we arrived at St Pancras in good time for the mid-morning Eurostar to Paris‭, ‬Gare du Nord‭. ‬What should then have been a quick ride to Gare de Lyon seemed to take an age‭; ‬Parisian traffic was as bad as I remembered it‭ ‬from […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Glapwell Hall

November 4, 2019 VickyP 3

+24

-6

Glapwell Hall was a rather rambling stone house of later seventeenth century date, made more rambling by Georgian and Victorian additions, producing, as one former owner put it, ‘a house of comfort rather than conformity’. The rooves were a right jumble from above. It was built of coursed rubble with Permian magnesian Limestone/coal measures sandstone […]

Featured

Taste Derbyshire – The Porcini Remained Elusive

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

Foraging for food in the Derbyshire Peaks may sound idyllic but, when the clouds are ominously heavy with rain, there is only one thing in nature’s larder which could drag me from my bed on a Sunday morning. In short, you can leave sweet chestnuts and sloe berries to the birds and bees. I want […]

Dining Out

Restaurant Review – The Sanam Tandoori Restaurant

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

Cooking in a traditional way has always been the priority at the Sanam on King Street Alfreton, and for the past 25 years they have stuck to that premise. Over that period of time they have seen restaurants come and go, some change hands. Their philosophy of providing quality food at a fair price has […]

Dining Out

Restaurant Review – Shapla Spice

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

Shapla Spice is one of the longest established restaurants in Ripley, Derbyshire. I must admit I drive past Shapla Spice almost every day and always thought it was a take away, how wrong was I? It was on a pleasant Friday evening that my partner and I were booked in to dine, it was then […]

Female

Product Test – Skin Academy ZERO

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

Skin Academy has just launched the UK’s most eco-friendly beauty range, Skin Academy Zero. Skin Academy Zero is the first mass market, 100% natural, 100% recyclable / recycled packaging and sustainable skincare range that is set to shape the future of the beauty industry. The innovation sets a new environmental standard in the beauty industry, […]

Featured

Modern Collectibles – UK WW2 Propaganda Booklets

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

When I was quite small in the late 1940s, I recall leafing through some paper bound booklets of quite substantial length, packed full of pictures of the war at home, on land, on sea and in the air. I was riveted by them, fed by tales of how it all felt, for it was very […]

Featured

Celebrity Interview – Rick Wakeman

November 4, 2019 VickyP 0

At the age of 70 most people probably think about taking life a little bit easier. But not Rick Wakeman. Even after three heart attacks because of an unhealthy lifestyle and at one point being given only 24 hours to live, the keyboard virtuoso is still going strong. He’s just finished his first solo tour […]