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Walks

Walk Derbyshire – Chatsworth to Haddon Hall

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

The two great houses visited on this walk are within four miles of each other as the crow flies, but each has made a unique impression on the face of the Peak District. Chatsworth, ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire has developed following the fashions of house-building nobles. Additions have been made since its […]

Featured

Attracting Wildlife into your Garden

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

People often asked me “What can I do to attract wildlife into my garden?” I ask them what they already do to try; most often they tell me that they have bird feeders and put out bird food but not much seems to visit them. Firstly, we need to understand the needs of any visiting […]

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Featured

Modern Collectibles – Gentlemen’s Stickpins

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

Last year, I bought my wife a complete boxed set of The Avengers. So many episodes does it contain that we are still ploughing through them and, indeed, enjoying the kitsch nostalgia and humour of them enormously. The late actor Patrick McNee, as John Steed, the one constant protagonist of the series, was increasingly presented […]

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Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Knowle Hill, Ticknall, Derbyshire

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

Knowle Hill, which lies atop a sequestered valley west of Ticknall and just south of Ingleby, is really two lost houses, albeit that we have no idea of the appearance of the first, and only a limited idea of the appearance of the second. What is there today, are the sensitively restored remains of a […]

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Celebrity Interview – Paul Carrack

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

He takes nothing for granted and continually strives to make “a great, great album – the next one will be better”. This is despite his latest one, ‘These Days’, being described by some people as “the finest album of his distinguished career”. Not sure who Paul Carrack is? He wrote and sang ‘How Long’ with Ace […]

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The City that Never Sleeps

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

Only ten minutes after my wife and I had settled into our hotel, we set off to explore a city we’d last been to 20 years ago. But the area was in lockdown. How could this be? This was the city that never sleeps, the one so good they named it twice. Yet we could […]

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Product Test – Temple Spa

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

Time for luxury with Temple Spa Palm Balm £19 Our award-winning hand cream is very popular in the Autumn and Winter, as it protects and moisturises your hands when the seasons are changing and during cold and frosty weather. Luxurious skincare for your hands. More than just a handcream this luxurious skincare treatment fuses together […]

Dining Out

Taste Derbyshire – Derby’s Bustler Market

January 3, 2019 VickyP 0

Market food used to be all about simple, rib-sticking snacks like hot dogs piled with fried onions and thick wedges of cheese on toast. The height of sophistication was asking for a serviette with your bacon butty. But times have changed. Avocado is now our national fruit of choice; you can get liquorice in your […]

Walks

Walk Derbyshire – Kedleston’s Glorious Parkland

January 3, 2019 VickyP 0

It is hard to believe that the ever constant bustle of Derby’s traffic is barely a couple of miles away at its closest point. Kedleston’s park is an oasis of tranquility, with now naturalised groves and plantations, set around hundreds of acres of green-sward and lakes. All this overlooks winding ponds separated by tinkling waterfalls, […]

Featured

Places of Interest on Either Side of The Lower Wye & Severn Valleys

January 3, 2019 VickyP 0

Beyond Birmingham and before reaching Bristol on the way to the south west, travellers using the M5 gateway to the sun often find themselves in one of the all too frequent bottlenecks, especially around the M5/M60 junction. If they give up and decide to call it a day around Junction 9 (Tewksbury), then the possibility […]