England Pix

I know, we've been back for a week and no posts.
Here are some pix of our trip. We had a great time, as always.


Gardens at Chatsworth, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Yep, they insisted we come for tea.


Here we are leaving the house and heading towards the gardens. What a dump!




These are all pictures of the charming little park right across from the house Andy grew up in. His parents still live there, and they love it. Who wouldn't? Look how lovely!

The excursion to Brighton was a bit of a bust. We were so weary, after being up for 24+ hours, we would have been better off lounging in a hotel room. We were cranky and squabbly and I was even a bit weepy at one dark moment. Brighton was really quite charming--I just wish my state of mind had been as charming. We did finally find solace in a pub. We sat by the window, which overlooked a bus stop, and we got toasted and made jokes about all the rough looking women passing by.

Highlights of the trip included a 5-hour fantastic tune session at Sandy Bell's Pub in Edinburgh (Andy played his butt off and was every bit as good as the regulars), visiting Edinburgh Castle and Chatsworth. I like a nice castle, don't you?

I also must confess that I had sausage no less than 4 times and a beef pie once. It was mostly delicious, namely the Epworth sausages (made by a butcher in Andy's mom's home village) and a gorgeous beef pie at this charming pub. It was the house specialty, and it was really good! It didn't even give me a meat hangover.

Andy had lots of fish and chips, but I just had chips. Needless to say, I have returned feeling like a frigging zeppelin.

I can't wait to get back to cooking!