A Lovely Day in the Gardens

On Monday, it was a beautiful day here in England.  I think it was in the mid-60's (Fahrenheit).  We headed up to the Chatsworth Gardens, which was about an hour away.  I guess I should have said it was supposed to take an hour, but traffic on the main road to Chatsworth was backed up, so it took a little longer than expected.  We have been to the Chatsworth House & Gardens once, during the Christmas season.  We headed there with a couple friends to experience the Christmas Markets, but it was raining so we didn't head into the the house or enjoy the gardens that day.

After Jeff and I finally got there, we went straight to the gardens.  We weren't really interested in going inside the house, but more just being outside and seeing the gardens.  The gardens were huge!  We walked around them for about an hour and a half.  There were a few ponds on the grounds, and what they called a waterfall...but I'm not sure I would consider it that---more of a flowing stream is what I witnessed.  But the gardens were in full bloom, so we were able to get some amazing pictures.  There was also a "kitchen garden" which was filled with blooming vegetables.  It definitely made us want a garden one day.  But my lack of having a green thumb is concerning.  Jeff and I both agreed that Jeff's grandmother would have loved this place!

Love the spring has finally arrived!

 One of our favorite things in the garden was the maze.  It wasn't too big, as you can see in the picture below, but we struggled to get to the center.  I'm not going to lie, I started to follow the 8 year olds, as they seemed to have done the maze at least 20 times before. What a cool thing to have in the garden though!

 The maze is the hedges that are in block form in the middle of the picture. 

 Inside of the maze

We made it! (Please ignore my monochromatic clothing choice for the day)

Many families were enjoying a picnic, some even enjoying some champagne.  Many kids running around, playing games, and having a great time.  It seems like a spot many families take advantage of on nice days.   It is also in the peak district (one of my favorite English adventures).  

 I thought at the time this picture did the scenery, lily-pads, and cloud reflect justice...but it doesn't.  What a gorgeous view this was!

  The rock garden

 This was a beautiful piece of artwork.  It was really long, and many kids were popping in/out of the water. 

 These led the way to the "Kitchen Garden"

On our way out, there were TONS of lambs following their mothers around.  I got a quick fix with the adorable lambs when we were in the Lake District a couple months ago...but there were so many little families walking around the grounds.  Absolutely adorable. 

Took this photo as we were driving away.  It is also a good shot of the house from a distance.  

The next month is going to fly by for us, as there is just so much going on.  We have 9 visitors coming in the next couple weeks!  Every weekend is packed with last chance trips and outings with friends.  Less than 5 weeks now...insane.  

On to the next adventure...

The Invisible White Cliffs of Dover

First of all, Happy Belated Easter to all of our family and friends around the globe!

We had such a great plan for our long holiday weekend as Jeff had off Friday, the weekend (obviously), Monday, AND Tuesday off.  So, we were able to plan a pretty amazing road trip.  Although, this post is just about our trip to The White Cliffs of Dover. 

We left on schedule, and headed south from Nottingham to the coast of England.  We were making great time, until hitting a large amount of traffic who were waiting to board the ferry (another option to get to France).  Most of the traffic was large lorries (trucks) waiting in a very long line to get to France.  That didn't seem to be in the real issue for this trip, as we were driving the fog was getting progressively worse.  Not a big deal when we were driving, but we knew that we were not going to be able to see a single thing at our destination.  Now, mind you, we have a very skewed vision of cliffs as our trip to Ireland to see the Cliffs of Moher was one of our most beautiful experiences abroad. 

Once arriving, we decided to throw on our my wellies and take a quick stroll on the trails to see if we could see anything.   Well, we didn't see much of anything.  Supposedly you can even see France which is 22 miles away on a clear and sunny day.  I'd suggest taking a look at the link above if you want to see what the cliffs look like on a non-normal English day (aka a clear & sunny). 

 This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful spots....not so much. #sillyfog

We walked along the muddy paths, while avoiding horse poop.  We just enjoyed the quick walk and the stretch of our legs, since we had been in the car for 3.5 hours and still had another 3.5 to go.  We honestly, didn't see any of the cliffs since the fog was so bad.  It was kind of funny, and we definitely wished we could have seen something or a little bit of the cliffs.  Oh well.  It makes for an interesting story, and attempt!  We won't be traveling back to see the cliffs again, so we will enjoy our hilarious pictures of fog and look online to see the beautiful views. 

 Another beautiful view of the cliffs fog

 Thank goodness for wellies!

 These pictures make me laugh.  Not sure why we even took any. I'm guessing just to document the attempt.

Quick post, as there wasn't much to write about.  We couldn't stay long, as the traffic slowed us down and we had to get to the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) for our next destination. 

 This is the traffic we were stuck in on the way to the cliffs

On to (a more exciting) adventure...