Mother's Week #4 - packaging

Thought I'd finished my Mother's Week posts but couldn't resist sharing this wonderful packaging.

from the outside it's quite dull.....

...but the inside is wonderful!!

Mother's Week #3 Dog-walking Wood in Spring

Eventually all got back to normal - holidays over, so the sun came out!















Walked up to our local wood - the fields on the way were full of cowslips and primroses













and in the wood, anemones were flowering and bluebells starting to carpet the ground under the trees.

Mother's Week #2 - Carsington Reservoir

My birthday managed to fall on one of the cold, damp days of last week before the gloriously sunny end of the week but even so we decided to go out to Carsington reservoir. There's something about this place that makes me feel as if I'm at the sea-side. I don't quite know what. Yes, there's the open expanse of water, yachts darting about, geese, oyster catchers and sometimes cormorants paddling at the edge but it is just about as far inland as possible, there's no sandy beach and there are signs everywhere saying Keep Out of the water. Still, when you're as land-locked as Derby is, it's a good substitute for sea.
Last week's trip felt like a winter day by the sea. The wind was whipping up from the dam end of the water, blowing drizzle in our faces as we started to walk to Stones Island. Despite the weather there were swallows flitting about - the first I'm seen this year. We soon gave up battling the elements though and headed for the gift shops, as you would at the real sea-side. Ice cream, but no candy floss. No funfair or penny arcade amusements but fun to be had jumping into a holographic projection of the reservoir and making 'ripples', playing at filtering dirt from water or merely trying out the hand pump - all in the visitor centre - and half a dozen or so shops to hide from the weather in.

Mother's Week #1 Peak District Artisans at Haddon Hall

Mother's Day on Sunday followed by my birthday and an unexpected school training day holiday have led to a very strange week and a lot of jaunts out and about.





Firstly a trip to the Peak District Artisans exhibition at Haddon Hall. It's a fascinating place to visit that feels as if it hasn't changed since Tudor times but this trip was mainly to see the art and crafts.
There were lots and lots of beautiful things on display - and teenage daughter was particularly taken with some designer handbags - but what struck me most was the number of people there.





Maybe free admission to Haddon Hall had attracted them, though most didn't seem to be concerned with their surroundings but were genuinely interested in the paintings, prints, jewellery, ceramics...
Such a difference to last weekend's visit to an art gallery only a few miles away, which was empty till we arrived. I know there's something intimidating about walking into any empty shop but galleries always manage to be even more off-putting. In a welcoming setting with plenty of other people milling round it feels so much more comfortable to look at paintings, jewellery, whatever without haven't to make stunted small talk to a gallery assistant or sneak back out if you don't like what's for sale.