Making plans for summer - Staycationing again

Cromford

Everybody's heard of staycationing, as in taking a holiday here in the UK. Well, I'm not sure if "extreme staycation-ing" is a thing known to anyone else, but it's how I describe a holiday taken from the comfort of your own home. We did it last year, and, due to my parents' ongoing health problems, we'll be doing it again this.


Last year I made a list of places I wanted to visit, and barely ticked anywhere off of it, although we DID discover other new-to-us places. So, that list will be a good starting point for this year's plans, and social media is proving a good source of inspiration. It's actually amazing what is going on almost on-the-doorstep when you start to look - from museum and art exhibitions, and book festivals, to get-outside in-touch-with-nature style days, and of course we have plenty of countryside, for either long, energetic walks, or lazy pottering by rivers and canals, within in a short drive.

Chatsworth

In a way we've started our staycation already, with trips to Chatsworth, Shipley Country Park and Lea Rhododendron gardens, but to make it a 'holiday' rather than an afternoon out we need to set aside a specific day or two, to get up, spend the morning doing one thing, lunch out, pass the afternoon elsewhere, and get an evening meal out, even if it's pub grub, or fish and chips eaten at a picnic bench watching the sun go down.


I'm still hoping there'll be chance for a couple of weekends away - to visit my youngest daughter, to attend Curious Arts Festival, and maybe a quick dash to the seaside (how I envy anyone who lives near enough to visit it easily!) - but mostly it will be a summer of staying home again, heading out for the day, to local stately homes, into the Derbyshire/Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire countryside, and hopefully taking in a local festival or two (more of this here). One definite advantage to holidaying from home if that we can pick your 'days away' to fit the weather. All I need now are a few days of sunshine ...