Having recently been to Florence we have been hoping to plan a trip to Pompeii some time, and  were most excited to learn about the plans for the Pompeii and Herculaneum  exhibition, which is on until September at the British Museum. John and I are going in June all being well but I was lucky enough – having already planned one of my fairly regular little jaunts down to London – to be able to attend  a private viewing of the exhibition this morning with our daughter Ruth whose official invitation most generously included me!

What a treat! The exhibition is beautifully mounted, with hundreds of wonderful  relics never before seen in this country or even possibly ever outside Italy. I went round it twice, once during the private viewing and then again, with an audio visual thingy afterwards.

So many things struck me, it’s hard to know what to begin with, but perhaps it is the human element. You feel you are almost intruding on the lives of people going about their daily chores and pleasures  one moment and and in the next  destroyed by the erupting Vesuvius.

Their  ghastly tragedy is our great fortune, because, thanks to the ferocity and nature of the eruption so much was preserved for us to view now, over two thousand years later.

An interesting fact which i had not appreciated is that the two cities were affected in very different ways, and at different times, although equally devastating. Pompeii was covered by several feet of ash and afterwards was revisited by people returning to rescue items and presumably by looters and many centuries later was much easier for archeologists to explore.. Herculaneum was buried much deeper, and hit by a hotter wall burning gas which meant that everything was instantly carbonised, and preserved, but was harder to retrieve.

Another very striking thing I found was how civilised their society was; this is before Christ, when one suspects that in this country people were lagging behind more than somewhat. There was widespread if not mass literacy, slaves were frequently given their freedom, woman had (more or less) equal rights although they were not allowed to vote, trades flourished, houses were and elegant sophisticated and well furnished – apart from their toilet arrangements: apparenty these were normally situated in the kitchen so that human and catering waste could be dealt with simultaneously. They loved their gardens, feasting and entertaining; they had boundary disputes between neighbours, and so on… It all felt quite incredibly ‘normal’.

Which of course makes the tragedy that befell them all the more heart rending. Ironically, in one of the scenes depicting a banquet there is a notice imploring the guests to eat and drink as much as they could , because ‘tomorrow we die’. Little did they know.

Alicia and Stephen, off to explore the White Peak in a sidecar from Russia

There are so many things to do while you’re staying in Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns that even the the choice of ‘usual’ things can be overwhelming. There’s which walk to go on? Where to go? Shall we visit Chatsworth, Haddon, Hardwick, Keddleston, Lyme Park or Sudbury? Or perhaps Tissington (the Well Dressings are on as I write (May 9-15 2013)… Then again, there’s the World Heritage site at Cromford, or Buxton Opera House or even Alton Towers or the various caverns. You can hang glide or make chocolate.

I’m only just getting going – haven’t mentioned the wonderful pubs and Farmers’ Markets, Chatsworth Farm Shop or the Cheese Shop but before I bore you rigid if I haven’t already, there’s one activity that wouldn’t necessarily come immediately to mind.

And that is Bill Purvis’s Sidecar Safari. We knew of it, and indeed knew that Bill offered Peak District Premier Cottages guests a half price discount but we hadn’t actually seen it in action. It took (as so often) our guests to introduce us to what’s available locally. Alicia and Stephen were staying for their honeymoon in Tom’s Barn last week. They packed as much as possible into their stay, including a trip in the Safari Sidecar, planned for after lunch on Tuesday.

Great was the excitement. At 2 o’clock Alicia and Stephen were waiting in their outdoor kit (Bill provides proper motor cycle gear), John had his camera at the ready while I fussed around excitedly as we waited for the sound of a motor bike.

Greater still was the excitement when we could hear it coming up our hill and turning in the gate, gleaming in its Russian khaki beauty. Helmets and jackets were donned and off they went, to Biggin, Hartington, the Manifold Valley, Wetton, Stanshope and Tissington and back through the ford (twice apparently!).

They returned about 3 hours later, glowing with fun and achievement, and Bill looked as if he had throughly enjoyed it too. Alicia and Stephen say it was the highlight of their stay: they’d had a wonderful sightseeing trip passing through some beautiful scenery, with lots of friendly waves from everyone they passed. And they were so grateful for the half price discount Bill gives all our guests (we’re wondering now if John and I will qualify too..?).

We can’t wait to let you know about a lovely holiday cottage we stayed in last week.

Obviously, we hope that if ever you want a holiday in the Peak District you will look no further than our Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns. However, we do understand that the time may arise when you feel like going Welsh, and with our holiday cottages being firmly rooted in the Peak National Park we can’t help you with that.

Only, actually, and this is our secret…we can! Our soon to be revealed secret is only 50 yards or so into Wales but 50 yards is all it takes… Corisande and Angus, two of our daughter Ruthie’s greatest friends, have been converting an old mill cottage overlooking the Wye (near Hay-on-Wye). Both of them know and love our two cottages and we have been only too glad to share all that we have learned  over the years.

They have  given everything a great deal of careful thought and have bounced many ideas back and forth with us. Our final privilege was to stay in their cottage last weekend, to sample it and feed back our thoughts. And what a pleasure it was to do that; because they have done everything so beautifully we found ourselves coming away with a few tips ourselves. It is always good to find oneself on the receiving end because it can feel very different. As owners one can feel sure one knows what will be nice for guests but only a guest can truly know.

There is still a lot to be finalised: the name, for example. Just as we used to fondly but unimaginatively  refer to Tom’s Barn as ‘the barn’ until we were told that there were at that stage already 17 cottages called  ’the Barn’ in the Peak District, so they realistically call their cottage ‘mill cottage’. When we looked up Mill Cottage in Wales there were dozens so they are wondering now whether to change the name before it is too late, making it more identifiable.

Because they really do have a unique property, and one they don’t want get muddled up with scores of run of the mill (sorry – couldn’t resist that!) cottages. They are still awaiting a grading inspection so have not started advertising yet and of course there is masses of behind the scenes paper work one has to provide – access policies, risk assessments, Terms & Conditions – horribly tedious but essential.

When they do we will be sure to let you know. Meanwhile, you will be needing to have the basic facts. It sleeps two, in what is a very spacious cottage. Everything is brand new and excellent quality, and we were extremely comfortable. The 6′ bed was very superb, and the bedlinen crisp white 400 thread count cotton. All the curtains and cushion covers have been specially made, from beautiful Welsh tweed. The kitchen was very well equipped; the sitting room – with log burner – very welcoming. There was no mobile signal, so like us they have provided a landline and wi-fi.

There’s fishing (by arrangement), walking – including Offa’s Dyke, Hay on Wye with its famous bookshops and other lovely shops as well and of course the famous Hay Festival.

The big lack at the moment is a website but that is in progress. We’ll be sure to let you know the minute they go live and meanwhile, will be delighted to direct any enquiries to Angus and Corisande. And my big lack is not having at the moment any photos of the interior; these are all mine and I was so taken with the breathtaking views. John has some of the interior which i shall ask him for, meanwhile as well as the river here is Corisande showing John how to get down to the water.

We shall be away for a week from Tuesday 23rd morning early until late evening Monday 30th April. Janet will be around as usual, checking all is well, watering pots and generally keeping things running like clockwork. She will deal with any messages left on the answer phone and will be in frequent touch with us.

All being well mobile signal-wise, we will be contactable throughout, on 07813 686899 or by email.

We’re hoping for some good weather but after last month we’ll just be glad if it doesn’t snow!

The Vanishing World of the Photograph Album

The Format 13 ‘Album Beauty’ exhibition is in the Derby Quad Gallery. The exhibition is free, and remains open until 26th May. It is described as an ode to this vanishing art form, whose purpose apparently was to ‘document and display the mundane’ – the private reality of people’s lives.

Mundane or not, I found the exhibition most touching. One moves through a rather dated personal photograph album. The subjects on the whole look self-conscious, and very carefully still for fear of wrecking the (expensive) film. There are little boys in corduroy shorts, and girls with bows in their hair and puffed-sleeve dresses. There are baby pictures, and couples, cars and bikes. Most have no description at all, so very private.

The two photos I have used are actually from one of our family albums, my father, and my paternal grandparents – his father and mother. I used personal photos rather than risk violating any copyright issues by using the Album Beauty images exhibited in the Derby Quad gallery. These Album Beauty images, once proud personal possessions, are all ‘found’ photos, taken from abandoned, long-forgotten family albums, bought from market stalls or car boot sales and curated by Eric Kessels.

Ask anyone below the age of 40 if they have an album and they’ll probably assume you mean a Facebook album or just possibly a wedding or baby album which is both a record and just possibly an ostentatious desire to impress. Nowadays our ‘reality’ is no longer private. It is brazenly public, viewed on YouTube, Facebook or Flickr, stored in the Cloud, buzzing around the ether like a swarm of flies.

The aim is to impress, entertain, amuse or embarrass, reaching as many social media viewers as possible; or to show the world that one has actually been to Timbuktu, or Derby Quad.

Some of the older generations – my own husband for one – will still carefully document the mundane in albums, for the quiet and private delight of a few.

But private or public, where will these images eventually all end up? Either lost for ever on an outdated memory stick, or mouldering unseen in a junk shop.

So will our reality vanish too, whatever the art form…

Marion Fuller-Sessions
18/3/2013

I think I mentioned yesterday that I had rather rashly enrolled on a blogging course for photographers. We were set for homework to write a short blog post on the Format 13 Exhibition. This is my rather last minute somewhat tongue in cheek attempt. Marks out of ten? I’ll let you know what the verdict is but I am not as they say ‘holding my breath’.

Viewing Florence on a screen

As a non-photographer having enrolled on a Format 13 ‘Blogging for Photographers’ course at the Derby Quad I felt at first compelled to justify my place until the truth dawned. How horribly old-fashioned! Everyone these days, from those barely out of nappies, is a photographer. You don’t even have to possess a camera. All you need is a mobile phone.

Wherever you go, people aren’t actually looking at the stately home, the match or the celebrity: the truth is that for generations of telly watchers and computer owners reality is viewed on a screen.

I followed a group of Japanese teenagers the other day as they romped through Chatsworth giggling nonstop as they photographed each other in front of every painting, sculpture or magnificent view. Chatsworth was nothing more than a backdrop for their photos.

And everyone will surely remember the 2012 Olympics parade when each country’s competitors paraded interminably (after what seemed like hours we’d still only got to Cambodia)) their iPhones aloft, photographing everyone photographing them.

And finally, where do all their photographs go? That’s quite a thought. They’ll go onto Twitter, onto Facebook, onto a memory stick and then eventually be lost or deleted.

Hopefully some of these photographers will become Photographers, taking an artistic delight and pride in their work and giving pleasure to many. Their pictures will be mounted, displayed, exhibited and no doubt even used as a backdrop…

The last week has scampered fast, busily and enjoyably but leaving very little time for quiet reflection or blog posts (let alone mundane chores like ironing…

Starting backwards, Mothering Sunday today was a very happy day for this mother but possibly more about that tomorrow. Ruthie and Nick, our two London-based young, came up for the weekend which sadly is something Sara in Australia can never do. Two other friends were here on Friday night with plenty of reminiscence and happy chat. On the Saturday Ruthie and I walked in to Ashbourne along the Tissington Trail (John dropped us off at Alsop Station (no trains for many a long year although when my father was young they used to come up by train from Lichfield). We walked briskly and reached Ashbourne in 2 hours 1 minute (according to the map it is 7 1/4 miles) which we were pleased about but were we glad to sit down in Bramhall’s cafe in Ashbourne and enjoy a cup of tea and a flapjack afterwards!

We can well recommend Bramhall’s, across the road from the Ashbourne Market Place. You can have breakfasts, lunches and teas here. The service was efficient and very friendly, our tea was hot and plentiful and the flapjacks deliciously ‘homemade’. Which leads me seamlessly on to the Macmillan Lunch that Fischer’s Baslow Hall laid on last Tuesday. Fischer’s is the only Michelin Starred restaurant in Derbyshire, and eating here is a wonderful experience whatever the occasion – whether dinner, their 2013 Lunches or a charity event like this. We all were treated to sparkling wine and nibbles when we arrived, then a three course meal with more wine and coffee; needless to say, the food was all quite delicious!

Someone from Macmillan described the sort of work that is done locally, and Nicky, someone who had benefitted by Macmillan care herself spoke very movingly about the lifeline they had provided her. Fischer’s handed over the entire proceeds of the lunch – over £1600 – to the Macmillan representative who was of course delighted. All of us attending felt we could not have found a pleasanter or more luxurious way to feel good by helping a charity.

For a so far photographless post, the last entry may seem rather surprising. There is a big photographic exhibition in Derby – a ‘festival of photography and related media’ for the next month and amongst many things on offer I spotted a 4-week (2 hours each week) course ‘Blogging for Photographers”. Well, heaven knows, I am no photographer but I do write a blog and I do have a husband whose photographic skills I hope more than make up for my lack! John was quite happy to suggest it would be extravagant for us both to attend, so I shall be cooperating with him in absentia as it were.

We have had one session so far, which was setting up a blog so I spent a fairly relaxed 2 hours. I suspect it will be a different story on Tuesday when I go for the second session. Meanwhile, horrors, we have homework! We have to write a 200 word blog post and send it in beforehand which means I have little time and should not be sitting here writing this.

Bound for the boiler scrap heap

Now, exactly a week later and with a new boiler installed, serenity has been restored after what has been a fraught week affecting many more than the hapless owners. These words may sound glib but the reality was several troubled nights and continuing anxiety until everything was sorted out.

Our first worry and indeed our first priority in all such drama is our guests, who have paid good money and come in good faith, needing and expecting nothing but the best. Our immediate concern was for the lovely couple who had just driven up from London with a young baby, for their first holiday away together since their baby was born. They hadn’t been here more than two or three hours when black smoke started issuing forth from the boiler…

Quick choices had to be made. We offered to pay for our guests to be ‘rehoused’ in a choice of cottages belonging to friends and colleagues who rallied around with offers of help but our couple very gamely opted to stay on in a central heating-less cottage with no hot water. We borrowed two portable electric heaters and gave them the sole use of our spare bathroom, and of course other than bathing and showering every other facility in Douglas’s Barn was still available to them. When they came to say goodbye on Monday morning we were very touched when they generously thanked us very warmly for a really lovely holiday!

Their situation was one any holiday cottage owner dreads; another dread is having to put guests off as we had to do to another very understanding and generous-mided couple who had been looking forward to a midweek break here in Douglas’s Barn. We were most fortunate that Steve Ogan of Blakelow Farm, a nearby friend and fellow-Premier Cottages member, was able to offer them his two-person cottages which happened to be empty and which most fortuitously happened to be the same price as our guests had paid us. We were very happy that our would-be guests popped in to see us on their way home and were not surprised to hear that Steve had looked after them very well and they had been most comfortable. They’d had personal reasons for choosing Douglas’s Barn, but like our firt couple, big-hearted enough to accept the change of plan forced on them in very good part.

It is the machinery which let us down; it is the people who come up trumps all round. We were blessed with two sets of guests who understood the predicament we were in, could have made it awkward but absolutely went out of their way to cooperate. We are also extremely lucky to have a most excellent self-employed boiler engineer, Phi Jennings, for whom nothing is too much trouble (unlike the local Worcester Bosch engineers who seemed to need three working days to respond to an urgent call-out).

Phil came out at 8.30 pm on the Friday night that the boiler died, hoping – as we all thought – simply to fix it (again). Like vets, I imagine boiler engineers often find themselves dealing with far more than simply practical mechanical problems. Phil managed to reassure everyone that there was no danger in spite of the lingering smell of hot oil, that he’d move heaven and earth to order and install a new boiler within the week. And he, and Andy his no 2, did what they promised.

So now, a week later, a new boiler is installed. Phil and Andy assure us it will be more powerful and more economical than its disgraced predecessor. What we fervently hope is that it is also going to be more reliable! We heard a worrying instance on Facebook of faulty Chinese circuit boards causing combi boiler problems: that is all we need! At least we know that if there are any teething problems Phil will be out in a flash to sort them. How lucky we are, living in a rural area like this and able to count on really loyal ‘human’ tradesmen.

Tamarind Date

Dan Lepard, whose recipe from the Guardian this is, unashamedly calls it ‘The best date cake in the world ever’, and equally unashamedly, as someone who bakes and eats it quite frequently, I would agree wholeheartedly. It is extremely delicious and very easy to make.

I can see imaginary obstacles to trying the recipe popping up all over the place. Cardomom icing? It’s lovely but I don’t usually bother although i have tried cardomom in the cake with very pleasing results. What on earth is tamarind? Well I didn’t know, still don’t really, but one can buy little bottles of the slightly salty lemony paste from Waitrose although not our local Sainsbury’s (bigger branches might). BBC Food describes it as ‘A tart fruit from the tamarind tree, used as a spice and souring agent’. Funnily enough I soaked the dates and tamarind paste and water overnight so that it would be all ready for this morning’s bake. John, not knowing what it was, reported to me that there was a really delicious warm spicy smell in the kitchen when he got up in the morning. He reckoned one could sell the scent, maybe for food shops to waft around on the hour like bakeries and coffee shops are meant to do with appropriately scented packaged food and coffee ‘odours’!

I looked up tamarind in Wikipedia and discovered all sorts of interesting facts; I began to feel that perhaps we ought all start eating it quite seriously. Tamarind is high in acid, sugar, B vitamins and, oddly for a fruit, calcium; it is used in Ayurvedic medicine for gastric and/or digestion problems, and in cardioprotective activity… Anyway, it tastes nice and today’s cake is all but finished already. Our two ‘boiler men’ who today removed the offending boiler from Douglas’s Barn found numerous hunks of cake helped them enormously, and the rest of us have done pretty well too. I had quietly removed our guests’ portion – seen in the photo -just to ensue I didn’t suddenly find I had to get baking again. Next Friday is soon enough…although having said that, I suddenly realised that our hungry boiler-saviour men will be here again at 8 in the morning. We are so grateful to them for rallying around so quickly when disaster struck on Friday and if it means making more cake tonight, I’ll happily do it.

‘Phew!’

I turned to John as we thankfully sat down yesterday evening after a typically busy Friday, ‘I do love that moment when one can at last sit down and relax, knowing that both lots of guests have arrived and are happily settled in…’ when there was an apologetic knock at the door.
‘I am so sorry for disturbing you, but there seems to be black smoke coming out of the boiler in Douglas’s Barn!’

And that was the end of the evening and the end of all relaxing. Phil Jennings our truly amazing ‘boiler man’ drove out at 8.30pm to fix, as he and we thought, the boiler, only to pronounce that the damage was fatal: the only solution a complete new system. Have you noticed how this sort of pronouncement only arises on a Friday evening? The only surprise being this isn’t a Bank Holiday weekend…

May we be forgiven for being so pleased about our QiT Inspection report! We are happy enough to share the good news, so we can’t be coy about sharing the bad although as some kind soul has just reminded us, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, it wasn’t anything anyone’s done wrong (except perhaps the makers of the not-old boiler – obviously a ‘Friday afternoon’ model which has given a lot of expensive trouble over its shortish life). Be that as it may, we do feel bad about it all. It is embarrassing and upsetting to let people down and one can’t help feeling that in the ideal cottage world with ideal owners this would never happen.

The guests in Douglas’s Barn, who had only just settled in after driving up from London for the weekend, have been brilliant and are now happily ‘camping’ in their central-heatlingless holiday-cottage-in-midwinter which, thanks to the electric ‘burning pebbles and two borrowed heaters (and its own super-efficient insulation), is we gather keeping plenty warm enough; apart from no hot water everything else is still working. We have lent them the use of our spare bathroom in the house which is literally next door so it’s not ideal for them but they’re accepting the situation apparently cheerfully.

These guests were all part of the unfolding drama so we were spared breaking any unexpected news to them. Breaking the news quite out of the blue to guests eagerly waiting to arrive on Monday was very difficult, although again they were very understanding about the rather unwelcome and unexpected turn of events. To cut a long story – and one pretty well sleepless night – short, everything is now beginning to fall into place, more or less… Phil the joiner man has managed to order a replacement boiler (on a Saturday!) which will arrive on Tuesday. Meanwhile, he will take out the offending boiler on Monday, replace it with the new model on Tuesday and he faithfully assures us that everything will be up and running and ready for the new guests on Friday, even allowing us plenty of time to get everything back in sparkling order before 3pm …

So we may live to tell the tale after all. We’ve had dramas before, many related to this same boiler; we’ve also had several minor floods, and more than one very prolonged power cut – one lasting two days. We have had so much snow that our guests couldn’t leave and we had to re-schedule the incoming guests offering them a free alternative date instead.

At the time they have all seemed a drama of sorts, even if only a minor one; some like the power cuts have ended up being really rather fun – our joint dinner party by candlelight during one recent power cut was rated the highlight of their holiday by both couples! We have not had anything on the scale of the current situation, which apart from the human element is going to be financially significant too. But at least there wasn’t a flood or a fire, no one has been hurt and no real damage has been done to body or soul other than to what my nuns at school would call our ‘false pride’.