Woke up on Wednesday and the sun was shining at our peak district cottages!  Shouldn’t complain but the forecast was for a wet morning so had planned to be out and about. Carried on with plan as did start to cloud up.  Having got laundry and emails out of the way loaded up the car with 3 TVs, a hoover and some other bits to take to the recycling centre at Darley Dale.  From there we headed to Belper as I wanted to look at a furniture store but as we passed St Elphins, the old school that is being converted to a retirement complex, I commented that we should call in one day and see how it is getting on, so in we went!  We don’t qualify yet but we were shown one of the apartments and given all the information.  They are doing a good job, something to think about in the distant future!  After the furniture store we headed to Junction 28 on the M1 where the East Midlands Outlet Centre is.  They have a selection of chocolate shops, an M and S as well as a range of other shops but my favourite clothes shop had closed.  Suitably stocked and refreshed we set off for home but at Junction 28 Chris turned onto the motorway by mistake instead of heading to Matlock.  He was not happy when he realised he would have to go through Chesterfield in the rush hour.  He turned on the radio and the headlines were that there had been an explosion at an electricity sub station outside Winster which had left a swathe of homes and business from Matlock to Ashbourne embracing parts of Bakewell and as far as Uttoxeter without power.  As all the traffic lights in Matlock were out there was traffic chaos so ironically Chris had made a good mistake by turning onto the motorway!  In the evening it was WI and our speaker talked about clothing accessories during the Edwardian and Victorian eras.  She brought a range of items to show us as well.  On the way back a collie decided to run out and chase the car, haven’t seen it before so don’t know whose it was, luckily I didn’t hit it.  Thursday started very misty, couldn’t see the bottom of the drive at first which was unfortunate because we might have noticed what was going on.  A phone call alerted us to the fact that some cows were on the road and Chris called Andrew before going down to see what was happening.  Drivers had corralled three cows into the bottom of our drive and Andrew and Chris walked them along the road and put them in the next field.  I could imagine the scenario at the local school when asked why late for school and the answer was ‘cows on the road!’  As Chris pointed out around here it was probably an accepted excuse!  And guess which cow it was?  885!  When I took the dogs for their walk she was standing alone in the field – perhaps her mates had sent her to Coventry!  One cottage out and two returning and one cleaner up.  She had been with power for over 12 hours and had said they had had to go to Alfreton to find a supermarket open where they could get some candles and a torch.  The lunchtime news said over 35000 homes had been without power for up to 24 hours with only a hand full still without but the majority of these homes now only have power courtesy of massive generators dotted around the area that had been transported in.  These will have to provide power for a few days or even weeks until they can fix the sub station – the resulting fire had made the building unsafe – and can expect further interruptions to power for the next few days.  It turned into a nice day so Chris cleared the courtyard and garden of leaves. Both cottages arrived just after 3pm, one has been before.  It was warm enough to have a cup of tea outside and the clear sky meant a lovely sunset.  Enjoy the photos as well as one of ‘duvet dog’.