I always enjoy a trip to Ashbourne which is 20 miles from our Bolehill cottages near Bakewell (see here).  Thursday 18 December saw a break from all the hard work with one cleaner up to clean Magpie now that work has finished for the time being.  We had friends over for coffee before setting off late morning to Ashbourne.  One thing about Ashbourne is the number of independent shops that seem to thrive, there are hardly any empty shops and there are plenty of food shops too.  Yum.  We had a light lunch and a further stroll around the shops before heading home to the dogs.  Another mild day although not as wet as forecast but it was breezy.  Friday was a pleasant day, a bit cooler than Thursday.  A few showers made it our way and there were a number of rainbows too. One arrival, our first for Christmas, here just after 3pm.  They have been before and were here only a few weeks ago too!  One cleaner up to continue preparations in cottages for Christmas which is where a lot of my day went too.  Had hoped to get up last three trees but only did one.  A quick trip to Bakewell to the kitchen and bathroom showroom to confirm final order for Derwent bathroom.  Up early on Saturday to go to the Farmers Market in Bakewell.  Cool and drizzly the market was filling up quickly and we also bumped into our guests.  Wasn’t buying much with Christmas being a few days away.  We also had time to walk up to the church and have a look at the Christmas Tree festival.  Almost a hundred to admire, perhaps inspiration for the remaining trees I still have to do!  Back home and as our guests were also back from the market so we invited them over for coffee.  Afterwards I did the final preparations for the cottage arriving later in the day.  He has been before.  In the afternoon I managed to get two more trees up and did some preparations for the arrivals over the following days so deserved my quiet night in!  Here are the pictures of the Lathkill, Honeysuckle and Magpie trees.