Kept awake most of Tuesday night with the wind and rain-yes it rained.  And it was still raining when I took the dogs for their walk.  Having taken the cottage trees down I spent most of the morning boxing up trees, outside lights and baubles.  Every year when I get the trees etc down I say I will sort them out before I pack them away but never have so this year I did.  I also took our decorations and tree down.  Doesn’t everywhere look bare for a day or two!  After lunch went down to Bakewell to get some provisions for the next few days.  With a WI committee meeting here after dinner I also prepared for that too.  We had a lot to discuss especially with the Village Hall not ready and our local WI Group meeting looming which we are to host.  Thursday dawned bright and frosty at our peak district cottages.  After the arrival of the handyman and cleaner we headed off to Chesterfield as we still had some items to source for the work we are doing.  We had a coffee break at the Northern Tea Merchants (they do coffee too) and of course I had my Dunelm fix!  We then went onto Tideswell to get some bits from one of the builders merchants.  Tideswell has never done anything for me even though it is a very popular village but with the arrival of a number of new food shops I thought it would be nice to see what they were like.  I ended up disappointed as everywhere seemed to be closed.  There is a documentary to be shown soon on the BBC about Tideswell so watch this space.  We then went onto Buxton.  First call was an industrial clothing place for some outdoor clothes, with Chris doing a lot of outdoor work it is amazing how quickly they get ruined.  We had a late spot of lunch before getting some other bits and pieces.  We also had a look at couple of furniture stores for some more cottage items.  On the way back we called in at one of the electrical wholesalers as we need some more bulbs!  It was quite late by the time we got back and quite late before we sat down (no dinner – just a snack) as we dealt with a large number of emails and phone calls during our absence.  Time for another chocolate fix!