On Wednesday we had planned to meet up with our friends from Yorkshire at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield but with rain expected we decided to save our outing for a better day. The rain arrived late morning at our cottages near Bakewell (see here) and continued into the afternoon. Over the last few days the business washing machine had been playing up and I had been using my personal washing machine so we went to Chesterfield (taking the dogs for a ride) to do some research on a replacement machine.  There we some other items I wanted to research too including new crockery.  Back home I prepared for the evenings WI meeting and gave Chris his dinner before collecting Joanna.  As we drove round to Over Haddon there was mist rising from the Dale which looked spectacular, wished I had taken my camera.  Tonight was the first meeting after the summer and we had organised a Harvest Supper with Lynne cooking some jacket potatoes and the rest of the committee bringing other food items.  We enjoyed our supper and entertainment included guess the flavour of the crisps and I was kept busy with paying expenses from the lunches over the summer.  On the way back Joanna and I were discussing the lengthening nights, it won’t be long now before the milk cows stay in over night and just come out for the day.  Thursday was a much warmer day with some sunny spells. We had been advised of a planned power outage from just after 9am until latest 2.30. We had already advised guests earlier in the week and Chris had reminded them on Wednesday. As the dogs don’t like it when power goes off and everything beeps I took them for a long walk and Chris phoned when it was safe to come back! Chris got the generator out as it hasn’t been used for a number of years so it was a good opportunity to test it. I used the time without a computer to get some tidying up done. Without any power we decided to go out for lunch and went to Hassop Station where we were able to sit outside with the dogs. By the time we got back the power was back on but we kept the dogs in the car for a while we checked everything and Chris powered up the computers (more beeping). Time to catch up with emails before cooking tea. It was still warm when I took the dogs out for a walk in the evening but it looks like we’re in for some stormy weather over the weekend.