A more promising day weather wise but the only chance I have this week to do the shopping. Always the case. I wanted to go to Dunelm as well as Morrisons but when I got to Dunelm I found they were closed due to flood damage! I did not realise they had been affected. The carpet store next door had also been affected, but Wickes, next door to that was OK. A wasted journey. This was after spending 30 minutes getting there after being stuck (as usual) behind a slow moving vehicle all the way. I was also stuck behind a slow moving beast on the way back so at Baslow I decided to sneak and go via the Chatsworth Farm Shop. Only I then got stuck behind a tractor all the way home! Last episode of CSI so it does not matter if anyone phones between 9 and 10 pm for the time being.

Still not very summer like. We had two cottages arriving today for four night breaks as well as a couple arriving in the B&B for four nights. They had stayed in the cottages before but we had no vacancies when they booked. We should have had two couples arriving but one had cancelled due to bereavement. I also took the opportunity to do some carpet cleaning in one of the cottages. So there went my day. No time to go to the market. Perhaps next week.

With another wet day forecast it was one of those days to knuckle down and get paper work sorted out. As the the quarter end has just finished I spent a lot of the day making sure all the accounts were posted before we finalised all the accounting entries (including paying myself!). We just have the VAT returns left to do. We did not finish until nearly 9pm but we also had the accounts of Chris’s business to sort too and with all the paper work in on our remortgage we had some decisions to make. I found time to roast a joint (I rarely roast in summer but who said it was summer!)

The warmest day was the 9th – that seems like a year ago now
The coldest day was the 26th – I didn’t think of it as particularly cold but the wind was coming from a more northerly direction

The wettest day was not surprisingly the 25th with 1.85 inches making a total for June of 6.35 inches, beaten only by January with 6.76 inches.

Another phone call about 331 to start the day. She has now been put in another field where she does not have access to the road!

After breakfast I zipped down to the Agricultural Business Center where the monthly Farmers Market was taking place. I really felt I didn’t have time as we had a busy day but I do get some of the B&B supplies from there so I rushed around and got what I needed plus some other bits. I got some meat from New Close Farm (Over Haddon), marmalade from Irene(Youlgreave), quiche from Billy Balmer (Bakewell) as well as some fudge, honey, scotch eggs, biscuits, more meat and mushrooms from a producer in Ashbourne. Usually you can queue for anything up to 20 minutes to buy at their stall and they have the widest range of mushrooms I’ve ever seen!

Back to Bolehill and on with the change over. The rain forecasted was more of a constant drizzle and with Fay here to earn some extra money for her holiday we made good time. We had three cottages with returning guests although one had not been here for a number of years.

I cooked a pie for tea I had bought earlier in the day before we set off to Curbar Church for a concert by the Baslow choir. The choir perform a range of old and newer pieces and usually we have a guest musician. Today it was a lady playing the Viola. In March we went to a church in Sheffield where the choir performed an evening of works by Elgar and we heard the Cello Concerto perfomed in full. These are lovely relaxing evenings with a glass of wine in the interval. I found myself sitting next to a lady I had met at dog training so we exchanged news of the dogs. She is now going to the agility classes with her dog, who was so obedient it made all the other dogs look hopeless! I might go back in the Autumn for as she said it not just the dogs who socialise but the owners do too!

First phone call of the day was to inform us that a cow had jumped over the cattle grid (they do that you know) and was in the road. Chris got the binoculars and could see 331 happily munching on the grass verge. Definitely a case of the grass is greener! I phoned Andrew but he was already on his way.

Weather wise it turned out quite pleasant but a number of guests did depart today as the weather had got to them. We had two sets of B&B guests arriving today. One were a part of a larger group and were the only ones who had travelled in the end as everyone else was supposed to be going camping. A couple of summers ago when we had a bad patch of weather we had some campers turn up looking for somewhere dry and I imagine this weather has affected the bookings at campsites around here. I also found out when I went to Bakewell that a lot of B&B’s had had cancellations for the weekend so I was lucky that both mine appeared.

One of my other B&B guests was here to trap and identify moths so we helped him set up the equipment (he lets them go afterwards) and I was looking forward to seeing the results the next morning.

Thursday we designate as ‘our day off’ in the summer when we can. Today was one of those days. The usual bits still need to be done and we had breakfast to do but after that we try to have as much of the day to ourselves as we can. When we can we go for walks but with the weather not looking promising and not being sure about ground conditions it was down to Plan B. The trouble was I could not decide on Plan B! In the end we decided to go Macclesfield. Our friends in Chelmorton go shopping there and I will be using the station there in a few weeks time so we thought we would do a trial run. There was also a furniture showroom I wanted to visit.

We set off passing the site where the quarry exhibition had been. They were still clearing up and there were a number of helicopters there to. We went over the Cat and Fiddle route stopping for an early lunch at he Peak Tearoom near the Cat & Fiddle pub. You get some nice views over the Cheshire plain from here. After that it was a short drive into Macclesfield.

We found a spot to park and had a walk around the shopping area and found the station. The furniture showroom was opposite the station so we went across to explore. In a previous job I used to do a lot of travelling between London and Manchester and always considered the showroom is an architectural gem when the train passed through Macclesfield. I wandered in and realised there was a lot more to the showroom than I thought but before I could let Chris know how big the place was I found myself being offered a glass of champagne. Who am I to say no! We decided it would be easier to drive back here as it would be easier to get back on the road home. This we did and had an interesting few hours wandering around the store accompanied by champagne, strawberries and cream and nibbles. Was this usually like this? No – we had just happened to call in on their sale preview day!

It was in the evening the ‘fun’ really began. Suddenly I started getting phone calls and emails from the weekends’ guests checking that it was still OK to come and if roads etc were passable. I reassured all except one couple who asked me to relet their cottage they had booked for the weekend. With an ominous forecast that was going to be unlikely but you never know.

Our two guests left this morning after a successful exhibition. One of the cleaners came and turned the rooms around. The day seemed to go very quickly and the next thing I knew our next B&B guests arrived. As it was sunny and relatively warm (and not raining) they had a ‘welcome drink’ of tea on the terrace and admired the view. The nice thing about the guests we have is chatting to them. We get a wide variety of guests here for a variety of reasons and I always love chatting to them.

So Meadowhall was flooded and a nearby dam on the brink of bursting. This is the UK today.

Andrew and Joanna were off to London for a short break today. The road to the station in Chesterfield was flooded so Chris drove them to Derby. As he knew the route to Derby avoiding the A6 Chris was able to avoid the the areas such as Belper which had some flooding. He had some problems reaching the station which he put down to roadworks (there is a lot of building going on in Derby) but it turned out to be due to some flooding. I went to Bakewell expecting to see the river very high, but it was no higher than in winter after some heavy rain.

The afternoon was spent tidying up and restoring the lawn to a summer (?) lawn rather than an autumnal lawn. It stayed dry but was a lot cooler.

I took the dogs for their usual walk but it is quite worrying at how soggy the ground. No cottage guests arriving or leaving but our B&B guests left. We had two business men arriving today for a big quarry exhibition nearby. This exhibition happens every two years and all the latest quarrying equipment is on show. It is usually very well attended.

By lunchtime the rain had been falling steadily with no sign of letting up. As the wind picked up Ian (farmers son) opened the gate into the back field so the cows could find better shelter away from the wind. We suddenly had an hour or so of activity. I checked on an older couple to make sure they were warm enough. Then a guest came to tell us about a few fallen branches and we went to investigate. There were a couple of larger branches down behind one of the cottages and although it had clipped the roof no tiles were damaged but it had pulled the gutter away slightly. Another guest came to mention some water was dripping in and Chris found a gap between the roof and chimney where the wind was driving in the rain. A bucket sorted this out in the short term but a few more jobs were added to the ‘to do’ list.

Our Handyman popped in to pick up something and he told us that Meadowhall at Sheffield was flooded. This I did not believe. He was not aware of any flooding in Bakewell but there was some flooding at Rowsley. This sometimes happens after a spell of rain as the rivers Wye and Derwent meet there and so is the flood plain.

Our guests arrived and went out for a meal at the Bulls Head in Monyash. We send a lot of our guests here and in one weekend I reckoned they served over 40 meals to our guests (cottage & B&B) so I think they owe us a meal!

We watched the news in the evening and it was quite sobering to hear and see all the problems of the flooding in Sheffield and Hull.

We had 1.81 inches of rain overall today with half an inch falling within 30 minutes at lunchtime. This is about half of what Sheffield had.

With another unsettled day forecast it was a day to stay at home and catch up with all sorts of things. Accounts, paperwork, general finances, general house bits. First stop after Breakfast and saying goodbye to a set of B&B guests was to get the Sunday paper from Bakewell. Also one set of guests who booked to arrive yesterday, arrived today.
A chance to cook a Sunday roast in the evening