KITCHENS & CASTLES ..........

The other weekend, we went to stay with our daughter and family who live in the beautiful 17th century town of Stamford.

 I'm not showing you any of Stamford in this post as we went to other places this time but will show you another time !

First of all we visited .....

..... DeVol kitchens showroom !!!!!  Now, you might think this quite boring but, firstly, DeVol kitchens are my favourite kitchens, secondly, they are housed in Cotes Mill in beautiful countryside with a lake, peacocks and wildlife and last but not least, they sell my kind of shabby antiques, so well worth a trip considering it is close to where our daughter lives !

AS you can see, its not just a kitchen showroom !

They have beautiful kitchens which start at around £40,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, its a good place to get ideas.We are thinking of knocking our kitchen into the conservatory BUT, where on earth do you find a good builder? We have been let down by so many trades so, if any of you out there who live in Hertfordshire and know of a good builder, PLEASE let me know !!!! 

Amongst a couple of other things 😁 I bought this portrait there ...... I rather like him.

The next day, we visited Belvoir Castle. Its history dates back to the 11th century and is the ancestral home of the Duke of Rutland where the family have lived in an unbroken line for almost a thousand years.

Crowning a hill, the castles turrets and towers rise over the Vale of Belvoir like an illustration in a romantic fairytale. Four castles have stood on this spot since 1067 ..... Belvoir means ' beautiful view ' in French and is today pronounced ' beaver '. 

This is Le Salon ...... I'm afraid I forgot to read about it as we were running after our granddaughter looking for teddy bears as they had a bear hunt !....and I can't find any info about it but, it was so opulent and worthy of Versailles .....

This is me with broken elbow in the castles smaller version of The Hall of Mirrors .....

Beautiful views and .....

..... beautiful gardens.  

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What I ate on my weekend away .....

 

On Saturday, I had sea bass risotto in a lovely pub, which was delicious .....

..... &, on Sunday, we ate in The Engine Yard at Belvoir Castle. Now, my choices in restaurants usually gravitate to grilled or oven cooked fish or any seafood really as it is my favourite but, on this particular day, I had a real fancy for good old fish and chips and it was amazing !!! When you haven't had something for a long while it tastes all the better. Crispy batter is bloody lovely !!! 

Apologies for such a long post  ..... I could have split it in two I guess. Do you think people like long posts ? I always think that people prefer shorter ones. What do you reckon !.

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