Dancing in the kitchen...

We always have a favourite song of the moment, a song that we sing at the top of our voices and do wild dance moves to. When the first few lines are played the kids appear and a few minutes of anything goes.



Recently Jessie J price tag came on the radio, that was one our old favourites that's now passed and I realised we'd almost forgotten. So from now on I'm going to try and keep track of our favourite tunes.
At the moment we've got two clear favourites, Bruno Mars - When I was your man and...

As usual we only know one line of Mr B's song!

What are you dancing to at the moment? We' love it if you'd leave a comment or post the song on your blog and we'll come and listen.
Let's get the world dancing!

From Titus Salt to David Hockney

We passed Saltaire on our way to Haworth back in January, and since then we've wanted to go back and visit.

 Saltaire is a UNESCO world heritage site.

 

  It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill 

and the village on the River Aire.

'In 1833, Titus spotted a consignment of Alpaca wool stored in a Liverpool warehouse.  No one else was interested in it but Titus thought it was worth experimenting on.  Alpaca was very difficult to weave but his persistence paid off and he found the wool could be transformed into the finest cloth if woven on a cotton or silk warp.  This was innovative and was the key to his lasting success and immense wealth as a textile magnate.  By the late 1840's Titus had five separate mills, was very rich, and had the means to improve the lives of his workers who were still living in sickening conditions.' 

Source Saltaire world heritage site

 Salt moved his buisness from Bradford out to this new site and built Salt mills.
The mill was a masterpiece of its time and was hugely productive, turning out 18 miles of worsted cloth a day on 1200 looms attended to by 3000 workers.

 

 He also built house for his workers, with a supply of fresh water, sanitation and a gas supply.

The community became self sufficient with its own shops, hospital, school, library, park and church.  There were alms houses for the poor and elderly, public baths and wash houses.

 

We headed for the park, which is by the side of the river. 

 However, the kids didn't want to stay in the park for long, 

as on the way there we'd spotted...

 an ice cream boat!

 The mills were used until 1986 when they finally went out of buisness.
They were bought by Jonathan Silver in 1987, a friend of David Hockney, he thought it would be a great place to exhibit David Hockney's paintings.

 The mill is huge and some parts of it are in bad repair and not used.

Where it has been developed, the inside of the mill is amazing, retaining lots of original features and lots of interesting objects, beautiful books to look at and buy.

 

 Rosanna loved this 'real princess chair'.

 

  An old dentist chair.

 

 Lots of interesting art books by many famous artists and good quality art materials to buy.

There are many David Hockney's works on display, including Yorkshire landscapes, potraits of family and friends and 

Hockney's recent work on ipad and iphone.

 27 foot long pictures of Bessingby Road, Bridlington.

 The shop sells David Hockney poster prints. There are really interesting children's books for sale, many that I'd not seen before. There are also small shops within the mill, one selling gorgeous furniture, furniture which has a price tag with three zeros. We spent so long in the mill that there was no time to explore the village, or church. You can find out more about the mill since 1986.
Saltaire is a small Yorkshire town, but a venue such as this wouldn't be out of place in a capital city.
We left Saltaire feeling like we had had a 'proper' day out, and we will definitely be having another visit, in fact I think it's going to be my new favourite place, replacing Robin Hood's bay.

Hope

I found some metal 'hope' signs in a sale, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them, but they were a bargain!

 

 Inspiration struck!

Wouldn't the signs look great decorated and placed around the house, 

and then on even the dullest, snowiest, coldest winter day 

we could look at them and be uplifted.

'To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.' Gilbert K Chesterton (1874-1936), British journalist, novelist and poet.

 

We had lots of 'hope' sign, so we waited until friends were over and decorated the signs together.

A couple of the finished signs...

 

 From our little hope sign, came a whole hope display

 

 We finished off the sentence 'In 2013, I hope...' in ten different ways.

We also added our jar of hearts to the display.

 

 Some people are lucky enough to live in Hope.

And this week we had a trip out to Hope in Derbyshire.

 Before we set off, Geoff had said we wouldn't need thick coats, but as we got off the train we were meet by the sight of snow on the hills.

 

 Ready to explore!

 Losehill from the lower slopes of Winhill.

 We didn't make it all the way up Winhill, to Geoff's disappointment.

but the kids had a great time in the deep deep snow drifts.

'Hope is the golden thread that should be woven into every experience of life.'
anon

 'Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words, and never stops at all.' Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet.

Ravenstor, Buxton, Derbyshire

Since November last year, we've have set a target to have a weekend away every month. November was Whitby, December -Wales, January Haworth and February we had a two night stay at YHA Ravenstor, near Buxton. Not having a car at the moment these have all been done on public transport.  

Every weekend we've been away, the weather has been freezing 

and February was no exception.

 

YHA Ravenstor was originally built as the family home of the local mill owner.

On his death it was donated to the National trust and for many years has been on lease to YHA. Set in 60 acres of magnificent grounds with spectacular views, it was here that David Bellamy first got his inspiration, 

on what is now called Bellamy bank.

 

 

On our first full day we went for a walk to the nearby village of Tideswell.

It was barely above freezing for the whole weekend 

and the icicles were everywhere.

 

 

 

 

Tideswell Church - Cathedral of the peak.

We were originally going to walk to Tideswell and then get the bus back, but we weren't very tired and decided to walk back as it was mainly downhill. 

But then Reuben decided we should take a detour up Ravenstor.

So off we set...

Having to almost crawl up the last part!

 

Spectacular views fron the top of Ravenstor, 

with surviving patches from the last fall of snow.

The kids were pleased to see the youth hostel not too distant.

Almost home?

But the slope was so steep we couldn't get back down and from here you can't even see the steep gorge with it's sheer cliff on the hostel side.

So off we had to go in almost the opposite direction to the hostel.

looking for a way down...

and eventually we did!

It was worth the extra miles to see the old mill.

 Back at the hostel, cup of tea and time to enjoy the view back to Ravenstor.

We all slept very well that night!

The next day we got the bus to the spa town of Buxton.

 The pavillion gardens were created in 1876

to add to the attractions and increase the prosperity of Buxton.

The playgrounds are great, but again it was very, very cold!

Luckily there was a toy fayre in the pavilion, so we headed inside.

I was so excited to see this yellow car with two little figures. It brought back lovely memories of playing at my Nanan's house when I was about four or five. She had a china cabinet filled with all sorts of stuff, my three favourites, a silver donkey, a porcelain horse with a wooden cart and a little yellow car, like the one pictured above.

 Slightly scary old mechanical toys.

 At last we found some Barbie things!

Next door were the Buxton winter gardens

 with the added excitement of hidden dinosaurs

  And some beautiful splashes of colour and scent to lift the spirits.

 

In the Elizabethan era Buxton enjoyed considerable fame as a spa. Mary Queen of Scots visited to take the waters on several occasions during the time she was prisoner in England. In 1572 Dr John Jones wrote the first medical book on Buxton waters entitled The Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones, which cureth most grievous sickness, never before published'. Many others then wrote on the curative values of the waters and Buxton continued to develop as a spa throughout the 17th century.  Modelled on the Royal Bath Crescent, the 5th Duke of Devonshire financed the building of the Crescent at the end of the 19th Century.  The Crescent has lain empty for a number of years but is about to start being redeveloped as a modern Spa Hotel complex.

 

The Hot thermal baths at the side of the crescent are now an arcade shopping centre.  Built in approximately 1820 the facilities were elegant.  The baths closed in 1963 following a steady decline in the number of treatments from the mid 1950s.

 

 

The baths' heritage was preserved by retaining a small plunge bath 

within the complex as well as the original tiling.  

Here are some of the photos from the boards outside the Crescent, 

showing how it originally looked and how it declined.

When it's renovated I think I'll treat myself to a spa day

 St Anne's well pumping out warm spring water

Revived by fresh air, exercise and sampling the Buxton spring water, 

our batteries fully charged until our next weekend away!