Well we survived our holiday

You know it hasn't been the best holiday when you wake up excited on your last day because you finally get to go home!  We had six nights down in Gloucestershire in a rented cottage and although we did do some nice things, overall it wasn't great.  The weather was poor at the beginning of the week, although it improved later on.  The cottage, while charming and ancient (built 1620 as a part of an estate of Tudor buildings nestled in a valley) was cramped, awkward and gloomy. The only access between the three small floors was via a tightly narrow spiral staircase which had to be negotiated with constant caution - particularly in the night when attempting to reach the ground floor loo.  Several enormous spiders made their home inside (or perhaps the same two spiders just getting back in again after DH threw them outside) so you also had to watch out for those.

 The owners were lovely and very prompt in helping with problems, but unfortunately we were heartily sick of each other by the end of the week after a succession of issues requiring attention or assistance.  Starting with some overlooked cleaning (a roast pan full of our predecessor's meat debris and a sticky orange liquid all over the inside of the freezer), we progressed to a broken fridge (not broken by us) which they replaced with a new one. Then they replaced the oven because you couldn't read any of the markings and apparently they had been meaning to replace it for a while.  The broadband went out mid-week and as there was no mobile phone signal in the valley that had been our only way of communicating. The boiler had an intermittent fault so we had no hot water or heat one day and the handyman had to come out three times to do something to the pressure. Thursday morning just as I boiled the kettle, there was a loud bang and all the power went out, immediately followed by a knock on the door because the BT engineer had arrived to look at the broadband.  I was still in my pyjamas, and poor DH didn't get any tea or breakfast because of no power and he had to show the BT engineer around to look for where the line came into the house because nobody from the estate was available to meet the engineer.  Turns out the armoured cable on the line had perished so we had no broadband for the rest of our stay until it gets dug up and replaced. The shower cut out in mid-go (after I had shampoo in my hair of course) but I managed to get it back on and I didn't even tell them about that one because I didn't want the handyman back yet again. 

The constant gloom, the damp, some unfortunate traffic jams and some unsuccessful day trips earlier in the week were getting us down. It also seemed like every knitting shop I found was either closed or, in the case of Marmalade Yarns in Frome, gutted and being completely repainted.  Luckily things picked up on the day trip front with a sunny and relaxing visit to Westonbirt Arboretum, where we saw some amazing trees and the start of autumn colour.

We also checked out Poldark's Trenwith which is actually Chavenage House near Tetbury. We were on part of an entertaining tour by a family member with interesting stories about the Poldark cast filming there, before being passed off to a much less entertaining staff member who insisted on recounting a garbled version of the history of the Civil War while we were all crowded into a small 17C bedroom for 15 minutes.  Luckily I had my knitting and a seat on a 17thC chair (they had invited us to sit so it wasn't wrong) so I knitted several rows on my shawl and let it pass over my head.

We visited a few other ancient estates and gardens in the area, and also had a couple of relaxing walks in the countryside. Then on Friday we drove down to Shepton Mallet (more traffic jams) to attend a big antiques fair that we've been to before.  We had an enjoyable stroll around but I only bought one bronze figurine until I found a stall of vintage linens.  Here I cleaned up on embroidered tray cloths for £1 each, as part of my collecting for my future vintage linen quilt.  In fact I'm wondering if I might combine these with the 30s Sampler Quilt that I've already started, will have to think about that.

The evenings in our cramped and not very comfortable sitting room were enlivened by attempting only partially successfully to get the satellite TV to work while I tackled several craft projects I had brought with me:  my 10-stitch shawl edging, my leaf-yoke sweater, my new bobbin lace project and my Christmas cross-stitch.

So you can see why I am so pleased to be home!  Showers and broadband that work, spacious sunny rooms, a garden to sit in, and all my stuff around me.  Bliss.