Sept. 29, Monday: Last Day in Stone & on to Heathrow

We are currently tucked up at the Park Inn Radisson at Heathrow, having had a huge and pretty tasty dinner at The Pheasant Inn about a 20 minute walk from here. Fairly uneventful trip from Stone to Heathrow, and I am so very glad to have delivered the ginormous Volvo back to EuropeCar unscathed.
Tilly is so smart, she has learned to fetch the mail when it comes through the mail slot in the front door. In fact, when the mail arrives, she makes a beeline to the door at full tilt, barking all the way.

Of course Ted thinks he should get a treat as well.
After packing up this morning we walked into Stone along the canal, had a coffee, posted some maps  to Di and Brian and then headed back to Peter and Margaret's. Had a nice sandwich with good crumbly cheese and some tomatoes grown by Peter.
Stone is quite an old town as these panels of the High Street demonstrate.

Peter and Margaret promised to be our personal guides to York and the Dales when we come back to England!

28 Sept., Sunday: Outing to Trentham Garden

This property which originally belonged to the Duke of Sutherland, went derelict and was then rescued by a private development organization that has opened an extensive collection of shops, including an enormous "garden center" to generate support for the renovation of the Italian gardens. I wanted to buy these planters shaped like hedgehogs,

but settled for replacing one of my bone china tea cups at the Aynesley shop. The house is still not yet renovated, but the gardens are really nice.

There is a big lake with a gravel path all the way around.

There are wire sculptures of "fairies" to be found hiding in the woods

as well as other art, like this willow structured bird.

I particularly loved this statue of a fairy with the down from a dandelion blowing away. The quote underneath says, "Wishes Do Come True."

There was a statue of Perseus slaying Medusa, a replica of one by Cellini, at the end of the garden,

some beautiful dahlias and tons of still blooming begonias. Here is a "group photo" of Hal, Margaret, Peter, Tilly and Ted.

I got a picture of Margaret tidying the garden this morning.

It has been an unbelievably sunny, gorgeous day, today, so we are all sitting around on the patio this evening.

27 Sept., Saturday: Blists Hill and Ironbridge

As promised, here is a picture of Tilly (left) and Ted (right), staring over the patio wall in Peter and Margaret's back garden (thanks for the picture, Peter!).

We had a very busy day today. Drove to the museum dedicated to the birth of the Industrial Revolution, called Blists Hill. Very compelling wall-high and fully surrounding video exhibits when you walk in that gives you an up close view of mining coal, smelting the iron, etc. Then you walk out into a recreation of a Victorian town that was absolutely brilliant. Here is a picture of Hal with Peter and Margaret as we were just starting out.

There were volunteers everywhere, in costume, like this man making a rag rug,

 this woman in the "squatter's cottage"--which was about 300 years old-- who is crocheting/ knitting,

and maybe, best of all, the school master who was striding through the town chastising wayward visitors. He said to Hal in a stern voice, "Take your hands out of your pockets young man and stand up straight." Hal said his mom used to say the same thing :-)

They had amazingly fitted out shops like the pharmacy,

the bakery, etc. Here is a woman taking bread from the oven;

the "carpenter, wheelright, and undertaker" was giving a brief tutorial on the fine points of grave robbing.

The draper's shop advertised Singer sewing machines and had all kinds of fancy hats.

There were so many entertaining signs, I just had to take pictures.

Hal made friends with a huge horse pulling a large cart through the streets of town.

Of course the town grew up around the coal mines and the furnaces.

We watched the wheel pull up the cage going down into the mine shaft.

There was a functioning steam engine.

Overall, it was really well done.
Afterwards we drove to a tile museum--so many pretty things I wanted to buy! Then wandered up the road to a crafts mart where, among other things, women were making lace--which looks unbelievably complicated with so many bobbins, but Margaret gave it a try.

Then off to the first cast iron bridge, in the town of Ironbridge, which was built in 1779 over the River Severn, the longest river in Britain.

We were joined by Petere and Margaret's friends Anne and Dave for dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant in Stone. By the time we got to bed about midnight, we were pooped!

Friday, 26 Sept.: On to Stone

We packed up, tidied up, and left Ambleside about noon to travel south for our stay with Peter and Margaret Sage in Stone. Don't let me leave out their dog Tilly--a really cute Norfolk Terrier--and visiting friend, Ted, a Border Terrier. We went for a nice long walk along the canal

and got to see a small group of nearly grown cignet swans

and lots of "narrow boats!"

Walked into Stone and had a drink at the pub, then got to watch someone opening the lock to get their boat through.

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny and mild evening after our rainy day in the Lakes yesterday. Got a shot of Hal and Margaret deep in conversation,

and I think Peter was calling the dogs in this one.

I will get some better pictures of friends and pups in days to come. Margaret is cooking up lasagna for dinner and I can hardly wait :-)