Cold November Rain...

I'm pretty sure the forecast for today was for a sunny, dry day but on the way to get the newspapers this morning the sky became cloudy and we had heavy rain. At one point I did think we were going to have a few flakes of snow as it was certainly cold enough! Sophie wasn't working today (she worked every day of the half-term holidays) so we went off to Lyveden New Bield so she could take some photographs for her homework.

Lyveden New Bield is an intriguing house started in 1595 by Sir Thomas Tresham but it was never finished and stands on its own, surrounded by farmland, unchanged since work stopped in 1605, when Sir Thomas Tresham died. His son, Francis Tresham, was involved with the Gunpowder Plot, which I thought was nicely topical!

We wandered around the house and grounds taking lots of photos and as there were very few visitors we almost had the place to ourselves. There were some remanants of Halloween lying around, perfect for children!

Someone obviously has a sense of humour!

In the summer the grounds are beautiful, but we were still able to take some good photographs as the sun came out and the rain cleared.

There was no cafe but we enjoyed a hot chocolate and a flapjack from the little office and shop which certainly warmed us up as we were freezing cold! The house is quite exposed and the wind was vicious so after a lovely chat with the two women who look after the place we drove home.

On the way we saw a huge bird hovering over some road kill. It may have been a buzzard but whatever it was, it was big! We spent a couple of leisurely hours at home before heading off to the gym to meet mum and dad. I was dismayed to find that the pool was closed yet again as this time somebody had been sick in it! It was a good job we hadn't decided to just go for a swim as we normally do on a Saturday afternoon as it would have been a complete waste of a journey.

We did half a workout and then joined mum and dad in the spa before heading home to get ready for the firework display in the village. I must admit to having second thoughts about going but it is a tradition for us so we all walked up just in time to see the bonfire being lit. As Keith and I are still not touching alcohol we couldn't even warm ourselves up with a glass of mulled wine and standing waiting for the fireworks to be lit was freezing! The it started to rain so we watched the display for a little while and then headed home to chilli and rice, perfect for warming us up. It was good that we left when we did as minutes after we arrived home, the heavens opened and the rain became torrential!