Weekly Update No 9 – DIY Project and day trips

I have had a week’s annual leave from work and this one was always going to be a DIY project holiday. We wanted to rip up our old decking and get it replaced. Without any further ado, let’s get into weekly update No 9!

DIY project

We have been in our house for about 14 1/2 years now. One of the first things we did when we moved in was installing decking in the garden. It has been brilliant until this last year or so. Recently, when you walked across the boards to the garden it kind of sprung like a diving board; you kind of felt like Tom Daley taking a dive when pegging the washing out!

At the start of the year, we decided that it was the main DIY project we wanted to work on. We both booked annual leave and the weather forecast was good so there was no better time to do it. I am going to do a proper post on how we went about it; but for now, here are the before and after (so far) shots.

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It looks amazing already!! We popped to the garden centre today to get some things to put into the new raised bed on the left. I will put an update on when its all planted up!

Staycation

As the decking “DIY project” was going to use up some of our spare money, we decided that we wouldn’t go away again for this week off. Instead, we decided to have some days out in and around where we live. We are fortunate to live on the edge of the peak district, which in nice weather as we have had, just looks stunning. So we worked on the decking/garden in the morning and then had trips out in the afternoon

Day 1 – Matlock Bath

Love this place – I may have mentioned this before!! its only about 30-40 mins from home, so its a quick car trip for Luna and a nice walk when we get there. I am going to do a post on Derbyshire too at some point, so here are some pics until I do.

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Day 2 – East Midlands Designer Outlet

As on the first day, we finished quite late on in the day. So we decided to have a trip up to J28 designer outlet. We also popped to a car showroom nearby as we are thinking of changing one of our cars to a more Eco-friendly one. We have been to the outlet loads of times but didn’t buy anything this time so I didn’t take any pics! (bad blogger!)

Day 3 – Ashbourne

Again a lovely little place in Derbyshire, that isn’t too far away. Unfortunately, we left it a little late so we didn’t get there until around 4ish and most places close 5-5.30 ish. We will go back for another visit soon though.

We went for a coffee and cake to a lovely little coffee shop called Jack Rabbit. It was lovely and nice cake too! Would love to go back when they are still serving food rather than just cake, it’s a similar price to most coffee shops, but as its locally roasted coffee (from Nottingham) it makes me want to have it all the more.

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The cakes were a Blondie on the left, Strawberry Cream sponge at the top and homemade malt loaf on the right (with butter). All were delicious, although I would say that the malt loaf wasn’t really sticky like traditional malt loaf and was more like a rich fruit cake.

Luna was allowed to sit outside this one – there was water and somewhere to attach a lead if you needed to. They are not dog-friendly inside though – worth knowing if you want to stop by with your four-legged friend as we did.

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Day 4 – Buxton

I had only ever driven through Buxton, either when taking the kids to activity breaks at White Hall, or on the way to Manchester if we go that way.

It’s a similar size to Ashbourne and Matlock Bath, so probably not enough for a weekend away unless you were tying it in with walking etc but it was a lovely day out. There were a nice few shops (lots of charity shops if that’s your thing) and a lovely park.

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There is even a stall selling Bigos (a polish cabbage stew) in the main Buxton Park! it was £5, so we decided to share one. It was nice, probably a little sourer than the last Bigos I had, but a nice find!!

Day 5 – Little Eaton Garden Centre

Its year since I last went to this garden centre – it was right in the middle of the time when I was into card making so probably about 15 years ago. It used to have a craft “barn” in the back. Derby Garden Centre (as it is now called) is great, even if it no longer has the craft bit. A good selection of gifts, plants and general gardening stuff, plus a really nice cafe!

We bought a few bits for our garden (surprise surprise lol). I really want to grow some veggies, but I have left it a bit late for this year so I got some all year round Cauliflower, Pak Choi and lettuce seeds. Some seed potatoes and various plants for the new beds. We also got a nice lavender (for happy bees) and a pot to put it in, and some solar lights. Hopefully, if we can start to grow our own we will be able to recoup a little of the cost!

That’s it for this Weekly Update! Hope you have enjoyed reading about our DIY project and trips out in this weekly exploits! So sorry for not doing one last week, but I just decided to have a break from the computer and pretty much all social media. I needed a proper battery recharge!

See you later in the week for another post!

Julie x