Ink marks on a blank page Sunday 11th Jan

Okay, so here I am on a quiet Sunday and it really isn't all that hot outside, but I thought I should perhaps get in out of the sun. Like most folk of direct English extraction I am easily burnt to a crisp. Already in my short life I have had some 20 skin lesions dry iced from my face and an active BCC gouged out of my neck. So in I came, what to do ,what to do, sang that crazy woman who I can never remember her name, but she warbled on about Heathcliff and has a huge castle somewhere in Ireland. Y'all know the woman I'm sure.

I have been busy of late though, scurrying down here most nights working away on my book. The days I spend mostly in heavy contemplation of my navel, as well of course reading about the times when things were young, real, and dinosaurs ruled. I have on my desk a pile of genuine dinosaur poop, yes indeed I do right next to the petrified wood and only an inch or so from the crustacea I found up in Coober Pedy. That's an arthropod to you folk, opalised it is and all. There might be a few of you who went to the movies and saw my hero Mel Gibson in the film series Mad Max. I think in the US they were re-badged as 'The Road Warrior'. Well the one Tina Turner was in was shot in Coober Pedy, on location just out some way of the town at a place called the 'Moon Plain' ,given that it looks a little like the surface of the Moon. That is where I found lots of lovely little fossils, all sorts of shells and little pieces of opalised bone, and lots of very very old oyster shell. Coober Pedy is of course some 3-400 miles from the now sea but back then of course lots of sea covered the land and even right the way up to Alice Springs you can find fossil sharks teeth and shells. I have to confess a little backsliding here folks, I do have another life, strange as it may seem. That life encompasses all sorts of weird and not so wonderful things, Paleontology is one, writing poetry and photography another one or three. Travel though is my real vice and the book I am writing is a series of photo books of my last visit to the UK. Some time ago I confessed to this very vice on here but then got distracted by Hortense, trying to save the world from itself and Gelato. Wonderful pursuits in themselves but I lust for my thoughts of England and greenery. To this end I shall devote this blog to a wonderful place and person,Bess of Hardwick, and endeavour to show you why on your very next vacation you should rush off to that green and sceptered isle.

The place: Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
The Person: Elizabeth Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick)

Bess was born of humble origins in 1527 and by dint of four successful marriages to some of the richest men in England became a confidant of Elizabeth 1 and the second only to her as the richest woman in all of Britain. She died in 1608 at 80 yrs of age in her beautiful home, Hardwick Hall, which she had designed and built in 1573. The hall is set in some of the prettiest rolling downs and pasture country I have ever seen in England, the magnificent gardens and surrounds are maintained by the National Trust who have owned the property since the late 1960's. The Dukes of Cavendish who are the descendants of Bess had to gift Hardwick to the crown in order to pay the massive death duties that had built up over time. The house itself is almost as Bess had just left it with all the original furniture and wall hangings still in place. Her design for the exterior used, for the times, huge amount of glass and the wits of the day had a rhyme that went, in part" Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall" The Trust have done a remarkable job in keeping the place going as she would have run it as a working farm selling produce ,running free range pigs and the like. The on-site restaurant which is run from the original kitchen and scullery uses all their own produce so what you see all around is what you get.Have the Hardwick own pork sausages in red wine/onion gravy when you go,they are just superb! If I had a problem with the visit, then the day we spent there wasn't enough. Next time !

No Hortense I didn't have the Gelato as I am true to my very own Cocolat. We had some new flavours Friday after seeing that terrific movie 'Slum Dog Millionaire', didn't we Horty old girl, was just yummo too wasn't it.The film was well worth the ticket, so do yourselves a favour and go.