Off to find Mr. Darcy

I woke up early again to have another breakfast in the fairy garden before we left to go look for the Bennet family in Derbyshire. I went in the vegetable garden to look more closely at the veggies, and I found lettuce, zucchini, carrots, and cucumbers, so we had a salad ready and waiting. I picked another bouquet just because I could, and went in to load up the car.
We were going to go several hours north to the Peak district, which is said to be what Jane Austen was thinking of when she wrote her novels, especially Pride and Prejudice, which is Mom's and my favorite.
We made it through hedge and curb and roundabout by the grace of God, and made it to Shottle by way of Leicester (pronounced lester) and Belper. We had so much fun with the village names.







Finally we made it to Danna Farm, a working farm that had expanded into a small bed and breakfast. Guess what we sang when we got to the parking lot. You guessed it, Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow. Our rooms weren't quite ready, so we sat out on the patio with the 3 cats and had our picnic lunch. The farm house was built in 1799, so it had the Old World charm we came to England to find.




My new friend Cracker




























Our room was ready very quickly, so right after lunch we got to go up. The housekeeper was tickled to see how amazed we were at the beauty of our room. You just have to see the pictures. We were blown away. We walked all over the room exclaiming over every detail.
When we had had some time to rest and recharge with a cup of tea, we were ready to explore.
























We took a quick walk around the grounds and met the New Zealand Kune Kune pigs,

named Sally Longlegs and Charming Andrew. Soon it was dinnertime, so we went downstairs knowing we were in for a treat. We weren't disappointed. Home-cooked salmon, garden fresh veg, buttermilk garlic mashed potates, drool drool drool.
After our fabulous dessert we went to the main room for a final cup of tea, and met a family from South Africa. It was a very interesting discussion, they were old enough to have been adults when apartheid was ended, and they were very much still of the old mindset. Mom and I
couldn't believe our ears when they were telling us how the "blacks" weren't able to handle running a government, and they were ruining the country. They basically had withdrawn and formed their own private society with its own transportation and police and left the others to fend for themselves. "How about them sports?" we'd say to distract them. World travel really does expose you to unexpected opinions. We were glad to go to bed after that. Hang on, Mr.
Darcy, tomorrow we'll find you!

Charming Andrew says hello