August 5-6, 10-11 & 13, 2018 - Mark's Parents Go Home & A Few More Days with Friends In Beautiful England


This post is a collection of activities we did between the time we got back from our Scotland trip and right before we left to come home to Utah.

We got back from our Scotland trip on Saturday, August 4th.  Mark's parents stayed with us until the morning of Tuesday, the 7th.  On Sunday we went to church and rested.  On Monday Mark and his dad took a walk near our apartment and then we all went to Calke Abbey.  Since Heather and Hannah had already seen it (See our July 1st and August 12th blog posts), they spent the time in the gardens working on math, while Mark and his parents toured the mansion.  We did not take many photos of Calke Abbey because of our previous two visits.


The picture below shows the church that is associated with Calke Abbey.


We really do love the gardens at Calke!


Not a bad spot to work on math!




The picture below shows the ice house. Really great acoustics in there! It is located down by a lake so that ice could be taken from the lake in the winter to fill the ice house, to last all summer.





 








Some yummy dessert to top off the day!


On Tuesday morning we drove Mark's parents to the Manchester Airport (about 1.5 hours from our apartment).  We haven't been able to capture the extremely narrow roads we drove on so much because we are usually just trying to stay alive while we're on them, but here is a picture and video of one tiny segment.  There are MANY roads that are narrow like this, and, like this one, they are two-way traffic and have a speed limit of 30 or 50 MPH.




On our way home we decided to stop briefly at Ilam Park and Dovedale, an area of natural beauty that is run by the National Trust.  We did not stay long, but we enjoyed what we saw.  As always, we wished we had more time to explore.






It has been such a dry year for England, it is hard to imagine how beautiful it must be when everything is lush and green.










Hannah really loved the youth and her YW leaders in the Derby Ward.  It was really hard to say goodbye, particularly to the two to Hannah's left, Harry Redfern and Emma Buchanan.


In that we were going to arrive in Utah on Friday, August 17th, and Hannah was going to have to start school on Monday, August 20th, she needed to do some school clothes shopping (The fact that Hannah has grown like a weed and doesn't fit in nearly any of the clothes she brought with us six months ago might have something to do with the need to shop too.).  Therefore, we spent some time in shops and the mall in downtown Derby.  Anyone who knows Mark and Heather knows this was not a treat for us.  That said, it was probably one of Hannah's favorite parts of the trip.






We couldn't leave Duffield without another walk or two through the trees on the North Road, above our apartment.  Can you get enough of huge beech trees, mossy rock walls, and rolling sheep pastures? We finally got some rain and things quickly started to green up again.






































Another time, while Heather was napping, Hannah and Mark went for a last walk from our apartment to the neighboring village of Belper.


It's pretty nice to be able to walk through the fairways of the golf course, with views of Duffield in the distance.


Belper is a quaint, little, mill town with lots of character.












Please notice that the cars in the picture below are parked.  It is super common in England for people to park in the middle of the lane, leaving only one lane for cars going both ways to negotiate.  We consistently found English drivers to be far more cooperative and friendly than drivers we are used to.  It would not be possible for traffic to function if drivers did not cooperate here.














We also spent time with several friends before leaving.  We spent one morning in Markeaton Park with a member of the Derby Ward, Aleksandra Franas (originally from Poland) and her daughter, Phoebe.  We had no idea there was such a large and elaborate park in Derby.










The "baby" swans were very friendly.








We also invited Denise and Dennis Stinson, friends from the Derby Ward, over for dinner.


We met so many kind and wonderful people in Derby and really loved Derbyshire.  We felt like the people in the Derby Ward welcomed us with open arms and worked hard to integrate us into their fold.  As an indication of that, on our last Sunday Hannah played prelude, postlude, and all of the hymns during sacrament meeting; she also played for and sang with the young women of the ward for a special musical number; Mark gave a talk; and Heather gave the closing prayer. We hated to leave this kind ward and our peaceful Derbyshire "home."


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