Family!

Tuesday
Today we drove over to Sheffield to meet up with my brother Peter and his wife Judy. We shall be spending a long weekend with them later in our trip, but by then Jen will have returned to the U.S., so this was the only chance for Jen to see them. We hadn’t been able to see them previously, as they just got back yesterday from their holiday in Norway. Judy was working the morning, so we had said we would arrive after lunch and take them out for dinner, since they wouldn’t have had chance to shop. We had hoped to have a walk at Tegg’s Nose Country Park near Macclesfield on the way, but it was a wet miserable day, so instead we visited the Silk Museum in Macclesfield, which turned out to be very interesting. The silk industry spread to England in the 18th century. In 1773, London weavers won fixed prices for their work, causing the silk merchants to seek lower prices in provincial centres like Macclesfield, where hand-loom weaving in ‘garret houses’ was gradually replaced by weaving in multi-storey mills. There were 71 silk mills operating in 1832. We were just in time to tag along on a guided tour which had just started, and was very informative. We then continued on to Sheffield, arriving mid afternoon. Visiting them at home today also gave us the opportunity to see the extension they have had built at the back of their house, affording Judy more space for her crafting and scrap booking, as well as giving them another outlook onto the birds and wildlife in their garden, which they have also had re-landscaped, and added a small pond. We had seen pictures of the finished space, but were looking forward to seeing it ourselves. Soon after we arrived, we were joined by Peter’s son Mark. This was an unexpected surprise, as most of the time Mark is not in the country, as he works as assistant engineer on a large luxury yacht, and it had been several years since we’d seen him. I had known he was in the country at present, but I hadn’t known he was in the Sheffield area. We enjoyed catching up over tea and biscuits, and enjoyed the tour of the extension, before going out to eat in the evening at Bistro Pierre, where my Blip was taken. Thanks to Roger for the shot!