Belton House

It was an early start to get the car packed with all the food and other essentials for the holiday house. Once at #3 daughter’s house in town we had to unpack again to put in the children’s bikes. Luckily the rain stopped while we did this.

The daughters were ahead of us on the A1 south and we all met at Belton House near Grantham for our picnic and to let the children run around after 5 hours in the car.

Mr C and I had a stroll round the parkland and beautiful gardens after the others got on the road. We left them to get to our North Suffolk house, another 2.75 hours hence, to get all the info and handover of the house. They very kindly allocated us the attic floor with its own bathroom across the hall. James and Nathaniel were not pleased with their single bed and mattress on the floor in a small room. I suggested they have a downstairs study which had a futon. I hope they don’t escape outside in the night.

The only cooker is an Aga with no means of raising the temperature so I had to get the lasagne I’d previously prepared in at once and it still took 2 hours to cook. It’s always a performance finding ones way around a strange kitchen but eventually I’d made enough coleslaw and boiled potatoes for us all. It all went down well especially as we’d brought enough red wine.

We are really tired so have retired to our attic. Unfortunately the house is right beside an A road so the traffic is noisy. I brought my headphones.