Away in the East Midlands.

We had a few days up in Nottingham seeing Hannah, and took the opportunity to travel out and about to visit National Trust and English Heritage properties.

On Tuesday we went to Bolsover castle, high on a limestone escarpment it was the perfect place for a defensive building, first put there by the Normans,

 and later rebuilt by Sir Charles Cavendish (son of Bess of Hardwick)  as a country des res to entertain royalty,

with amazing views over the Derbyshire peaks.Unusually for an English Heritage building, much of it had a roof, and the small castle has fairly well preserved interiors:

including a fabulous painted plaster starry ceiling. We had fun making crowns...

and dressing up :)

From there we headed to Scarsdale Hall, a roofless ruin which had been stripped of its interior in the early 20th century after the owner became bankrupt, the interiors were sent to America.

 Today the place is still beautiful and retains a few plaster mouldings on a ground floor room.

It does have amazing views of Bolsover Castle, glad I had my long lens for this shot.

Finally on Monday we headed for Rufford Abbey, owned by Nottinghamshire council.  It reminded me of how Coombe Abbey used to be before Coventry council ran out of money and had to sell it.

 Hannah got to hold a snowy owl: much to her excitement.  She couldn't resist texting Katie to tell her all about it. Harry wouldn't hold it as he was scared it would "bite him"!!

 The grounds were lovely, with carpets of snowdrops in places.