“Growing up in the English countryside, I feel like I’m in a Jane Austen novel when I walk around. I just feel comfortable and confident in those surroundings.” Lily Collins

Oh my goodness this post is a little late but I wanted to get the Barcelona posts up and aren’t you glad they are over now! Really need to work on editing my pictures better! So last month now, me and my friend Anna spent a lovely particularly warm February day strolling around Lyme Park!

The weather was warm, surprisingly so for February, actually so was it was scary. Anyone that thinks climate change is not an issue should come and enjoy a now tropical British winter!

We strolled whilst enjoying the sunshine on our faces and catching up on each other lives. I’m not sure when I stopped going out for drinks and started seeing friends at national trust sites but it’s happened and honestly, it makes me very happy! It’s not even a secret anymore, my inner old lady is out and proud! Give me a walk in the countryside, a cup of tea and a big slice of cake and I am happy. Not that I don’t enjoy a night out but for quality time with my friends, I prefer something a little different now.

If you are the type who would visit England or just drive for hours just to see the country estate of your favourite Jane Austin novel-turned-film then Lyme Park is definitely one you shouldn’t miss. Strolling along the paths, you feel like you are back in the nineteenth century. I am pretty sure I have visited every site connected with Jane Austin at least once. I have read all her work at least once, pride and prejudice at least 150 times now.

The fresh and crisp air of the country reminds us that our blood surges from of the natural world and how tied we are to the sprung rhythms of earth and sky, weather and season. – Kilroy J. Oldster

“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.” Pride and prejudice

I can’t tell you how much I value time with my friends, it took me a long time to find good ones and now that I have them every second I get to spend with them just fills me with utter joy! Plus I really did get some good ones!

Nestling on the edge of the Peak District, Lyme Park, house and gardens was once home to the Legth family and was, in its heyday a great sporting estate. Lyme is now managed by the National Trust and used for many T.V and movie sets, including the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Just recently have become really interested in textiles and designs (partly because of my job, I currently work for a textile company. Well for the next two weeks at least! Exciting changes are coming!!) and partly because at the tender age of 34 I have finally discovered fashion, I mean I’m ignoring trends and following my own vibe but I have become really interested in it. Especially patterns and textures, and what better place to find these then a nineteenth-century home!

I met Anna 12 months ago and it is crazy to think how much we have changed, how our friendship has formed and I think as you get older you are more aware of these changes and are much more able to actually appreciate them. When you are younger you tend to think you will always be that way and you develop so quickly into an adult that you actually miss the changes that form who you are.

Also as you get older you make better friend choices, I could tell any of my friends anything about me without fear of judgement. I mean the things I talk to Anna about she must think  I am bat shit crazy, I think I am a bloody fruit loop. But she listens to me without saying anything, she listens to me moan when I have done my own head in about it.

The most obvious structure in the park, other than the house, is a tower called the Cage which stands on a hill to the east of the approach road to the house. It was originally a hunting lodge and was later used as a park-keeper’s cottage and as a lock-up for prisoners.

There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams, and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners that neither cities nor universities enjoy. – Amos Bronson Alcott