A Rest Day.

It hasn't been too cold today but with the clouds down on the tree tops it has felt quite gloomy. After yesterday's travelling we decided to have a quiet day catching up on sleep and generally resting. I've just done my daily chores and put some washing in the machine. Yesterday as we left Tewkesbury we called in at Morrison's for petrol and naturally I checked out the store for some bargains. At first I didn't find much either in the post Christmas sale or the reduced section and then I came across some things that had been reduced by over 80% - bingo! So tonight we'll be having a smoked salmon fillet which I shall bake with mushrooms and onions and afterwards there's a box of posh macaroons to sample.

Now back to our visit to Romas and Laura in Stoke-on-Trent, a large city made up of 7 towns.

Laura's parents live in the house on the left and Romas and Laura are currently renting the house on the right. These houses were originally built for the coal miners in the days when mining was a viable industry. Although Stoke is a large city these houses are on the edge and you can see fields from the windows.

Only half an hour away is the wild and beautiful Peak District. On Tuesday we drove with Romas out to The Roaches, an impressive gritstone escarpment. It was wonderful to be out in the open countryside with views across miles of moor and farmland.

Parts of the path up to the top of the hill were paved with big slabs of stone but for the most part it was rocks and sandy mud.

We walked up to the highest point where we had a picnic looking out across the views. 

There were farms in the valleys far below. The remains of old stone walls showed how small the fields were in the olden days. I'm wondering if they grew more crops in those days because the fields look a bit small to be keeping stock in.