As has become the pattern of this summer, the rain was beating down as I was trying to pack the car last Monday morning for our trip south to the Peak District. Nonetheless, by lunchtime the car was packed, Little Miss was strapped in, Thelma was in her crate and it was time to start this roadtrip. With the heavy Monday traffic and incessant rain, it was a super slow roadtrip and by the time I’d reached York I just wanted to get out of the traffic, so we pulled over into a services for me to crack out the flask of tea and box of cakes for the first stop of our trip.

The journey continued in much the same vein until we got further south, with a 3 hour journey to Ashford-in-the-water taking closer to 5 hours purely due to weather and traffic. We were happy to see our little home for the next few days, Bobbin Cottage, and even happier that we’d thought ahead to buy dinner at one of the M&S stores at a service station.

I was totally enamoured of the summer house at the end of the small, colourful garden. The rain had cleared and me and little miss sat peacefully, me knitting and her colouring in with Thelma wandering around and exploring her new ‘home’.

Feeling refreshed after dinner, we took a wander out in the village. Heading towards the idyllic Sheepwash bridge, it was easy to see why this has been the subject of many an artist’s painting. The ducks flocked over to us, but the signs indicating that there had been cases of bird flu in the area made us somewhat cautious.

We carried on to the village pub. The Bulls Head, which even at 8pm was still bustling with local walkers, and holidaymakers. We managed to snaffle a table and enjoy a beer though before wandering back to the cottage to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Tuesday, the sun had finally come out to play. Little Miss and I spent the morning in the summer house painting with watercolours, before heading into nearby Bakewell for meander.

I have been to Bakewell before, but it was when I lived in the Midlands so it must be over a decade ago. I remembered it being wonderfully quaint, so I was looking forward to the return visit.

We arrived around lunch time, and our first stop was Tiroler Stuberl which is an Austrian sausage importer and cafe on Water Street. With an extensive sausage menu, and kitted out with amazing Austrian paraphernalia like cuckoo clocks and stags heads, it really was a quirky and unusual stop off. I had a gorgeous hot dog with a Kasekrainer (cheese filled sausage) which set me up for wandering the pretty streets of Bakewell.

It was lovely to potter around the shops. Gift shops, boutiques and quirky little arcades line the streets. I bought some Halloween fabric to make little miss a skirt with in one shop, and a more practical cross body bag for future adventures in another. Having wandered in and out of every shop, we took another break. This time we popped into the Wheatsheaf pub for a drink.

It’s incredibly dog friendly in there, and amongst our orders of Bakewell pudding, prosecco and Ice Cream, I was able to order Thelma her own doggy Ice Cream, which she was very grateful for, given the warmth of the day.

After more meandering, we finished our day in Bakewell with a bag of chips, sitting by the river and watching the world go by. It was the perfect way to end the day before the short drive home back to Bobbin Cottage.