Time's they are a changing!

Hubby has retired - and our new lifestyle begins !

No more getting up at 4.45am, and we can stay up on a week night !

To celebrate I booked a Winter Escape overnight stay at Kilworth House Hotel - a stunning location that is surprisingly not that old. The original house was built at the end of the 1800s for John Entwisle who was the High Sheriff of Leicestershire, with design and decoration perfect for entertaining.

Our stay included hot chocolate with shortbread served on arrival in the lounge which overlooked the beautiful grounds; a bottle of Prosecco which we requested served with dinner in the Orangery rather than in our  room; lovely ensuite room with dressing gowns; and a full breakfast again served in the Orangery.

Kilworth House Hotel

The Orangery

Beautiful grounds

The Lounge

The Staircase

The corridor outside our room

Our room

Breakfast in the Orangery

 It was lovely to chill out in opulent surroundings - a great way to start our freedom!

Hubby enjoys Spanish wine, he quite likes Majestic's Matsu range with their distinctive photographic labels of young, not so young, and old men. He's tried El Picaro (rascal) and El Recio (mature) but not El Viejo (old) - paired with an engraved glass it made the perfect gift.

Nick's glass (paper is just to show engraving)

Mr H and the 'Old Man'

To celebrate Hubby's last day we treated ourselves to a rib steak from our local butcher, Steve Mellor and daughter (Paige). I'm related to Steve as our fathers were cousins, Mellor is my maiden name.

Our superb steak

It was a superb piece of steak and although we have plenty of red wines we paired it with a special bottle of Cotes du Rhone Puymeras given to us in 2016 when we were privileged to private tasting with Cellier des Dauphins (Les Dauphins).  We did of course enjoy a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte too, our favourite bubbles!

Our favourite bubbles

On our way to Kilworth House Hotel we had a stroll around Market Harborough, a lovely little town with a great cookshop where we found these two beauties ....

Ladies' and Gentlemen's Gin

.... perfect for our gin and tonics in our  room.  Roll on summer - I can imagine these full of ice, G&T whilst relaxing on the deck. Perfect for my Warner Edward's Rhubarb gin too!

Yesterday we had lunch at ours with Hubby's mum, I prepared a nicoise salad but instead of fish we had pork and leek sausage (cut into pieces and de-skinned) followed by walnut and lemon meringue cake.


Perfect accompaniment for our Visan white Gran Reserve Cotes du Rhone - another from our holiday collection made from White Grenache, Clairette and Viognier


Colour - rich yellow with hints of green

Nose - floral notes with white peaches

Taste - medium bodied, good velocity, some minerality, citrus notes with pear and peaches, good length to its finish



No wine today as we're off to watch Wasps v Tigers - a pint of Guinness is a must when watching a game of rugby!

Fantastic win yesterday for the Welsh boys, getting the 6 Nations off to a superb start.

I love rugby - Tigers are my first English team, Wasps my second, Ospreys my favourite Welsh team, and Wales my International favourites - had to include Rhys Webb in my photo being as he's injured at the moment so isn't on the pitch.