Derbyshire Day

Yes, that is my daughter holding a big, freaking tarantula.  I'll explain in a minute . . .

I just happened to catch on the radio that Sunday was the 5th annual Derbyshire (County) Day.  They came up with a county flag 5 years ago and have been celebrating it since.  This year it was at Sudbury Hall which is a National Trust property only about 20-25 minutes away.  We'd not been so we thought we see the house and see what they had set up for Derbyshire Day.

Sudbury Hall is "the country home of the Lords Vernon, a delight of 17th-century craftsmanship, featuring exquisite plasterwork, wood carvings and classical story-based murals."  The house was also used as the internal Pemberly scenes in the BBC dramatization of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  We were also told that Mt. Vernon in Virginia was named in honor of one of the Lord Vernons that owned this estate (not sure if it was the first one or later on).
 

There were 20-30 small tents set up to promote/sell local goods and activities.  The animal rescue tent in the back corner was the biggest hit though some of the food booths were good too.  I've got some "fruit cheese" to try with our next guests!

Alex with the guinea pigs.  They had a huge white rat (yuck) and a chinchilla among some of the others shown below. 

A little later it was reptile time (turtles, lizards, snakes, etc.)

 Nicole's favorite was this little (dwarf?) lemming.

 big-eyed close up

And another.  That's Alex's red cast by-the-way.  It will come off in a week from Tuesday (only 3 weeks total).

And here is Nicole with the spider.  I'm expecting a delayed case of the willies later (from me, if not her).  I'm guessing I'll still be the one to take care of the smaller ones in the house though.

Yes, we did go inside the house too.  We weren't able to go on the official tour though (no kids allowed!) but we managed to wander through on our own.  The house was a mis-mash of styles but the stair case and woodwork were notable.  This painting was sloped under the stairs.

dining room

another ceiling shot