Wood 4

We haven't been to Robin's Wood for ages and ages. But we returned in style last week for some wild camping and it was glorious. Even with all 4 of us squashed into a very small 4 person tent we still enjoyed it. As you can see below a lot of hard work was endured.

Potters

There is a time warp in Buxton, Derbyshire. There is a small space up a street in that town where everything is happy and good and all right with the world. The place is called Potters and it's one of those old fashioned miniature department stores from the 1950s. It sells women's clothes, men's clothes, makes curtains and cushions for you and sells bedding and a whole lot more which I haven't discovered yet down one of its corridors.

On the face of it it looks very old fashioned. But if you linger and peer in at its floor to ceiling windows displays, they do have some lovely, modern gems as well as more olde worlde fashioned items. It's a treasure trove of wonders.

I can't resist entering to be greeted by 10 million shop assistants because that's another wonderful thing about Potters: it is full of knowledgeable ladies waiting to help. And when you pay for your item you get a hand-written receipt and the money is secreted away in an old fashioned wooden till drawer. And apparently they have been serving the good people of Buxton since the middle of the 19th century.

There used to be a similar shop called Addy's in my local village when I was a girl. It had glass counters with drawers visible beneath full of gloves, handkerchiefs and other miscellaneous items. There was a lady called Betty in the ladies section whom my mum knew and I remember one Christmas my Mum gave her some money and Betty guided me through the wonders of the shop giving me ideas of what to buy my mum, dad and brothers for Christmas.

Potters is like that so next time you are in Buxton, don't be put off by the slightly archaic appearance of the shop windows but venture in, you'll find something to your liking.