A Remote Country Mansion Night

It's been a busy week and I'm grateful for the weekend. So much for empty nest syndrome - I spent a lot of time with both of my kids this week, my son twice. They might as well be home. Both my son and daughter needed groceries and other things  - sometimes only a mom's help will suffice. The trip to visit the one living in Chicago was relatively easy. There's a Trader Joe's store near where he lives and I do love driving into the city to see him. Piece of cake. Sure, okay, I threw in a nice lunch too, what the heck. I'm so glad he's going to school and living nearby for a change.

Helping the other one took a little longer, LOL. On a whim, I drove up to Wisconsin early Saturday to vist my daughter at college. It was almost like old times -  we had lunch, shopped the mall for new shoes and a dress she needed for a special occasion and laughed a lot. I almost wasn't going to go because it's a several hour drive and with only a few weeks until Spring break I knew I'd see her soon anyway. But there was a little wistfulness in her voice when we talked earlier in the week and I knew the trip would do us both some good. I drew the line at bringing the dog along this time, however.

It was a lot of driving for me in one day and when I came home last night I flopped onto the sofa, flipped some channels and then noticed that Pride & Prejudice was on, the movie from 2005, with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfayden as Mr Darcy.

It's not my favorite version - I much prefer the 1995 BBC mini-series with Colin Firth.

But the  movie with Keira Knightly is the one my daughter adores and we've watched it together many times. It reminded me of her and, after leaving her yesterday, I ended up feeling a little wistful myself.

I've decided that we both love watching movies that feature remote country mansions. We would like to live in one as a matter of fact, LOL. Watching Masterpiece on Sunday nights on PBS was one of our special times. You can hardly watch that show without seeing some remote country mansion every week. Tonight I'm looking forward to seeing the last episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey. I hear a Season 3 is in the works. Yippee!

If you haven't seen any of the episodes, HURRY! They're still available on PBS online until March. Might be good idea to try to find and watch Season One first, though. It is that good. More wistfulness -  my daughter and I watched Season One together last year and loved every scintillating minute. I sure do miss her! This time I'll be watching  alone. In the imaginary drawing room of our imaginary remote country mansion.

Will Matthew and Mary finally get together?? Did Mr Bates kill his wife?  I'm tuning in right now to find out . . . . .