The Red Dress at Tyntesfield

I've been aware for a while of the Red Dress Project for a while - for those whose aren't familiar with it, it's an artwork consisting of a dress which has been made / embroidered by over 350 people (mostly women) in 15 countries, including refugees, asylum-seekers, and professional and amateur needleworkers.

The Red Dress

It's been turned into a touring exhibition, and has been at Tyntesfield for the month of May, so I decided to take the opportunity to go and look at it. (Also, despite it being fairly close by, I've never visited Tyntesfield, so that was a bonus!)

I was slightly frustrated that the dress was displayed in a room where it's not possible to walk round it to see it from all angles, and on a red carpet which didn't do it any favours! I think had I been organising it, I might have tried to find a different place to put it! 

It's fascinating, and there must have been so much work done by so many people to create it.

After seeing the dress, I spent some time looking round the rest of the house

There is a rather nice library (with a rocking horse which has escaped from the nursery) and the house has it's own chapel (there were members of the Oxford movement, so very High Church), and the chapel has some  mosaics...

And also some rather nice mock-medieval stained glass! 

I also went for a short walk in the grounds, but it was rather hot and getting busy, so I decided to head home for lunch.

Nut I enjoyed my trip and I'm glad I got to see the dress! 

Chedworth Roman Villa

This post is a little out of order, but on my trip back from Stratford-on-Avon  after seeing Coriolanus I decided to call in to a small National Trust property, Chedworth Roman Villa.

The site was originally excavated in 1864, and is believed to have been built in around 120AD, and subsequently extended and rebuilt, before being destroyed in the 5th Century.

It's a fairly small site (although is apparently one of the larger Roman Villas in this country) 

There are lots of walls, most about 2' high, marking the various rooms of the villa (Roman brickwork, topped with modern tiles to prevent deterioration) and then a large section of the villa where mosaic floors have been uncovered, in what were the Dining Room and Bath House. 

I gather that there were further excavations this year, uncovering more mosaics, but they have been recovered to avoid damage, so I didn't get to see them!

The villa is in a lovely secluded area, and as I arrived just before it opened, I had it to myself for  little while, before it started to get busier.

There was also an art exhibition taking place while I was visiting, which was fun - lots of sculptures scattered around the grounds.

I particularly enjoyed this hawk, and the shoal of fishes.

Definitely a nice place to visit, and an interesting way to break the journey home.

Easter Weekend

A bit of a belated blog, as I've been under the weather since I returned home, but I'm starting to feel more human again now!

We had a 4 day weekend for Easter, and I decided I needed a relaxing time, so I spent the weekend in Devon, at my parents' home.

It didn't start too well, as apparently the entire population of Britain decided to spend the long weekend in Devon, so the drive down was slow, dark and windy, finishing with following a very nervous caravan-driver, who did't get above 25 mph.!

However, once I arrived,things improved. Living alone as I do, it is always nice to be a guest and to have someone else doing the cooking!

Friday was forecast to have the best weather of the long weekend, so we decided to make the most of it. 

We went to Heddon Valley, and took a 6 mile circular walk to Woody Bay, where the outward leg is mainly along the coast, with spectacular views, and the return leg slightly inland, among woods and gorse.

It was a beautiful bright, sunny day. In fact, so sunny that we even spotted a rather lovely little lizard. 

(I assume it is a Common Lizard, as apparently the only other sort you get in this country are Sand Lizards, which are extremely rare, so it's unlikely to be one of them!)

The trees were still mainly bare, but looked wonderful in the sunshine! 
And we felt we had earned the ice creams we indulged in at the end of the walk!

On the way home we did a detour to Coombe Martin in order for me to go and look at the sea close up (I decided not to paddle. It was a sunny day, but it's still only March!)

Saturday was extremely wet, so we stayed home, and indulged in the traditional family pastime of being sociable by all sitting silently in the same room while we read! And eating, obviously. 

Sunday was  supposed to be wet with sunny intervals, but turned out instead to be sunny with showers, so we were able to go out again - this time to Baggy Point.

Although it wasn't as wet as predicted, it was *very* windy  

It's a shame we hadn't thought to bring a kite!

We started with a steep climb up the hill, then a walk along the cliff path. The wind meant that the waves were big, and even up on the cliff there was lots of salty spray.

 And, of course, at the point when we were furthest from the car (or indeed any other sort of shelter!) the sky turned grey and the heavens opened.

The rain was icy cold and this was the point at which I realised that *my* waterproofs were still in the back of *my* car, back at the house... So I got rather damp. But we huddled in a slightly sheltered dip in the ground and ate mini easter eggs until the worst of the rain passed. And then walked back briskly enough to stay warm and start to dry off!

Then, after a quick picnic in the car, looking out over the sea (except for when we had another shower, when it felt more like being under the sea, watching the water sleet down the windows) we walked down to the shore for a short stroll along the beach, which was looking beautiful, particularly when the sun came out.

It was a lovely, relaxing weekend. I had an equally slow journey home on Monday. (And then immediately came down with a nasty bug, which rather took the shine off the following week, but perhaps it would have been worse had I not just had such a relaxing weekend!

Fun and Fiends!

My friend Wendy has been visiting England, and we'd arranged to meet up and for her to vist me for the first 2 days of her trip, so last Sunday I met her at Heathrow, and we drove back to Wiltshire via Stonehenge and Avebury.

It was very, very cold - there was snow on the ground when I got up, and it kept trying to snow on us all day.

We had a bracing walk around some of the stones at Avebury, then visited the Manor,which has recently been done up by the National Trust, by reproducing (rather than preserving) furniture and fittings, and have arranged different rooms as they may have been at different periods, ranging from a Tudor Hall and Bedroom, to a 1939 living room (complete with zebra-skin chair, and cocktail-shakers.)

Tudor Bedroom, Avebury Manor

Because almost everything is reproduction rather than  original (things like the fireplaces, the ceilings and plasterwork etc are original), visitors are encouraged to touch and try - I didn't lie on the Tudor style four-poster because it has a feather mattress, and I am allergic to feathers, but I could have done, had I wished!

They have a tea-shop in the library, too, where Wendy was able to sample her first English cream tea :-) And we were both able to warm up enough to escape hypothermia. There were some very *bracing* breezes going on out among the stones..

And then, after visiting the Avebury museum (small; contains a lot of flint axes) back to my house, to defrost ourselves a little more.

Autumn

This morning was rather grey and damp, but it wasn't actually raining (at least when I got up) So I decided that I would go to Stourhead, to see the autumn leaves.

I was a little startled that when I arrived, about 15 minutes after opening time, I found that the main car park was full and the overflow was getting pretty busy. I suppose that's what happens when the National Trust goes onto BBC Radio 4 and says that this weekend will be the best one to see the colours...!

Just as I got tho the entrance of the grounds it started to drizzle, and although this did stop when I was about half way around the lake, it continued to be pretty grey, so the colours didn't look as dramatic as they do when you manage to catch them on a day of glorious autumn sunshine!

There were swans swanning around on the lake, as well as the ducks, gulls and coots, and I saw a heron, too, fishing near the Pantheon, although it very uncooperatively had it's head down making it hard to photograph successfully.

I enjoyed the walk, and the views - I didn't even mind the rain, as it wasn't cold.

After leaving the main grounds, I drove along towards 'King Alfred's Tower', which is on the edge of Stourhead's park. On the way, I found a little space to park from which I could walk along to 'St Peters Pump', which is a little monument marking the source of the River Stour.

I then moved on to King Alfred's Tower itself. The tower is a folly, built in 1772 to mark the spot where it was believed Alfred the Great rallied his troops before defeating the Danes in 878AD. It's an interesting building - a triangular brick tower with a staircase in a little turret running up one corner, and is totally empty, (and very damp) It is claimed that when it was built, it marked the point where the counties of Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire met, with one corner in each county, but I am a little sceptical.

You can climb up the tower (160', around 250 steps) and it is well worth doing so - the views from the top are stunning.  By the time I got to the top, the sun had come out.

Although I visit Stourhead fairly frequently, this is the first time I've been to the tower. I'm glad I did.

More photos in my flickr set, if you're interested

Autumn Colours

I had planned to catch up with housework, and other things which have piled up over the last couple of weeks, while I've been busy partying in Dublin and then being sick-unto-death. And I started well, this morning: I finally managed to post a birthday present to my best friend (admittedly her birthday was a week ago, but it felt like an achievement)

I even did some vacuuming and some laundry. However, I noticed while I was in town that the trees are looking rather colourful just now, and that it was actually a rather nice day, so I decided to change my plans and head to Stourhead to go for a walk, and enjoy the autumn colours.

Stourhead is owned by the National Trust these days, but it used to belong to the Hoare family, who were London bankers. They had a manor house built in the 1720s, and the gardens were laid out between 1740 and 1780.

There is a lake, surrounded by woods, and overlooked by a grotto, the 'Temple of Apollo' and an reproduction of the Pantheon.

The woods around the lake have a lot of beech trees, and rhodedendrons, and there is, of course, a rustic cottage.

I also found some wonderful fungi, on a fallen tree.

and of course, the gate house going up p he house itself, is, well.... modest and unpretentious...

I wonder whether I can fit a small castle on to the front of my house, too?

Tomorrow is forecast to be cold and wet. I'll do housework tomorrow.

In Which I Holiday at Home

I am currently enjoying my holiday, without leaving home. It's rather restful, especially the total lack of any having to pack or be on time for anything!

I spent Monday pottering around at home, doing the stuff such as laundry and cleaning which I normally do at weekends, (having spent this weekend in London and then lazing around)

Today, I decided to go to Westwood Manor, which is a national Trust property about 4 miles down the road. It was built in the 15th Century with bits added and taken away since then.

It is occupied by tenants so only 5 rooms are open - lovely panelled rooms, with plasterwork ceilings -- upstairs in the music room is a 16th century Virginal and a 17th century Harpsichord (plus the harp)

There were also some panels decorated with the kings & Queens of Engand, in very dark oils on the panels, but sadly I accidentally delted those pictures, so you have to imagine the slightly lop-sided images of Henry VIII and a few others, for yourselves!

Outside there are some enormous yew hedges - about 7' wide, and in one part cut into a topiary house.

Definitely an interesting afternoon!

On my way home I stopped to pick  blackberries, with a view to making some bramble jelly.  It is currently in the 'dripping slowly through a bag' stage - tomorrow comes the 'boiling it with sugar to within an inch of its life' stage.

And then I finished the da with a nice, slow meal an a glass of wine. I might get used to this hoidaying at home idea!

More Gardens, and More Tea

We found that, sadly, the weather forecasters continued to be correct, so on Tuesday we mostly stayed indoors and read, although we did have a brief, damp, walk during the afternoon, and a trip to go ringing and to the pub in the evening.

Wednesday was scheduled to be showery, so we decided to go to Arlington Court, which is another National Trust property, on the basis that between the house, the Carriage Museum, and the Gardens, we should be able to dodge the worst of the rain, which we duly did

Victorian Garden, Arlington Court

 Arlington was the home of the Chichester family, the last of whom was a very eccentric maiden lady who lived there for over 50 years, and who kept a pet parrot which was allowed free range of the house, and destroyed much of the plasterwork of the ceilings!

 

The house has a large collection of model ships, the earliest being ones made by French prisoners of war, during the Napoleonic wars, the latest being models of the family's own yacht, and the 'Gypsy Moth' in which Sir Francis Chichester (Who was a member of the same Chichester family, but a cousin, not one of the owners of Arlington) became the first person to sail single-handedly around the world.

We also spent some time in the Carriage museum,  looking at the various carriages, all of which were most impressive, but didn't look, even the best of them, as though they would have been very comfortable to travel in!                                                          

We also met some of the horses (Percherons and Shires) which they keep to give horse-and-cart rides at weekends, and (Naturally) visited the tea-rooms, where we found a coffee cake of truly epic proportions and delectable flavour, just as the heavens opened and it poured with rain.                                                      

I think we got the last available seats before the surge of people getting in out of the rain!

As I am leaving on Friday morning, I had made a request to bring forward Sunday lunch, so the day ended with Sunday roast - local beef, accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, local runner beans and carrots and a very nice bottle of red wine, followed by a floating lemon pudding.

All in all, a most satisfactory day!

Rest and Relaxation

I got back home yesterday after a long weekend visiting my parents in deepest Devon - it was a bank-holiday weekend, and as I didn't want to have to face the bank-holiday traffic, I booke the Tuesday off work as well, giving myself a 4-day weekend. Yum.

Of course, as it was a bank holiday, it started to rain as I drove down to Devon on Friday evening, but it was good to see my parents!


We spent a delightfully lazy Saturday - I had the rare pleasure of being brought a cup of tea in bed, and the rest of the day included inspecting my parent's brand new (to them) caravan, which was collected from the dealer on Friday, so is really new) wandering around the garden, and assisting in a joint effort to cook, then eat, a rather nice meal (roast duck, followed by lemon meringue pie, in case anyone is interested) and lots of conversation.


Sunday was my mum's birthday, but as it was also Sunday, and the parents suddenly remembered that they had promised to ring that morning, so we rushed out to go ringing, then came back and had a more liesurely second breakfast-and-gift-unwrapping before heading over to Tiverton, to Knightshayes Court, which is owned by the National Trust.


It's a Victorian, gothic-inspired house built for wealthy lace-maker in 1869, and especially well known for its gardens. My Grannie used to work as a volunteer there for the National Trust, doing flower arrangements for the house, and many of her 'best' plants (cuttings or decendents of which remain in my parents' garden) were gifts from the gardener there.


It even has little fairy tale turrets on the stables (Yes, that picture is the stables...) and at the corners of the kitchen-garden.


They were a fox-hunting family, and around the terraced lawn is a topiary fox-and-hounds hedge. The house itself is the Victorian idea of a medieval Great Hall, complete with minstrel gallery, gargoyles, an vast stone fireplaces, but also has slightly less convincingly medieval features such as the Billiard Room, Smoking Room, and Library (perfect for passing murderers!)


It would be a nice place to live, if you happened to be a stinkin' rich Victorian industrialist. And it has a very nice garden. (asuming that you have a whole regiment of gareners to keep in order)

We were very restrained. We did all buy some second hand books, but we didn't buy any plants. That's restrained, isn't it?


It was a nice day.

In Which There is a Day Out

My parents came to visit at the weekend. They didn’t really come to see me, I just happen to have a conveniently placed house, so the first evening was:

6.15: parents arrive. I give them cups of tea and biscuits
6.30: parents leave
8.15: father returns. I give him supper
9.30: father leaves again to fetch mother
11.00: I lie in bed, listening anxiously for them to return home, in a weird reversal of roles.

Then the next day I went to work.

But on Saturday we went out for the day, to Lacock Abbey.

It’s nice. I like it.

It started life, as the name suggests, as an Abbey - a nunnery, in this instance – ‘abbey’ was a not a gender-specific term in 1229 when Countess Ela of Salisbury founded it. She was a tough cookie.

She was the Countess in her own right, and was married at the age of 9. Her husband (illegitimate son of Henry II) was one of the Barons who signed Magna Carta. They had 8 or 9 children, Her husband was reported to have died while on crusade, but she refused to believe it, and was vindicated when he eventually returned,( possibly to be met with a slightly miffed wife asking ‘what time do you call this?’. ) and promptly died.

The pair of them laid two of the foundation stones for Salisbury Cathedral, and later, after being widowed she established Lacock Abbey and 9 years after establishing the abbey she became a nun there, becoming Abbess about 2 years later. Who knew that fast-track promotion was available in medieval monasteries? I imagine having founded the place did not hurt her prospects.
The nuns then spent the next 300 doing nun-stuff, until Henry VIII came along. Apparently when the Abbey was inspected by the King’s Commissioner he couldn’t find any excuse to dissolve it – the nuns were living within their means, abiding by the Rule of their order, and just going around praying, doing good works and being all poor, obedient and chaste. They got shut down the following year anyway.

Lacock is unusual in that a lot of the original abbey survived – the cloisters and chapter house are almost untouched, and other rooms were converted rather than being destroyed. In the cloisters, there are lots of decorative bosses in the ceiling - I like the the mermaid-goat best. No idea what it was intended to be!

It’s very popular with film makers. The cloisters/chapter house were used in film Harry Potter 1,2 & 6 (the scene where Harry frees Dobby’ f’rinstance, and the classroom scenes) and in ‘The other Boleyn Girl’.

One of the later owners of the house was William Henry Fox-Talbot, who lived in the 19th C. and who was the inventor of modern photography, having worked out the negative/positive process and also how to treat paper to create light-sensitive paper and then to fix images. Because of this, the Abbey often has exhibitions of photographs – currently Aberlado Morell – I hadn’t heard of him, but enjoyed his pictures, many of which use the camera obscura technique to project inverted images on the walls of rooms, and photographing the results.

We also enjoyed the gardens, which included some weird and wonderful plants - Alliums, I think.

They were full of bees – mainly bumble bees, in two sizes, but also honey bees. And Painted Lady butterflies – these are extraordinary insects – apparently they hatch in Morocco, in the foothills of the Atlas mountains. They then (little butterflies, remember?) fly all the way here, then they mate and die. The eggs they lay here in England hatch, and the new butterflies fly all the way back to Morocco and start again.

They seem so fragile it seems impossible that they can make, or survive, such a journey. I wonder whether these are Moroccan butterflies in the twilight of their lives, or young, thrusting butterflies gorging on nectar in preparation for their marathon journey?

In what was the stable block there is a (sadly disused) brewery - origianlly 15th Century, it was still in use until the turn of the 20th Century. Now it is on display, and they keep spare gargoyles on the walls.

Lacock village is also very pretty. It is owned by the National Trust which has kept it’s appearance free of most modern alternations – this means that it is very picturesque, and also very popular with the BBC and filmmakers, (Cranford, Pride & Prejudice etc)

And the tea-shop sells yummy organic ice-cream. Mine was rhubarb & custard, and it was lovely. Lots of little chunks of rhubarb.

Did I mention it was a very good day?