Thursday, 27 June 2019

Shugborough Hall NT

Hi there everyone 😀

A couple of weeks ago we headed out on another bit of a random meander, not sure where we would end up but wanting to have a look at a new place to eat that I'd come across on another blog that I follow.

It's the Canalside Farm, Shop and Cafe in Great Haywood, and it looked like it might be a good spot for meeting up with friends and having a walk, followed by something nice to eat ... but of course, we needed to test it out first.

We managed to get there early enough to take advantage of the breakfast menu. It was really busy but we managed to find a table that was reserved, but not for an hour or so. Martin went for the full English, but I had oat cakes and they were fab ...
The menu looked really good, as did all of the food that we saw being served. There was lots of seating outside and they did a really nice looking cream tea menu ... including a gentleman's afternoon tea.

The Cafe sits right alongside the Trent & Mersey Canal and there are lots of walks and bike rides in the area, taking in both Cannock Chase and the Shugborough Estate. Before we left we picked up a handful of cards with lots of different routes on and will definitely be coming back over this way again ...
Having finished breakfast we had a mooch around the farm shop before deciding we would head for Shugborough Hall, to make a long awaited return visit to see if we could manage to visit The Lichfield Apartments, which had been closed on our last visit.

It was a short, but lovely drive, through Tixall village, to Shugborough and we were delighted to find the apartments open. We picked up timed tickets at the entrance kiosk and had plenty of time so headed for the walled garden, which had pretty much been under construction on our last visit.

It's now in full operational order and whilst there wasn't that much in flower, what there was was lovely ... and some of my favourites ... plenty of allium ...
 

 
... cornflowers ...
... and as for the foxgloves, I have never seen such a fabulous display ...

There has been a lot of work done on the restoring of The Head Gardener's House, with a re-imagined dahlia glasshouse, made from willow, mirroring the shape of the front of the building ...
It's been planted with dahlias of all shapes and sizes and I'm sure these will be stunning in the summer ... maybe cause for another visit 😀

Although we've been to Shugborough many times, we've never really explored the farm area, but as we had plenty of time today, we decided to have a look. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much there was to see and how many of the buildings were open and ready to be explored. I didn't take any photos but it was definitely worth the look.

We decided that we would walk through the estate to the main house and have a pit stop in the cafe, which would pretty much take us up to our visiting time for The Lichfield Apartments.
We wandered past the Temple of the Winds and the longhorn cattle ...


... and just about managed to find a table in the cafe before the heavens opened. Perfect timing and chance to enjoy a cream tea before having the regulatory quick look in the gift shop ...
... before presenting ourselves at the apartment ready and eager to explore how the 'other half' really did live in the more modern of times ...
We rang the bell and waited to be greeted. You aren't allowed to take any photographs inside the apartments, but they are truly fascinating from the minute you step over the threshold.

There is plenty to see ... Patrick Lichfield's private office with his year planners showing where he was at different times of the year and lots of his photography equipment; his sitting room; bedrooms; bathrooms; the breakfast room; a very ordinary 70s style kitchen and, not to forget, the cocktail cabinet in the bedroom corridor.

There are lots of photographs from all over the world ... off royalty, film stars ... formal and informal and anecdotes that really raise a smile ... it was a real treat.

It was also really interesting to see how the Earl would have lived in the apartment, whilst the rest of the Hall was open to the public. It really was very homely and didn't feel that 'stately' at all ... although it's fair to say that it doesn't seem, at the height of his photography career, he would have spent much time at home at all.

We really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend a visit ... for us, it was far more interesting than the rest of the hall, though only the ground floor of that is open at the moment.

That was it then really for our visit. We decided to take the easy option and wait for the buggy for a lift back to the car park, as neither of us fancied the walk ...
Shugborough is a fabulous property to visit. We only really scratched the surface today. There are lots of other gardens to explore, follies to hunt out around the estate and a fabulous servants' quarters to visit ... I guess that is one of the big advantages of being members of the National Trust ... it doesn't matter if we don't see everything on this visit ... we can go again ... and again ... and even again if we fancy it 😀

Next time, we might just do it accompanied with an afternoon tea at the Canalside Cafe 😀

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Monday, 24 June 2019

Joy in the Everyday Ordinary - June 11-20

Hi there everyone 😀

It's hard to believe that this time last year we were in the start of a long hot summer. This year's June has been wet ... to say the very least.

I'm not normally affected too much by the weather, as I tend to find that each has it's own charm. Yes, it's lovely sitting outside in warm sunshine enjoying lunch in the garden ... but I also like being cuddled up inside listening to the rain against the windows.  The rain of the last few weeks though ... has started to get me down a bit ... there is just so much that I want to do outside ... and I've found myself feeling a bit lethargic and not feeling like doing very much at all.

The garden has taken a bit of a battering, but seems to be trying to recover and the summer baskets are all starting to fill out nicely.

We are out for two days with the craft stall this coming weekend ... and we are outside. I am keeping everything crossed for good weather.

For now, here is what we've been up to whilst it's been raining ...
Day 11 - We couldn't be bothered to wait to watch Killing Eve so managed to watch the whole 2nd series 'On Demand' over a couple of days ... we loved it. It was hilarious ... in a macabre kind of way.
Day 12 - Aldi 'wonky' strawberries. A bargain at £1 a punnet, instead of £2.50. Berries yoghurt and granola for me for breakfast this week ðŸ˜€
Day 13 - Today brought yet more rain, though it did ease off a little bit later on. I have to say this enforced relaxation, at this point, was still quite nice, though the outside jobs were starting to pile up. We did have a bit of a splurge on some of the kitchen cupboards this afternoon, but it comes to something when the grocery cupboard was the most joyful thing of my day.
Day 14 - Yes ... more rain. We went shopping and dropped in to see mum and dad, where David, Alison and Bobby turned up, which was a real treat. I just had to nip out, in between showers, once we got home to capture the deutzia though, before the rain washes its blossom away.
Day 15 - We dropped in at mum and dad's to drop off Dad's Fathers' Day gift early and mum just couldn't wait to show us her poppy - It was absolutely stunning.
Day 16 - It was craft fair day today and towards the end of the day we realised this robin's nest was right above us and we spent a good while watching him bob in and out ... feeding his little family.
Day 17 - Martin was back at work today, after being off for three weeks, so I was on a bit of a mission. It's been a while since I've cooked anything but today I cooked up sweet pepper and red onion mini-quiches, cauliflower and cumin soup and a big cottage pie for tea. The kitchen looked a bit like a bomb site, but I did feel quite pleased with my efforts.
Day 18 - There was NO rain today ... all day! I did a little bit of gardening, finally managing to plant out some of the annuals that I have grown from seed. These are cleome ... definitely not cannabis ... though there is a slight resemblance.
Day 19 - I decided to have a bit of a crafternoon today and had my first ever go at free motion machine embroidery. I've been meaning to have a go at making these house key rings for ages and am really pleased with how they've turned out.
Day 20 - This time last year I'd picked our first bowl of home grown strawberries. Today I was pleased to see our first one ready for picking.

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Thursday, 20 June 2019

A Week on The Llyn Peninsular #6 - Nant Gwrtheyrn

Hi there everyone 😀

Welcome to the last in my series of posts about our visit to The Llyn Peninsular in North Wales back at the beginning of May. I have to say it is making me more than a little wistful looking back at the clear blue skies, sunshine and sea views ... maybe our summer really is just around the corner ... we can but hope.

It was Thursday, our last full day, and we managed to get out and have one last adventure before it was time to start packing up ready to head for home.

We decided to have a drive to Nant Gwrtheyrn ... it was another of the places that we'd seen on this blog post. It's home to the Welsh Language Centre and is also known as 'the forgotten village', but not really having done any research beforehand we didn't really have any idea what to expect.

The drive in was pretty impressive. We passed the top car park which said it was a 25 minute walk and thought that sounded a bit much for us, especially seeing as how high up we still were, so decided to follow the road and see if we could park at the bottom.

We are so glad we did, we certainly wouldn’t have been up for walking down and definitely not for walking back up. The views on the way down were fabulous ...
... and the road was a real adventure to drive down ...
There is a small car park at the bottom and it is an absolutely beautiful spot ... really tranquil. We parked up by the row of old quarry men's cottages ...
We started off in the old chapel where there is an exhibition telling the story of the quarrying village of Port Nant and the development of the Welsh Language School. It was fascinating and really humbling to think about how the residents of the tiny village would have managed back in the day ... they must have been made of hardy stuff.
There are some fabulous views out across the coast ...
We would loved to have had the chance for a walk down to the beach, but we didn't have time today, definitely one for a re-visit ...
We did have chance for a pit stop in the cafe in the cafe though, with a view to pretty much die for ...
The sun did manage to put in a brief, but very welcome, appearance as we had a wander round the rest of the site ...
 
... and a quick nosy inside one of the old cottages ...
We stayed for just over an hour in total, but definitely want to go back and have a look down at the beach, where more of the old quarry workings can be found.

I just had to get Martin to stop for a photo on the way back up ... good job the clutch was in full working order though ...
So that was the end of our week on The Llyn Peninsular. We both really fell in love with the area and were sad to be leaving, though both pretty confident that we will be back again soon 💜💜💜

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Monday, 17 June 2019

A Week on The Llyn Peninsular #5 - Portmeirion

Hi there everyone 😀

It was Wednesday and mum and dad were heading for home this morning.

Rain was forecast ... lots of rain ... for most of the day.

After mum and dad had headed off we had a slow breakfast and decided, despite the forecast, we would head out for a drive, aiming towards Portmeirion, another place that we had really hoped to visit whilst over this way and another of the 50 things that I wanted to do before I'm 60.
The plan was that we would wend our way via Criccieth and Porthmadog and, if the weather was terrible, we would continue our drive up through the mountains to Blaenau Ffestiniog. If it wasn’t too bad we would go ahead with our visit to Portmeirion.

We had a quick stop on the esplanade at Criccieth where, whilst it was pretty grey, the rain seemed to have passed over ... We carried on to Porthmadog and decided that yes we would risk a visit to Portmeirion.

We waterproofed up and headed into the village, not knowing quite what to expect, although we had seen a programme on the TV earlier in the week where the village had been featured.

Being such a grey day the village was fairly quiet so, although we did not get the beauty and vibrancy that comes with blue skies and sunshine, it was easier to get some good photos without lots of people wandering into shot.

First stop was Number 6 cafe ...
...where we stopped for a cuppa, in Portmeirion china of course ...
... and had a good look at the map to get our bearings. The map was really useful and divides the village up into quite distinctive zones, so it’s easy to make sure that you get to see everything ...
We decided we would have a wander through the village and down to the hotel and then perhaps see if we could find somewhere for lunch. We basically just followed the map in the order it was laid out starting with the Cliffside area ...
... realising very quickly not to forget to look behind us after we’d passed anything to make sure we got the best of all views ...
As you can see ... Portmeirion is not your typical Welsh coastal village ... to say it’s quirky is a bit of an understatement ... you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a Italian lakeside village, but then I believe that perhaps was the intention ...
One of the things that is really striking is the colour ... in the paintwork of the buildings, the planting and the other sculptures and bits and pieces that you come across ...
The views across the estuary are pretty spectacular too ... I can only imagine what it would be like on a bright sunshiny day with plenty of blue sky
Inside the dome is an exhibition showing a bit about the history of the developing of the village which was well worth a look ...
We wandered past Battery Square ...
...where we found the campanile ...
... lots more colour ...
... and plenty of views of what was still to come ...

It was all a bit overwhelming, a crazy mass of colour, with so much going on ... it was hard to know where to look or where to explore next.

We carried on along the main footpath, where we could look down onto the Central Piazza where we could see the giant chess set ...
As you round the bend to pass the gift shop there are some lovely views looking down through the Central Piazza ...
... and back the way we had come ...
Whilst the colours were really vibrant there's not much we wouldn't have given for a bit of blue sky and sunshine.

We made our way down the hill through the piazza ...

... to the edge of the estuary and along to the hotel ...
... and past the boat ...
... until we reached the start of the coastal walk where we turned around and retraced our steps back past the hotel and headed back up the hill past the town hall ...


... to Caffi glas where we stopped for lunch ... and what a treat that was ...
Whilst it was a grey old day, the only rain we really saw was from the cafe whilst eating lunch and we timed our leaving just right to catch the land train ...
... which made easy work of the woodland walk, with a stop at the top for a fab photo opportunity, looking out over the whole of the village with the estuary beyond ...
It was a bumpy old ride but I managed to catch a couple of shots of the Chinese garden as we bounced past ...
It was time for us to start to make our way back so we retraced our steps, taking more photos on the way ...

We finished off our visit with a walk down to the first viewing point that we’d passed on the way in ... and we were really glad we did. The views across to the hotel were fab ...
... and the views looking back up to the village weren’t half bad either ...
We’d had another lovely day, visited another lovely place that we hadn’t seen before and I got to tick another off my list of 50 things to do before I’m 60.

It was well worth the trip and the entrance fee and I would definitely want to visit again and see it all again in the sunshine 😀

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