We needed a break from a couple of busy part-time jobs and decided to take a week off to visit some National Trust properties as well as seeing family and friends. Coincidentally, I also had a Royal School of Needlework class, a quilting class with Megan Manwaring and a visit to some new picture framers to add in as well.
We also stopped at Aston Pottery where I picked up four new plates to coordinate with the set I bought 24 years ago when we first moved to the UK – still going strong and haven’t lost their colour even after all the dishwashing.
Here’s a few photos of our lovely week away touring familiar places as well as new houses and gardens to explore.
Mottisfont House, Hampshire which featured a display by artist Pauline Baynes who illustrated the original Narnia books by C. S. Lewis. I loved the sepia photo of the lady with her dog as the wee chap looks exactly like our Norwich Terrier Hamish.
Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire – magnificent archways, a stunning library and tile floors worthy of a quilt. The estate was owned by Rudyard Kipling’s daughter.
Lovely dahlias at Aston Pottery in Oxfordshire. Well, I think dahlias are lovely but my friend hates them because she says they look too plastic and she remembers the earwigs that used to invade them in her parents’ garden when she was a child.
Nuffield House in Oxfordshire was the home of William Morris the founder of the Morris Motor Company (not the artist). He made so much money in business that in his lifetime he gave away £11.1 billion in today’s money, but known as Viscount Nuffield he lived a simple life in this relatively small house. In fact, all the Nuffield Trust medical facilities in the UK are a result of his generosity. I loved the blue glassware in the dining room and Lady Nuffield’s sewing box.