National Trust: Stourhead

Stourhead - the bridge.

The weekend is almost up us again and I haven't even posted the last lot of pictures yet! On the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend I woke up really early (6-ish, Hamish bouncing up and down on the bed and demanding immediate attention/cuddles/biscuits) and the sky was bright blue. So I thought I better get on the road, pronto.

I have visited Stourhead three times - the first time in 1997, when I was completely struck by the self-contained world of the placid lake and the miniature temples, so much so that I chose the English landscape garden for one of my graduating subjects in art history. The famous grass-covered bridge features in so many period films that I had the feeling of having visited much more often and when Darcy proposed to Lizzie in Joe Wright's Pride in Prejudice I knew exactly where they were absurdly romantic in the rain.

This year I took a friend to see it, she was visiting in late February and we had to find a house and garden that was already open and where we did not have to rely on flowers to make the garden attractive. I made up my mind to visit much more often and on last Sunday I did - enjoy!

Much love,
Qaroline

Dramatic sky over the lake.

Magnolias.

Massive camellias!

Ready for your close-up?

Red among pink.

Another stunning camellia - ok, I might have a problem ...

Different view-point.

Gothic Cottage and cherry blossom.

Early rhododendrons in full swing.

Was quite taken by this bright red rhododendron.

The ground is pink with fallen blossoms.

Showtime

Bluebells at Basildon Park

It has started: everything is growing like mad, the camellias are out and the first tulips. I have planted a few marigolds (though I am really not a great fan of marigolds but needed some instant colour) to create an orange counterpoint to the blue of forget-me-nots and Brunnera macrophylla.

Today I went with a friend to Basildon Park and was surprised that its woods were already full of bluebells! I cannot wait for Spring to get into full stride.

Much love,
Qaroline

View at Basildon Park

Forget-me-nots and marigold

"Elegans"

New camellia, forgot the name

I think this is the "Madame Vansittart" (really need to check this)

Tulips!

Red and red-striped.

No smoked mackrel for breakfast - Hamish STRONGLY disapproves.

Into the light

Llangors Lake - well, of course we had a go at pulling the sword out of the stone ...

My brother came to visit me in Hungerford over Easter. We had skyped and exchanged emails before, discussing what to do and what to see in the limited time he was here. We both wanted to go on a daytrip to Wales and to do it the oldfashioned way.

As soon as I collected him from Heathrow on Good Friday we got out the maps. We decided to drive into the Brecon Becons National Park on Easter Sunday, the day the clock went forwards. The weather forecast had been extremely gloomy but when we woke up at 7am/6am we actually saw blue sky - and were out in the car in a shot.

We drove up to Ross-on-Wye and took a B-road to Abergavenny and stumbled across Skenfrith Castle just after crossing the Welsh border, stopped for coffee in Crickhowell and had our picknick at the shore of Llangors Lake. The landscape was absolutely stunning and I definitely need to go back.

I am also including photos of our next trip to the New Forest and the Solent and my visit to Ham House and Gardens (National Trust) after dropping my brother at Heathrow.

Much love,
Qaroline

Skenfrith Castle

Crickhowell Castle

At Llangors Lake - quite choppy

Bronllys Castle

New Forest: the gorse is coming into flower

Back in Milford-on-Sea.

Ham House and Gardens in Richmond

The very first British bathroom at Ham House (17th century!)

Tighly clipped lavender in the 17th century design of the Cherry Garden

Stripes and Stripes

Striped squared made from black, fawn and white alpaca 

One of my resolutions for this year is trying to get better at documenting my crafting/creative processes. I have lost so many ideas over the last years just because I didn't get round to actually writing them up. And as this blog originally started out as a crafting blog, I will try to return to its roots from time to time.

As mentioned in my last post, my current project is a short wrap jacket designed by Alison Ellen but with lots of added stitches to allow for my size, especially as it is meant to be rather loose-fitting. Work is progressing well, especially as I like working from square to square and having lots of little moments of achievement along the way! I hope that my wool stash will be enough for the sleeves but I have a some short bits of the black alpaca left to spin.

I have also lined up all blue samples of last week below and am now thinking of knitting them up in a similar technique for a chair cover, with other leftover yarn. The chairs at the guild meetings are a bit uncomfortable and for a full morning of spinning my bum could use some soft merino!

Much love,
Qaroline

Rough sketch of how the jacket is supposed to look like

You can see the "wrong" side in this picture but it also a good opportunity to sneak in a Hamish cameo

Black, fawn and white alpaca - since I splashed out on a yarn-winder, my yarn balls look very professional

Samples of blue from Wingham Wool Work

Sampling Day

I finally have a functioning camera again - and took it to my local crafting guild (The Kennet Valley Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers) sampling day to start documenting my latest craft projects.

At the moment I am knitting a cardigan designed by Alison Ellen but, as always, I am already thinking of future and sampled a lot of different mixes of blue and turquoise in order to choose the perfect combination of colours.

Wingham Wool, the company who visits the guild for the sampling day, has way to many tempting fibres on offer and it was very hard to choose. I will try to blog more about my ongoing craft projects, in addition to the garden visits and roadtrips, I just need to get back into the habit!

Much love,
Qaroline

Dyed silks

Zak - the trusty companion.

Workbasket with blue samples to try.

Soooo many fibres to try.

Dyed merino wool pick and mix.

Large dyed bats.

Mini-Roadtrip: Avebury Manor Garden

Dahlias in the Monk's Garden

Whenever the weather on Sunday turns out to be unexpectedly glorious, Avebury is my go-to place. Being only c. 25 minutes from Hungerford along the A4, it offers multiple possibilities to pass the time. Sometimes I am in the mood to wander along the stone circle, sometimes I just want to pop into the Manor Garden or the house. Today I came for the tearoom in the library which turned out to be closed, however, I finally managed to see the autumn display in the Monk's Garden: masses and masses of simple dahlias at their peak of perfection.

Since visiting for the first time in 1997 on a family holiday I have loved Avebury. In 2011 I came back (the Manor was not open to the public then) and discovered the Manor Garden. It was sizzingly hot and the Half Moon Garden brimmed with the scents of cat mint, lavender and honeysuckle and I found myself charmed by the Topiary Garden, having never really cared for topiaries before.

Today I skipped both house and stone circle and just spent an hour in the garden, soaking up the autumn sun.

Much love,
Qaroline

Monk's Garden

Monk's Garden, Avebury Church

Side entrance. The bench is one of my favourite places to sit and read in the garden.

The Lion's Walk. The white phlox in the foreground had the most delicious, nutmeggy fragrance.

Half Moon Garden with cat mint beds

Topiary Garden, taken from the steps of the library

Library in the Topiary Garden with carp pond

Pompom and cactus dahlia in the Kitchen Garden.

Usually I prefer the simple dahlias but half-opened the showier varieties are quite interesting.