Visit to Barrington Court

Yesterday was the day we went to view our new kittens (see next post) and as we had to travel to Yeovil for it, we decided to combine it with a day out. Some time ago, when I was attending an Ileostomy Association meeting in Yeovil, my hubby had taken himself off and had discovered Barrington Court, a beautiful National Trust property, and had been waxing lyrical about it for some time, so that is where we decided to go on this occasion.

The house is empty of furniture which is rather strange after all the other National Trust places we’ve visited, but it did enable one to see the beautiful panelling and admire the proportions of the rooms etc. There are several buildings on the estate; the main house is a Tudor manor house and there is an Arts and Crafts house too.

Although the downstairs of the Tudor Manor house was beautiful, for me the main attraction yesterday was the gardens, which are extensive and out of this world. My hubby said, “Shall I look for ideas for our garden?” Lol! We have a postage stamp, but it is his pride and joy and he has worked so hard in it and made it utterly gorgeous!

We had a great lunch in the restaurant. A small menu, but beautifully cooked, using vegetables grown on the estate. My hubby said his cider (produced locally) was the best he’d ever tasted, and I agreed, tasting my apple juice (also produced locally). Later, before we left, we returned to the restaurant and had a cream tea.

I took so many photos that I couldn’t possibly show them all on here, but here is a selection. The local stone is called Ham Stone and it is a beautiful warm and mellow colour. Much of the ancient stone work had lichen growing on it, which enhanced its beauty further. It made a lovely backdrop to all the trees, plants and flowers.

Before lunch we wandered around looking at where they were selling plants, and also in a row of artisans’ workshops where such activities as furniture making, jewellery and woodcarving were taking place.

Everywhere the paths were paved with narrow bricks, arranged in attractive patterns. At times these were pretty uneven so I had a pretty bumpy ride in my wheelchair but managed OK!

The white garden was so beautiful. There’s definitely something to be said to limiting the colour palette in a garden to a single colour, if you’ve got the luxury of space to do it.

There were some ancient cow pens which were fascinating.

A beautiful weathered old linenfold door (in two halves, like a stable door) leading to a little bridge over the moat that surrounds the whole house.

The carved lintel over the top.

Looking back towards it from the bridge over the moat.

There was a tennis court, and beside it, a little pavilion with a thatched roof.

Beautiful trees everywhere. I particularly loved the pattern these tree trunks made with their graceful curve into the ground.

Lichen.

The kitchen garden was massive. There were apple and pear trees trained along its walls, which were all topped with decorative tiles.

There were two sundials that we discovered, including this very unusual one with ten faces on it, each with its own sundial.

There were numerous beautiful arched doorways through the various stone walls, each one different, and leading one into separate gardens.

Many of the gardens had a central feature, such as a pond, fountain or statue.

There was even a statue of a Roman soldier.

As for the flowers, plenty of colour and variety. It’s a funny time of year because the spring flowers are now all over, and the roses are coming to an end, but the later summer flowers aren’t yet fully in bloom. Despite that, there was plenty of colour.

After a good traipse around the garden, we headed for the house. We weren’t able to go upstairs with the wheelchair without a lot of bother, and by this time I was getting a bit tired anyway, so we had a good look around downstairs. Here’s a selection of some of the rooms and corridors, and the rich panelling.

For the past few days the weather had been poor – cold and wet, and my hubby suggested giving this outing a miss if yesterday had turned out to be wet, but I said we should go anyway, since we were going to be in the area, and we could stay in the house if it was wet. As it turned out, the rain had stopped by the time we arrived, and only started again just as we were leaving! The day was dull, though, which meant I had to lighten most of the photos, and there were none of the interesting light and shade effects you get on a sunnier day, but it was still well worth it, and we so enjoyed going around the gardens. It was a really great day out.

As the day passed, we were constantly aware of the time, and counting down the hours until we would meet our new kittens! It gave us something nice to look forward to at the end of a lovely day out together.

WOYWW 358–Misc Decorating

Still nothing on my desk I’m afraid, because we’ve been very busy with other things this week. Gary finished decorating our sitting room last week, and then did some odd jobs around the house that needed attention, including some priming of bits that had never got painted when we moved and the builders had finished – you know how it is, there are those pesky little bits that you never get round to doing, that you learn to live with until you cease to notice them, until the decorating bug bites again and suddenly you say “enough is enough!” I have been doing a bit of gloss and emulsion painting and then sleeping for 2 hours because I was so exhausted from the effort!

We also have some lamps that weren’t working and I’ve been attending to those. The black Ikea uplighter ceased working several months ago and my hubby said it was the dimmer switch. I’m not fussed about whether it dims or not, so yesterday I replaced the defunct switch with a normal one and lo and behold it works again! Nice. The fibre-optic lamp’s halogen bulb had gone and you have to take the lamp apart to replace the bulb, so it’s now in pieces awaiting the arrival of the replacement from Ebay, promised to arrive today. It didn’t. The cable for my work lamp (LED magnifier) has mysteriously vanished when we moved everything through to Mum’s flat in preparation for decorating. It has yet to turn up. We are still awaiting the arrival of the new chandelier which has been on order, due to arrive this week, we hope.

Once the decorative lamps are all working again and nicely arranged on the side table, and I’ve finished bringing stuff back into the room, I’ll upload the blog post I’m working on, charting the before, during and after of the redecorating of our sitting room. We are now using it again and it’s looking great – so bright and fresh, and the stencilling has worked a treat and looks really stylish. Watch this space.

So – miscellaneous decorating. First of all, the bi-fold doors to the airing cupboard.

These, and the rest of yesterday’s painting, all require a second coat. This gloss takes aaaages to dry and it’s still tacky! My cleaning lady is here today so I haven’t attempted a second coat, and will do it tomorrow, energy permitting. The rest of the utility room really needs decorating because only bits were done when the builders were altering it, and I’m going to use up the remaining green emulsion from the kitchen so it all matches – there are no doors in the doorways and you can see right through.

Up to the en-suite bathroom. The builders penetrated the wall into the old bathroom and created a doorway using the architrave from the utility room. When they removed it, it was quite damaged and I managed to patch it up and fill it as best as I could at the time. It remained patchy with the old cream paint and filler. It now has its first coat of new cream gloss.

Viewed from the other side you can see the door frame and new architrave created by the builders. This was just raw wood, with filler in the screw holes. Now also with its first coat of cream gloss after Gary primed it for me. (You can see the other side of it, and the arch into the loo, reflected in the mirror opposite!)

The threshold – likewise. Masking tape to remain until I’ve done the second coat.

Under the basin, the plasterboard at the back was a mess, with scorch marks from the blowtorch to melt the solder in the pipes, and it was discoloured and patchy. It now has its first coat of emulsion to match that on the arch visible in the first bathroom picture, and I’ve also painted the pipes. This space is where I keep my trolley that contains all my stoma supplies. You can see that in the first bathroom picture, too.

Finally, the water pipe from the high-level cistern in the loo, beyond the arch. There was still some green paint below the last remaining piece of dado, and a messy part where the old lead pipe was connected to the new plastic pipe. The first coat of cream gloss doesn’t fully cover the green, but I’m hoping another coat will do it.

It all looks so much better and more finished already! I am ashamed to say that these jobs have been waiting 2 1/2 years to be completed. I also had 2 boxes in the sitting room which had also been sitting around for 2 1/2 years waiting to be unpacked, containing ornaments and some other bits and pieces, and these are all unpacked now.

A few more finishing touches in the sitting room, and then we’ll have the Big Reveal!

Also last week, while the decorating was still going on, the windows man phoned to ask if he could come in about an hour’s time to replace our cloudy double-glazed units – he had a slot. We didn’t want to turn him down so we rushed around clearing the relevant rooms in front of the windows. They took down the grotty Venetian blind in the kitchen and I nearly killed myself cleaning it, rushing through the job to be finished in time for them to replace it before they left! It was still covered with builders’ dust etc. because the window is so large and high that I couldn’t reach it. Phew. What a job. Never again.

Phoebe, our younger cat, had another fit on Sunday evening, the second in a week. We phoned Auntie Megan, the vet, the next day and she said that it would be a few weeks till the increased dose of phenobarbital (started last week) takes effect. In a month’s time she wants to see her again and take more bloods and check her titre to make sure of the dose. This was the first time my hubby had seen her having a seizure – I’ve always had to deal with it on my own until now. She was very distressed and disoriented afterwards and needed lots of cuddles and reassurance.

In between all this, I have been trying to slot in at least 1/2 hour each day to practise my singing and guitar!

After all this work is finished, I’m really hoping to get back to my studio and do some ART!!

Happy WOYWW everybody, and a fruitful creative week ahead, in whatever direction that creativity takes you.