52 Weeks of Happy - Week Twenty Two

Week twenty two already and I'm a day late - I feel a bit like the white rabbit!  Anyway, better late than never here are four things that have made me happy and made me smile this week..........

1.  Old Photos - always make me smile, sometimes they make me wistful but that's good too .  The photos above are from my Mum's side.  In the middle photo seated is my lovely Mum whilst standing behind is her younger sister my Aunt Elsie. To the right is her older sister my Aunt Gladys.  On the left is my grandfather Alexander with Mum's brother William Edward who  was named after my great grandfather, Alexander's father,  who was killed at Shirebrook Colliery in March 1907 just a week after Aunt Gladys was born.  Unfortunately the younger William Edward died in 1910 from meningitis so there was only ever the three sisters. 

2.  Purple Shed - I love this shed which is in one of the small show gardens at Trentham Gardens.  I'd like this at the top of our garden.  I love the colour and they way it has two entrances.  It is usually full of old tools and chicken feeders and harks of a different era to the sleek, modern themed gardens nearby.
 

3.  Flowers - again, sorry! I seem to feature them on nearly all of my 'happy' posts but there are so many lovely ones around at the moment and they never fail to lift the spirits.  So after the lilac and wisteria in my last post here are - rhododendrons at Wightwick Manor, violas in a hanging basket outside our kitchen window.  Lesser Stitchwort and Pink Campion in the Hem Heath bluebell wood.

4.  Tranquillity - it was so calm on the lake, hardly a ripple in the water, the lighting was spectacular and the wildlife at ease.  Just such a beautiful moment.

Link to  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share. 

A Rainy Day Out

We had a lovely, if slightly wet, day away from home on Thursday.  Firstly we visited the Air Museum at Cosford which we do once or twice a year.  We noticed lots of changes since our last visit.  It was very busy with visitors and there was also lots of work going on in preparation for next weekend's Air Show.

After a good look around we moved on just a little further down the road towards Wolverhampton to a National Trust property we last visited nearly 20 years ago.  I loved it then and I loved it again yesterday.   No photographs were allowed inside but I managed to take lots of photos of the exterior and of the gardens despite two heavy downpours of rain which we seemed to miss whilst we were in the cafe and then on our tour around the house. 

Wightwick Manor which is only a few miles from Cosford and near Tettenhall was the home of  Samuel Theodore and Flora Mander who, in the late 19th century, designed the building to look like a mediaeval house complete with baronial hall. They were greatly influenced by the ideas of both the Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement in style and the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  Much of the furniture, soft fabrics and wall decorations are from William Morris's company.  The guided tour was just of the ground floor and then the groups were free to wander around upstairs and in the kitchens.  I found the tour very interesting and informative but I do also like to have a good wander around under my own steam as well.

Samuel Theodore Mander was a rich industrialist and joint owner with his brother of the Mander Brothers' paint and varnish company of Wolverhampton.

In between lunch in the cafe and our timed visit to the house we wandered around the gardens.

I was thrilled to see that the Wisteria growing over the front of the house was in flower

and also with the lilac growing in the courtyard 

On the walk down through the orchard  to the ponds there were swathes of bluebells, campion and cow parsley

The path around the ponds was a mass of rhododendrons and azaleas on either side.

The reflections in the water were stunning and we spent ages just staring.  Isn't it the most wonderful time of year right now?

Everything we saw, both inside and out, was a real treat for all the senses.

In 1937 the house, at just 50 years old and still full of the works of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, was given to the National Trust  by Sir Geoffrey Mander son of Theodore and Flora Mander before it came under the influence of the new Art-Deco styles and in so doing preserved it as we see it today.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week Twenty One

If it's Sunday it must be 52 Weeks of Happy time.  I've struggled a bit this week as so many negative things have happened including a quite unexpected tax bill from four years ago because they didn't use the right tax code (why on earth didn't they find this in the same financial year?  It would have saved us lots of distress this year) a broken camera lens worth £200ish which fell out of the back of the car on Wednesday evening, an expensive visit to the vets with one of our cats on Friday and a leaking washing machine yesterday! Anyway we've said goodbye to the holiday money we had put aside.  Oh, well!  At least the cat is getting better which is cause for happiness.

1.  A Well Cat - Chloe had to be taken to the vets on Friday morning, she had two injections, four extra syringes to administer orally at home and some capsules.  We dread capsules as she will not swallow them but we've been putting them in with her cat food and so far so good.  For the ripe old age of seventeen she is, according to the vet, in good condition and her kidneys, which are usually the first things to cause problems in a cat of her age, are healthy.

 
2.  A Day Out - On Wednesday we visited friends in Nottingham (see my last post) we had lunch at Relish in Beeston and then went to see a wonderful exhibition at the Djanogly Art Gallery on the campus at Nottingham University.  It was a fabulous exhibition called 'The First Cut' and was full of the most remarkable things all created from paper.  I was particularly taken with the enchanted forest by Manabu Hangai and the dresses and shoes made by Susan Cutts.  I also liked 'The Map of my Entire Life' by Rob Ryan who was the only one of the artists I knew of  as we'd seen one of his exhibitions at the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford a couple of years ago.  The First Cut has already been seen at the Manchester Art Gallery and is apparently moving to Southampton later this year.  Apologies for the poor quality of the photo above but the sunlight was so bright outside and photography wasn't allowed inside.
 

3.  Aquilegias - opening up in the garden.  I always moan about them as they have spread so much over the last year or two and have completely taken over some of the flower beds, they pop up everywhere and are so hard to get out of our heavy clay soil which they seem to grow quite easily in.  When they are in flower though they are just so pretty.  I love the colour of the one above and we also have dark pink, pale pink and white ones.  I've no idea where they all came from because when we first came here 16 years ago there were just a few dark pink ones.

4. Heron and Geese -  I was rather pleased with the photos above and below which I took on the Lakeside Walk around Trentham.  We waited ages for the heron to take off so we could photograph it in flight but for some reason it was happy to linger - not something they normally do when humans are around! On the other hand the two greylag geese below were quite happy to pose for photos.

 

Link to  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share. 

Under My Umbrella

No, not me but two dear friends, Robert and Susan, under my umbrella!  It wasn't raining but there was a special reason for them wanting their photo taken in this way.  I took the photo on Wednesday near the Lakeside Pavillion on the Nottingham University Campus where we'd gone to look at a wonderful exhibition in the Djanogly Art Gallery.

It was our friend Robert's birthday recently and we'd sent him a birthday card which I'd spotted at Bridgemere and which I thought he would like.  Inside the card as well as the normal greetings I wrote - 'I'm sure you can weave a magical story around the picture on the front and the little poem on the back of this card.  I look forward to reading it' - Robert has been attending a creative writing class over the last year or two and has written some super stories and poems.  When we visited on Wednesday, he asked if we could take a photograph of him and Susan which would recreate the scene on the birthday card as he wanted to put the story on his blog but couldn't use the illustration on the card for copyright reasons.  I was the only one with an umbrella so that was the reason mine was used.   

Here is a  link  to Robert's blog where the story he wrote can be found - it is different to what I had expected but quite poignantly atmospheric.  I was moved by it.

Here is a  link  to the original print by Gary Bunt that the card was taken from.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week Twenty

Week twenty already?   Here are four simple things that have made me smile this week.........

1. Colours! We've been on a couple of walks this week and after the days and more days of waiting suddenly everywhere there is colour.  In the bright acid green of the beech trees, in the fleeting, hard to capture blue of the bluebells, in the delicate yellow of the cowslips and the deep purple of hedgerow honesty.

Wonderful!

2. Birdsong!  We still have so many lovely birds in the garden.  They seem to have stayed with us beyond winter and spring and we now regularly see goldfinch, greenfinch and chaffinch on the feeders as well as the  sparrows and blackbirds.  I usually wake at 4a.m. on at least a couple of mornings each week and if I can't get back to sleep I get up and make a mug of tea.  On Friday morning I was awake at four so I got up and watched the sunrise whilst I listened to the birds.  First to start was the blackbird who went through his melodic repertoire, then the others gradually joined in.  When the world was finally awake I went back to bed and slept for a couple more hours.

3. Growth!  In the garden are many things to look forward to including chives, strawberries, gooseberries and wild garlic.  Plants in the garden with flowers getting ready to open are peonies, aquilegia, perennial cornflower and rhododendrons.

 

 

4. Wickerwork bees!  We found some new wickerwork bees in one of the show gardens at Trentham Estates, I call it the 'lift and sniff' garden as there are several boxes where you can do just that.  I expect it is really called the scented or plants for bees garden or something like that - anyway, they made me smile.

Link to  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share. 

A Bluebell Walk in the City

A few days ago, when it was sunny - it was sunny wasn't it?  I didn't dream it, did I?  Well, the photos below tell me the sun did shine for a short while at least so we went for a walk at a local nature reserve, another one owned by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.  This reserve is right in the city just off the main road between Longton and Trentham. 

Hem Heath Woods are bounded on one side by an industrial estate and on the other by the railway line which carries the Virgin West Coast trains.  Across the road where you can see the Aldi sign is the site of the former Hem Heath colliery.

Once you are in the woods the sounds from the main road, the railway and the industrial units seem to dissipate leaving only the sound of birdsong of which there was quite a chorus.  Happy birds to have found such an oasis in the city.

We last walked here a few weeks ago when the trees were bare but now they were a beautiful acid green in the dappled sunlight.  Although the trees were lovely we had come seeking blue not green and further into the woods, past the clearing, we found what we were looking for.

 Carpets of blue

 shimmering in the sunlight

Precious, delicate, ephemeral bluebells.  Their beauty almost takes your breath away.

We lingered for ages before moving on to complete the walk which ends

just here - a newly created pathway to

The site of the Wedgwood Factory, Museum and Visitor Centre at Barlaston where you can linger a while

amongst the visitors from overseas, leaving their swish, air conditioned coaches behind, dashing towards the entrance, some stopping to take photos as they rush headlong into the next phase of their whistle stop tour.

 You can linger for a coffee in The Ivy House Restaurant, perhaps visit the museum,

wander through the main shop

and the factory seconds shop or you can just make your way back  through the woods . 

Or you could, if you want to extend your walk, pick up the canal towpath on the other side of the factory and walk back to the bridge on Longton Road and then turn back down to the Hem Heath woods car park.

It would double the length of your walk but on a lovely day it is a beautiful stretch of the canal to walk along.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week Nineteen

Four simple things that have made me smile this week...........

1.  Greylag geese with their goslings by the lakeside at Trentham Gardens, they were so protective of their little ones.  I assume it is dad standing protectively whilst mum hovers over her little ones attentively, it could, of course, be the other way round.  Either way it was a delightful scene.

2.  Spring Flowers in the Italian Gardens and along the terrace at Trentham Gardens - I'm not usually particularly enamoured with orange flowers leaning more towards pinks, blues and lavenders or pure white flowers but somehow these tulips were so bright and cheerful in the sunlight I thought they looked stunning.

3.  A White Peacock at Wingfield Manor - as we stood waiting at the farm gate for our guides (see my last post) I heard a cry and said to Paul - 'that sounds like a peacock!'  When we got into the ruins there it was, I hadn't expected it to be white though.

4.  Hedgerow Blossom. I think this is Blackthorn or perhaps May blossom - of the saying 'Ne'er cast a clout 'till May is out' - well the blossom is out but after a sunny weekend last week, once again it is cold and wet, the heating  has been turned up and the jumpers are back on.  The gardens need the rain but I could do without it!  Still these photos remind me of how happy we were to be out and about walking in warm sunshine last weekend.

Link to  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share. 

Wingfield Manor

I first visited Wingfield Manor with a group of friends in 1976 - thirty seven years ago!   In those days it was one of those casual affairs where you knocked at the farmhouse door and asked to look around.  There may have been an honesty box to leave donations, I can't quite remember but all was relaxed and we could wander at will.  I visited again a couple of years later with Paul as I wanted to show him how interesting it was.  In those days we caught a bus from Mansfield to Alfreton and walked to the village of South Wingfield.  Much later we'd visited the church at South Wingfield looking for some of Paul's ancestors but had never been back to the Manor.  It was high time for a return visit.

Wingfield Manor is now looked after by English Heritage but it still belongs to the farmer and there are certain areas where photography isn't allowed as there is a private house and gardens in the middle. Apparently the residents of the house get very irate if cameras are pointed at their private area which is quite understandable.  We booked on a tour and received instructions through the post on where to park and where to meet.  There is an off road lay by a few hundred yards up the road and you walk down to the farm gate and wait for the guides, there are wonderful views of the Manor on the way down.  It is then quite a walk up from the road to the ruins themselves.

As we stood in the meeting place one of the guides described for us a scene of the arrival of a body of people to view the Manor as it was in the 1430s when an earlier twelfth century castle was being reconstructed as a 'palace' by one of the most powerful men in England.  Ralph, Lord Cromwell was Treasurer in the court of King Henry VI and we were asked to imagine his arrival at his hill top residence with an entourage of family, friends and servants almost his whole household moving around the country from residence to residence.

When Lord Cromwell died in 1456 he left no heirs so the property passed into the hands of the Earls of Shrewsbury prominent landowners in the area.

The Great Chambers

One of the windows of the Great Hall

Views over the surrounding countryside

Tantalising peeks at what lies beyond

The Barn

The Undercroft

In the Inner Courtyard we stood as our guide told us of the times Mary, Queen of Scots was confined at the Manor under the keeping of the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury who was the fourth husband of the famous Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, daughter of John and Elizabeth Hardwick and known as Bess of Hardwick.  The guide read a passage from Phillipa Gregory's book  The Other Queen  which described a meeting in the courtyard between the Earl of Shrewsbury and Mary, Queen of Scots although of course a purely fictional encounter the writing brought the whole place to life.

At the outbreak of the English Civil War Wingfield Manor was owned by William Cavendish, Earl of  Newcastle who was the grandson of Bess of Hardwick from her second marriage to Sir William Cavendish.  In 1644 the Manor came under siege by Parliamentarian forces under the Earl of Pembroke, the guides pointed out some of the areas where the walls had been hit by  cannonballs.  The royalist troops surrendered and the manor was captured for Parliament.  After its capture the building, like so many others during the war, was 'slighted' which means it was semi-demolished.  

You can still climb to the top of the tower from which there is a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.

 We took it in turns to go to the top as only about four people at a time can get up there safely.

In 1976 when I first went up this tower with a couple of friends I had a strange thing happen to me.  Given that my birthday is at the end of August and my friends and I visited the day after my birthday and that there were apples on the trees in the courtyard and several windfalls on the floor, when I looked down at two of my friends who were standing under a tree, for a split second I saw white blossom on the trees and their clothes were no longer white and denim blue but deep russet red and mustard yellow.  I've often wondered what would have caused this mirage, probably I was still in haze after the birthday party of the evening before but I've never been able to explain it and often feel rather silly telling the tale but there I've told it anyway.  On our recent visit I went up the tower and looked down at the trees, still bare and blossom-less after the harsh winter and late spring and saw only the rest of the party wandering around under the trees and the guides waiting for us last few stragglers to come down.

The guided tours, which happen only one day each month, last for just over two hours.  There are no facilities on the site and it is wise to take a bottle of water and to wear sturdy shoes. The two hours pass quickly because the guides are so informative and enthusiastic and have such a lot of history to impart and tales to tell.