Saturday 31 May 2014

A Day Away

Hello Lovelies,
I  went on a rather lovely day away yesterday, to a bloggers meet up at a National Trust property, no less.

At 11am I left home with a very hastily constructed yarny  floral posy attached to my boring but oh-so-practical ruck sack.........

 THIS wonderful Pattern was a speedy joy to work up ....thank you HEATHER.

I was feeling a little nervous about a get together with peeps I din't know, but I really didn't need to worry.
Within minutes we were chatting like old friends thanks largely to Jane's wonderfully friendly welcome and excellent suggestion that we brought a picnic and wore something  floral to make it easy for us to recognise each other.

In the end a few lovely people who had hoped to attend couldn't make it, which was a shame, but our small group fitted nicely around a picnic table in the walled garden........


 There was JANE, GILLY, MEL, me and ROSIE.

The walled gardens were looking rather lovely and I couldn't resist a wander before we moved on to explore further. You can see the south facing wall in this photo was once covered in a huge green house......what a shame it didn't survive...........


As well as vegetable and flowers this spot was also growing pigs ....they looked very happy.........


These scarecrows for children to dress up made us smile............


We wandered out of the gardens and past some small shops ....this one, selling Lavender and hand sewn goodies, smelt wonderful.......


Soon we passed the farm , with it's unusual Long horn cattle ( and a cute sleeping calf).........


and very smart farmhouse............


Then it was a pleasant stroll to SHUGBOROUGH HOUSE..... here you can just see it in the distance ..........


The Rhododendrons were stunning...........


and the stable block looked pretty...........


Here's the house it's self.........very imposing, if a little grey on a grey day...........


Then it was time for another group photo...........



Inside the hall we marvelled at the grand interiors........


Especially this huge Drawing room..........


on the first floor were more grand rooms.............but then it was onto an interesting part that I didn't know we were going to find.


Shugborough  Hall was home to the late Lord Lichfield ...........


There was an exhibition of his work and it was interesting to see his Photographic equipment.......


Along with some stunning examples of his Photographs.

I loved this one of the Walton sextuplets taken when they were toddlers.....the trickiest of subjects I expect!...........



Patrick Lichfield was most famous for photographing his royal relatives and beautiful women, these are just a couple of examples.....Jane Seymour in  1973...........


And Brit Ekland in the grounds of Shugborough Hall.............


 Sorry about the horrible reflections on these photos.....I thought they were still worth sharing.

As a teenager of the  Eighties it was his role as the official photographer at this royal wedding that I most remember him for..........

The 1981 wedding party. From back, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Diana and Charles, Edward van Cutsem; front: Lord Nicholas Windsor, Clementine Hambro, Catherine Cameron, India Hicks, Sarah-Jane Gaselee and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones

There are some more examples of his Royal photographs HERE

Then it was onto his living quarters. This area amused us.....a sort of Bar alcove..........


Love the  gramophone with it's old "78" Record.............


This is a guest bathroom.....isn't it lovely............


And this is the Earls kitchen..........very ordinary but still fascinating...........


and there were some parts that made it stand out from your average kitchen ........like the Dumbwaiter and the servants bells over the door...........


These formerly private rooms were fascinating to me and such a contrast to the public rooms downstairs.........


Outside again we wandered around the gardens, chatting all the time.............


It's a shame the sun didn't show it's lovely face to cheer up these photos, but at least there was no rain.



I loved this bridge and summer house in the Japanese garden.............


And Rosie led us to this gorgeous old pack horse bridge. The Essex Bridge which is the widest remaining bridge of it's type in the country.............


We were never short of things to talk about and the grounds were a wonderful place to chat happily as we wandered along.


Thank you to JANE for organising this wonderful meet up.



And thank you too to Hubby, who took five boys to the Cinema and a suitable eatery ( The latest X-Men movie, followed by  Frankie and Benny's)  as a birthday treat for our eldest two while I disappeared ( it wasn't their actual birthday yesterday ).
Finally, thank you also to Mum , who was happy to provide the transport, then explore at her own pace while I made some lovely new friends.
My day away was much appreciated.
Jacquie x

38 comments:

  1. Great day and fabulous photos. It was so nice putting a face to the blog. x

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  2. Looks like you had a great day
    Julie xxxxxxxxx

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  3. It looks and sounds like you had a wonderful day
    Jackie x

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  4. What a great day you had. It is always good to put names to faces.

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  5. I remember visiting here many years ago.....it was a wonderful day out....we even caught a glimpse of his Lordship saying goodbye to some of his friends outside his private apartments.......which made it even more memorable......gorgeous shots as always thank you !! X

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  6. That must have been a great day, thanks for sharing your photos with us, you went to a charming place indeed...

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  7. It was lovely to meet you. You've taken some super photos! :)

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  8. How lovely! It looks a great place to visit and nice to meet up with y0ur fellow bloggers. Glad you had a good day.x

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  9. Fabulous post and loving reading about your grand day out.

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  10. What a lovely day out. Your photos are wonderful and I've discovered some more lovely blogs to visit. Thanks Jacquie. Have a sunny weekend.
    Ali xx

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  11. That's a lovely day out! How fascinating. I like Lord Lichfield's photography.
    thank you for sharing. :)

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  12. It looks like you all had a lovely day out. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Fab photos. Its somewhere I've never got around to visiting. Also lovely you could combine it with a meet up with fellow crafters. Thanks for sharing, x

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  14. Your day looks fab - and your photographs are beautiful xxx

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  15. what a great day, very interesting. Great photos, a lovely one of Princess Margaret. Glad you enjoyed the bloggy meetup! Heather x

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  16. I'm glad you a good day. It looks well worth a visit, I've seen it quite a few times on Rosie's blog, and even though I've travelled almost right past it loads of times (back when Dave was living in Wovlerhampton) and it's not that far from here, I've never been there!

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  17. looks like a lovely day was had,,, ;0) x

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  18. Thank you for sharing your wonderful day with us...such fun :-)
    Tracey xxx

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  19. It was so lovely to meet you (and your lovely mum too), and even though the sun stayed behind the clouds, your pics are fab! Thanks for being such excellent company, see you at Yarndale hopefully :-)
    Happy weekend,
    Xx

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  20. From what you've shown us of this day, I know I would have loved to have been there with you.

    Yes, the sky was overcast with clouds, but that certainly would not have interfered with the fun of meeting new friends, that somehow you already knew from each others' blogs.

    Maybe next time....

    xo

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  21. It looks like you had a great time!

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  22. You took some really lovely shots Jacquie - thanks so much for sharing your lovely day with us!
    Joy x

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  23. Looks like a great get together, in a wonderful location.
    Clare x

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  24. What a beautiful place, and so interesting to see the photography equipment and amazing photos. It's always nice to see behind the scenes in these grand houses isn't it. A glimpse of another way of life.

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  25. How lovely to meet up with all these friendly ladies and what a wonderful place to do it.
    Hugs

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  26. Laughed out loud at the gorgeous, but funny, photo of the Waltons. I love following them on the tv prog updates.
    What a lovely day out.

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  27. It was great to meet you Jacquie - I felt like we could have all carried on chatting for hours! We'll definitely do it again x Jane

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  28. What a wonderful place to have a picnic and a good natter! Thanks also for showing us Lord Lichfield's apartment. A brilliant photographer, and I loved the Royal Wedding photos way back when, they were so natural. xx

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  29. How lovely to meet fellow bloggers! And a lovely loccation too, we are National Trust members and Shugborough is on our list this year.
    I have just finished following your bunting tutorial, which was very clear BTW. My effort is on my blog and i linked back to you. Thank you for sharing such lovely clear instructions :-)

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  30. That was a wonderful idea of Jane's for all of your to meet up with your floral attachments too! We have also got four tours for the price of one! It's lovely to see how you have all reported differently too. The house and garden looks lovely, the kitchen looks so ordinary too! My favourite pictures have to be the joint ones of you all have such a good time and also Jane's last one of you all taking pictures! Sarah x

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  31. OH what a wonderful time it looks like, thanks for sharing, a lot of inspiration for the sketchbook there. How nice to meet up and make new friends of like minded ladies.

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  32. Wow! I recently got to meet a fellow blogger, and it was so much fun. I am so amazed at the wonderful houses you get to see in England. I'm so glad you had such a wonderful day with your blogger friends!

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  33. Looks like you had a great day x

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  34. So glad that you had such a good time, lovely to see the photos of the interior, especially Lord Lichfield's apartment. xx

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  35. Now that is my idea of a perfect day out!!!! What fun! And I've never seen inside private apartments before -- but every site seems to have them! Thanks for all the photos!

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  36. How Fabulous and wonderful to meet some friends too xo

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