A TOUR OF GUNBY HALL AND A CREAM TEA

Today has been beautiful - much better than a summer day.  Your father and I were supposed to be taking the Aged Aunt to town to do some dull, but necessary jobs,  unluckily for her, she has a bad cold and a hacking cough.


This left us with an unexpected day of freedom, which (especially given the weather) we were determined not to squander - the jobs are always there, waiting.


We decided to visit nearby Gunby Hall, a National Trust property.  They have a special guided tour of the house on Thursdays, 1pm - entry for this covers the tour of the house, the stables, the church, the gardens and a lovely cream tea.  

Still stuck with wearing sandals, but at least the weather means that I don't look too odd, no more than normal anyway.  The tour of the house was fascinating, our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining and the group was small, being only eight people.  We saw upstairs, downstairs, and in between. 

Afterwards we had a wander around the delightful grounds.  They are much more compact than I was expecting, but much more beautiful.  A riot of colour, shapes, textures, scents.  

The church was nice, very attractively dressed for Harvest Festival,  but for me it lacked something, it didn't feel like a spiritual or especially peaceful place.  Your father says that maybe it was because it was a private church for the house rather than a community church, but I think it was something more than that.   I must confess my favourite piece of it was outside around the back where I saw a lovely door!

The stables are wonderful - huge loose boxes where I imagine some very fancy and expensive horses were stabled.  The floors are all worn from all the feet and hooves and the wood has been well nibbled by countless horses.  The stables had more 'soul' than the church. 


After another meander around the lovely gardens where we came across portions of walled gardens, lovely vistas of the parklands, fruit gardens, wonderful borders ...  we headed off to the courtyard and claimed our cream tea.

To my added delight it was served by a friend from our village.  Scones, jam and cream washed down with a cup of tea.  Perfect.


The dogs were pleased to see us return home again, someone had been out shooting nearby (they often do on Thursdays, as you will recall, Jonny) and this really upsets Toby and then Pip picks up on it and adopts the anxiety too...  luckily Ian was about and he babysat them through it.


My foot did well, but it is letting me know that I did a bit too much walking today - still, my next job today is to make a vat of apple chutney so most of that can be prepared while sitting at the kitchen table.  At least I will be able to claim to have done something useful today!


Look after yourself and do let us know what you think to the clothes you had made - the cut, the fit, etc.


Lots of love,


Mum
xxx