Billiards and bustards
Spent most of the weekend in Poole, staying with friends. Had a pleasant time on the beach at Canford Cliffs, swimming and attempting to dig a sandcastle visible from space, and visiting Kingston Lacey when it rained on Friday morning. They have a leather-lined room of Spanish pictures, with a Velasquez portrait and the first known copy of 'Las Meninas'. As often happens I was most taken with the library, especially as tea was laid in front of the fireplace. The children liked the giraffe-leather chairs best, I think (though were disappointed that they didn't have spots), and being able to go into the attics (wonderfully decorated as stripy tents) where the children of the house would have slept (and bachelor guests - gentlemen are requested not to use the marble stairs on their way back from shooting).
On the way out, found the billiard table had been used as a display table for various Egyptian antiquities - that can't be good for the baize - and another room had lots of stuffed birds, including bustards. 'A gross self-indulgence in bustards, Jack', I said, but no one knew what I was talking about. Happy to discover what they look like; hadn't realised they were so big, or that they have been reintroduced onto Salisbury Plain.
A good size for a stately home, because I hadn't run out of museum legs by the time we got to the top floor, and friendly National Trust staff, who weren't as precious about the place as some I've encountered. Then we ran around the gardens for a bit, the rain having stopped, admired the parterre and the Bishop of Llandaff dahlias in front of the terrace (just like mine!), the very Edwardian Japanese tea garden, and failed to answer the questions on L's garden trail handout, such as why a yew hedge is called a baffle hedge. Does it cut down on sound? confuse people?
Anxiously watered my own garden when I got home, but since it's been raining all day today that was more or less a waste of time. Any gardeners on my flist, do you have any clues why all my courgette plants are only producing male flowers? There are about six plants, randomly selected from the seedlings I grew in the spring. The flowers are very pretty, and I may have to start eating them, but I was expecting yellow courgettes, dammit!
Catching up on the non-news I see that MPs & Lords have been asked about their summer reading; no points to the one who said 'Issue-based books: key issues that will be important in the next 6 months to me and my constituency', though amused by the one taking biographies of Gordon Brown and that several MPs name Harry Potter but no peers; probably they all hurried through it in July so as not to be spoiled by the conversations in the tea room.
On the way out, found the billiard table had been used as a display table for various Egyptian antiquities - that can't be good for the baize - and another room had lots of stuffed birds, including bustards. 'A gross self-indulgence in bustards, Jack', I said, but no one knew what I was talking about. Happy to discover what they look like; hadn't realised they were so big, or that they have been reintroduced onto Salisbury Plain.
A good size for a stately home, because I hadn't run out of museum legs by the time we got to the top floor, and friendly National Trust staff, who weren't as precious about the place as some I've encountered. Then we ran around the gardens for a bit, the rain having stopped, admired the parterre and the Bishop of Llandaff dahlias in front of the terrace (just like mine!), the very Edwardian Japanese tea garden, and failed to answer the questions on L's garden trail handout, such as why a yew hedge is called a baffle hedge. Does it cut down on sound? confuse people?
Anxiously watered my own garden when I got home, but since it's been raining all day today that was more or less a waste of time. Any gardeners on my flist, do you have any clues why all my courgette plants are only producing male flowers? There are about six plants, randomly selected from the seedlings I grew in the spring. The flowers are very pretty, and I may have to start eating them, but I was expecting yellow courgettes, dammit!
Catching up on the non-news I see that MPs & Lords have been asked about their summer reading; no points to the one who said 'Issue-based books: key issues that will be important in the next 6 months to me and my constituency', though amused by the one taking biographies of Gordon Brown and that several MPs name Harry Potter but no peers; probably they all hurried through it in July so as not to be spoiled by the conversations in the tea room.