Bateman's

Yesterday I went to Bateman's, the home of Rudyard Kipling. Did you know he was named after a lake? Rudyard Lake near Leek in Staffordshire.
It was a really lovely day, the sun was playing hide and seek, popping in and out from behind the clouds and it was so peaceful- it wasn't busy so you mainly just heard the birds and the trees rustling.

The gardens aren't quite awake yet, but there are little patches of growth and faint colours of spring flowers stirring.

There was one little section that quite took my breath away. All around the base of one tree, hundred of crocuses had been planted, predominantly purple and white, although some yellow ones had snuck in. They looked absolutely gorgeous when the sun shone on them, I went quite mad taking photos of them all.

The below photo even has a little bee bottom sticking out of one of the flowers, can you see him?

The house has its own tiny little mill at the bottom of the garden which was quite sweet. It wasn't working though which was a pity.

The house was really very pretty. Sort of higgledy-piggedly but somewhere you could imagine yourself living (if the inside wasn't a museum!). I had a very long chat with a guide in one of the bedrooms about a hand embroidered bed set- including the duvet, pillows, bed curtains and the decoration on the ceiling of the bed frame. I'm not really sure what else to call it, but it was one of those old fashioned four poster beds with a roof on it. I even got to handle a sample piece which was stitched by a team of local ladies who had had to remake the set from photos of the original.
The original had been completely disintegrating apparently and has had to be put into storage. The stitching on the 'new' set was incredibly neat, both sides were as impressive as each other- if only the backs of my embroideries were as tidy.

I imagine this ornate, structured pond area will be quite breathtaking in the summer. It looked to be completely full of thorny rose bushes.

And all around the paved area of the garden, old quern stones had been used, All different sizes and slightly rough shapes.

It is becoming something of a habit on these Wednesday National Trust jaunts, to check out and support the tearooms. As the weather was so fine we took our luxury hot chocolates (with hundreds of marshmallows hidden under a mountain of cream!), flapjack and lemon cake outside to enjoy the views and the warm sunshine. It was absolutely splendid!

I can't wait for our next Wednesday out!