Cambridge Getaway :: Anglesey Abbey

We were back on the National Trust property hunt for the third day of our Cambridge birthday getaway. Wandering around Cambridge itself hadn't thrown up anything that would particularly suit a party of 11 with 3 boys under 4 years old so we resorted to our tried and tested theory that a National Trust garden works for everyone. 

Anglesey Abbey did not disappoint - what a beautiful garden it has!! It is simply stunning, and enormous. You almost felt like you were walking into different gardens each time as different walkways had different sort of themes to them. Our first area was quite windy (as in winding around not windy like the weather) and the path kept disappearing in different directions around corners, the Daffodils were wonderful and there were amazing Silver Birch trees.

But this copse of trees - I have never seen anything like it! And the photos do not do it justice. The bright purples, vivid greens and light blues were incredible against the pale silvery bark of the Birches. What amazing underplanting this was! Amazingly I managed to get photos without lots of people standing in the background (we were there fairly early) but it was possibly one of the most pictured parts I saw, everyone was gasping as they came around the last bend and saw this in front of them. I really must try and get this down into a Stitchscape somehow. 

Such delicate little Tulips - I think they were some kind of dwarf variety if I remember correctly so they were really quite short and diddy. 

Round another bend and this was equally beautiful and perhaps even more delicate! The colour of these flowers (I can't remember what they're called, some kind of Anemone maybe?) is sort of a light lilac/blue but they shone like stars on the floor of the little wood. 

The Lode Mill I believe is a functioning corn mill, having been restored to good condition by Lord Fairhaven in 1936, then restored into full working order by the Cambridgeshire Wind & Watermill Society (who knew there was such a thing?) in 1978/82. It wasn't working when we visited as I think it's under restoration again but it's always impressive to see the inner workings of mills. More interestingly for me, it seemed that the areas of the garden around it had been planted with white flowering plants so, combined with the white wood exterior of the mill, it was a wonderfully soothing and calming area to walk through just with a white and green colour scheme. I don't know if that was intentional but I was rather struck with it and the way the mill then blended so peacefully into the garden landscape. 

The Abbey itself is a very fine building, and again there are rooms open to walk through - although the upstairs wasn't available when we went as they were working on the bedrooms. It's quite a dark and almost moody or mysterious one with lots of dark heavy furniture and stone walls. I'm not sure Jacobean is my favourite style, but I thought this floral trellis decoration was really interesting! Remarkably fine details to the flowers and a lot of work in the twisty metal bits (technical term). 

In contrast to the much wilder, more free flowing gardens further away from the house, the ornate gardens close to the building were very rigid, with tight little square boxes for the plants to grow in and rigid topiary hedges. 

We'd just missed a would-have-been-spectacular Hyacinth garden as the flowers had all gone over but I can see that it would have been amazing if we'd only been a week earlier (what it looked like when we went is shown in the last image). I often wonder how close to what the gardens looked like in the building's hey day they are now, would those who lived there recognise the garden as theirs? What would they think if they saw it now? Would they approve? Possibly not with all of us wandering around out there!

Heading back toward the cafe and the exit, we decided to picnic on one of the wide areas of lawn (not the posh clipped lawns, this was a wild one) and the boys shuffled or ran around with other kids all doing the same thing. The sun was out and it was just really nice to see them playing together outside. We would definitely recommend Anglesey Abbey to anyone passing through Cambridgeshire.

Cambridge Getaway :: Wimpole Estate

The 8th April is Baby F's birthday and we celebrated by having a party with a bouncy castle with family and friends the day before, and then went to Brighton on his actual birthday to go to the Build-A-Bear factory and the pier. He absolutely loved the rides on the pier and Mr DT took him round the big soft play at the end too - he had such a brilliant day! 

The 13th April is my Dad's birthday and this year was a rather big number so my family had all clubbed together and we'd arrange a long weekend away to Cambridge. The car travel there was really pretty as all of the Rape flowers were in full bloom so the fields along the motorway were bright yellow and glowing. 

We are all National Trust members and it is always worth us trying to find a National Trust property or location when we travel somewhere - we can meet there en masse having all left different houses, stop to stretch our legs and set the children free (like dogs they need a run around!), the food is usually really nice, there's free parking.... I would recommend being a member if you aren't and have little ones. We've found it fairly invaluable and you only need to visit a few places a year to make the yearly membership worthwhile and cost effective. They aren't sponsoring this blog post by the way - I just think we are lucky to have these places to visit.

On the way to our holiday home we stopped at the Wimpole Estate, which is in Cambridgeshire so we were pretty much on the doorstep. It was a lovely place to visit, the little ones especially loved the rare breeds farm with all of the pigs, sheep, horses, tractors... Look at the little piglets! So sweet. 

It's a huge estate with all sorts of sections to it. You can go around the house, although because we had smalls with us it was a bit of a whistlestop tour. Small kids just don't appreciate the fine vintage wallpaper, lush carpets and expensive glass or porcelain ornaments. They don't ogle pretty ceilings and it can be quite stressful trying to explain to them that they aren't allowed to sit and bounce on the overstuffed settees (with the strategically placed thistle head). However, there was a lady in the ballroom type room playing the piano which they loved, a very musical bunch we have in our family. Funnily enough, Baby F watches a lot of a programme called Tractor Tom (one of the less strange children's programmes) and in one of his favourite episodes the animals and vehicles put on a musical performance - one of the songs of choice being The Blue Danube. Without us saying anything this was the song the pianist chose to play for our kids, and Baby F sang along!! It was an amazing moment, dancing around on the polished wooden floor humming The Blue Danube in a huge posh house whilst it's played live on the grand piano. 

There's quite a lot of 'below stairs' open as well which was fascinating - especially the special pantry with all of the boxes of special ingredients and giant tea storage trolleys on wheels, with the tram tracks built into the stone floor. 

Personally, I love a walled garden and this place had a spectacular one! If we lived closer we would definitely be coming here often to see how it changes through the seasons. In April the Tulips were out and there were so many different varieties! It's amazing how much colour is in a garden throughout the year, not just in summer. 

Look at this amazing greenhouse!! Oh to have a space like this - not just for growing plants in, but also for sitting and stitching in! The light would be amazing, it would usually be fairly warm, you could get comfy in there on a soft chair, surrounded by your plants, with a cup of something delicious, looking out at the colours in these amazing borders outside. One half outside of the greenhouse (split by a door in the middle) was a 'hot' bed with red and orange and burgundy, and the other half was more of a 'cool' bed I suppose with purples, pinks and whites. There would be no end of inspiration to live in and around a garden like this. Although I would also need at least one gardener to come with it....I'm a keen amateur gardener but I'm not that keen. 

The weather wasn't particularly amazing on our trip around Wimpole and we were sort of rained off in the end I think so headed off to our holiday home and to have an early night in. 

We didn't have any particular plans for our weekend, it was very much a go with the flow so we thought we'd spend a little bit of time wandering around Cambridge itself on the following day. 

It is a very pretty place and if you are a lover of architecture it would be a lovely place to go for a mooch. I did take some photographs of the chimneys myself. What struck me was the number of posters put up everywhere - any time there was a spare bit of railing there'd be loads of brightly coloured posters tied on which made for an interesting patchwork effect.  

After looking around the market, stopping for coffee, checking out the mathematical bridge and deciding that punting was slightly out of our budget, we plumped instead for searching for Giraffes around the town, ticking them off on the Giraffe map. We also popped in to the Zoological museum which was basically lots of taxidermy or trays of shells, or animal skeletons that Baby F was not at all impressed with so we headed back to the holiday home on the bus so that he could have a nap (fractious didn't really cover it!).

The Giraffe trail is there until the 2nd June so there's still time to go and work your way around the map if you are more local than us. I think we did pretty well but didn't go to visit any outliers. There were lots in the main shopping centre though! It's in support of the charity, Break, and you can see more about it here. 

March Northern Lights ATCs

I love the cards in this swap! Funnily enough, I am really behind in writing a blog post about it (a whole month + behind as it happens, but we won't go on about that) and we have just experienced a rare phenomenon in the UK where the Aurora Borealis was visible in back gardens throughout the country! I am really gutted that I missed it myself, I had fully intended on staying up to see them but it was a long day and I complete forgot and slept through the whole thing! It's maddening. The photos that suddenly flooded social media the following day were pretty spectacular though. I did stay up for the following couple of nights to see if they'd come back as there was an amber warning for a light show but I don't think they did. 

I suppose I don't need to see the real thing though when I can look at these beautiful interpretations of the lights! There's a really lovely selection of techniques used here, patchworked fabric layers with glittering sequin stars, felting and machine stitching, ribbon work, satin stitch textures, fabric painting and silhouettes with, what looks like, angelina fibres providing the wispy colours, and of course lots of lovely hand embroidery stitches. 

There are so many lovely colours in these cards, and quite a lot of transitions between dark and light so my camera was having a hard time trying to process it all and take a good picture. 

The use of sheer ribbons is a really lovely idea, and definitely gives the kind of rippled effect that you would expect with the lights. I wonder how many people who have made a card for this swap had actually seen the Northern Lights in person or whether the ideas have all come from photographic sources? Of course now would have been a brilliant time to have this swap theme, and they would probably be a lot pinker, rather than the colourful mix we have, as the ones just seen over Sussex seemed to be mostly pink and purple with some green. 

There is such a beautiful collection of colours here though, and a lovely attention to detail as well. The full photos for these is already up on my website if you wanted to have a look through to see them more in full. 

I am really enjoying this year's swaps so far and I hope you are enjoying following along too! Don't forget that if you are inspired to have a go you can join in at any time, for as many swaps as you like. Just pop me an email at sales@dottytextiles.com and I'll forward you more details.