Wakehurst Place

For Mother’s Day this year I was treated to beautiful blue sky and sunshine (obviously organised by Toddler F), and a trip out to Wakehurst Place - part of Kew Botanical Gardens and also National Trust. It seems to be more Kew than NT these days as the shop doesn’t resemble a usual National Trust shop (no badges for my camp blanket) and, to be quite honest, the food from the restaurant was expensive and not all that nice. 

We used to come here fairly often as a family when I was a kid but rarely come here now so seeing the gardens again was a bit of a treat. Especially with the time of year matching up with their Magnolias being in bloom. That was always my favourite part. 

We actually had four mothers on the trip out, myself and my sister, our mum and Reece’s mum, plus the various men and boys in our lives. 

It’s nice just to get out somewhere where the kids can run and be free, dance under falling petals, watch giant fish in still ponds and slide down weather (and other bottoms) worn grooves in giant rocks. 

The house itself isn’t open, when it is open there isn’t anything in it really, it’s not furnished with items from the period or anything like that and I think it’s mostly used for functions or educational visits. 

It is a huge place, with wide and manicured lawns, ornamental ponds, rock gardens, woodland areas, a valley walk with amazing Rhododendron trees and a stream at the bottom leading to more ponds and lakes. It is quite a steep walk to follow if you do go into the valley toward the bottom lakes, we had a buggy with us which was an effort to push back up so that bit isn’t entirely accessible for things on wheels but we managed it so it was ok. 

Around the side of the house there’s also a garden full of grasses and those fiery red stemmed plants interspersed with Silver Birch trees for contrast, a walled garden, a vegetable plot and a mud kitchen which we hadn’t noticed before and the small boys absolutely loved. Clearly some people had come prepared for the mud kitchen and their children were dressed in waders and wellies. 

I can recommend the ice cream truck that was sitting outside next to the restaurant though. We had absolutely delicious salted caramel and triple chocolate ice cream cones which had big chunks of yummy goodness inside. 

There is also the seed bank which you can visit but the boys don’t find that particularly interesting so we didn’t go down that way. We were all a bit worn out after our trek into the abyss so trundled our way back to the car - passing the most enormous queue of people waiting to come in! Timed our visit well I think.

Toddler F fell asleep on the way home (which we had anticipated) so I even had some quiet time to myself, sat in the sunshine in the car - with coffee! - working on my pond life ATCs. I don’t think I could ask for a better Mother’s Day. 

November Happenings

 

I have a love/hate relationship with the grey days of Autumn. On the one hand they are really depressing and the light is terrible for working in or photographing anything and you have to layer up and my shoes usually leak so I have soggy socks and wet toes. But on the other hand, you can appreciate little wonders like a totally bejewelled spider palace in the plant pots, which just illuminates how clever these little eight legged creatures are, you can get cosy inside with candles and autumnal decorations and fluffy socks, and the thrill of Christmas and Christmas plans is starting to tingle and buzz just a little bit. 

But then again, viruses start to rear their ugly, snotty heads and all three of us have been struck with various lingering coughs, runny noses, blocked ears, hot/cold fevers and general sluggishness. I was doing really well keeping up with my blog posts and was going to have written an on-time Stitchscape Swap post, but then ended up spending two days under blankets on the sofa with Baby F as he was really poorly and just wanted lots of mummy cuddles. 

Luckily we didn't particularly have anywhere to be on those days, although managed a gentle walk in the afternoons as it was sunny and I thought it might help him to sleep at night if he'd had some light exercise. There's only so much children's TV I can put up with too. When I was nap-trapped I had a Stitchscape project on hand (of course) by the side of the sofa so that I didn't need to disturb him by getting up and down. I am almost finished with this one now, I just need a bit of inspiration for my rocks to make them more exciting. It turns out I may not have the correct colour of bead - unbelievable I know! - and may have to go bead shopping...

I also really love what Autumn does to the trees. I love the leaves changing colour, the bold colours of them against a blue sky or grey pavement. I love kicking them and throwing them in the air to make Baby F laugh. We've made pictures with them, I've pressed some pretty ones and displayed them on my wall too. 

I've been enjoying my coffee mornings with slow stitching. Even from the photo above it has changed quite a lot, and has even more changes from when it was started in the summer. For starters it was 12cm not the 15cm one it now is, and it has an extra fabric at the top which I've snuck in to fill the calico gap, and the stones are at the bottom for the same reason. I don't think you can tell and I'll go more into the story of this one when I've finished it and it has its own post. It will need a name though, any suggestions? I've started looking up fun place names in the UK so if you have any good place names near you, do pass them on.

 

My Christmas workshop with Juicy Lemons is now advertised and available to book via their website, here. We initially thought to just make cards in the workshop but will also offer for little tiny hoops so I have been working on another sample of a tiny hoop to add to the adverts. It's been surprisingly slow even though it's only about 8cm. I keep taking it around with me but can't seem to find the right gold thread which has stumped me. My supplier is out of stock of the colour I want and the one I have from them as a substitute is an oddly green gold rather than a nice warm gold gold. If you get what I mean. I do need to get a wiggle on with this though so it's on the priority list!

Our weekend just gone was manic. On the Saturday I had a Christmas workshop at Made and Making, the last one of the year with them (I'll put that in a separate post), and Sunday I was at the Victoria Pavilion Arts Festive Market all day. It was such a great day, there were lots of people I recognised as past customers, current customers, from groups I've given talks or workshops too, and from various different areas of my world so it was great to see everyone. Plus it was a lucrative endeavour which was good because I'd been so stressed about it in the run up with my preparation plans delayed by illness and other things creeping in so I didn't feel prepared for it at all. I must admit, sales from my online shops haven't been as high as they have been in previous years and it is a bit worrying, especially as this sales event was the only one I planned for this year. Times are hard for everyone so any sale I make is appreciated. 

Lots of kits that sold are intended as Christmas gifts and I get such a warm little jiggy feeling inside at the thought of all of these people unwrapping a kit that I have personally designed, photographed, made, drawn, written, cut, compiled, packaged..... I really hope you all like your gifts!

And finally, as always, the months are shorter than I think they are - we are already at the 20th November and I have just started thinking about the Poppy Fields Stitchscape Swap cards due in 10 days! Eeek! Better stop chatting and get a wiggle on. 

Hinton Ampner

Our final day, and travelling home day, found us at Hinton Ampner in Hampshire. We didn't stay here very long at all really, and definitely missed out quite a lot of it but it was so hot, one of the hottest days if I recall, and Baby F was distinctly grumpy after having such a stimulating few days. My two nephews who were with us are currently 4 and 2 (the youngest one only 6 months younger than Baby F) and, they spend a lot of time with each other anyway, but there is routine to when they see each other and their days spent together. Whilst the holidays are exciting and different they definitely need to get back into their routines afterward and just have some slightly less exciting days to recharge. 

It would be nice to revisit this place at another time, and perhaps when it isn't quite so meltingly hot. The extra kids play area put out for the summer was circus themed which was brilliant, but there was no shade around it at all so we couldn't stay and play for that long before we were frazzled to a crisp. 

It was a relief to get out of the car though and stretch our legs. We immediately headed to their cafe and the little ones could cool off with some ice cream. Partly by wearing it because they weren't eating it fast enough so it just dripped everywhere, and partly through the usual method of ingestion. Luckily we don't travel anywhere without several packets of wipes to tidy everything up. 

There is a nice walk around the gardens but thinking back, I don't recall anything specific about it really. I would love to know what this shiny plant is though, the flowers or seed pods or whatever they are look so juicy! And I love the ombre from green to magenta to deep shiny purple, how cool is that? I don't think I've ever seen these before. 

We never even attempted to go around the house. On the way back to the car, having admitted defeat with three grumpy small boys after several tantrums and sticky meltdowns, we walked back through the vegetable garden which was stunningly beautiful. These bits are often my favourite area of these grand houses, especially the cutting garden areas, but I like to see what else they are growing and any innovative ways to grow fruit and veg. My dream is to just have a garden, with a lawn space, a couple of borders, some raised edible beds and an apple tree. Currently, I have a fire escape balcony with some pots - and my thornless blackberry (bought for £1 from B&M last year) isn't overly happy in the pot so hasn't produced any fruit at all yet. Not even a single solitary flower. I'm wondering whether strawberries would survive the harsh conditions of my balcony as they would work brilliantly in my saddle pots, but it's very windy and the only plants that really seem to survive are hardy wildflowers or alpines. 

Anyway, I digress. I did have one dahlia plant come back this year, the rest all got killed off with frost sadly, but it wasn't anywhere near as spectacular as the ones in this garden. Those roses as well, so pretty. 

I hope that you have enjoyed my few little random posts about our family break away to Wiltshire. It's been one long run of touring National Trust properties and collecting their badges for our blankets. Honestly, if you have little kids, it's a worthy investment so that you can visit these places - effectively for free if you visit them enough like we do. We have the few around us that we visit regularly throughout the year, and you need only really visit eight times/places a year to make your money back. They make great holiday stop offs with nice food, toilets and something interesting to look at and walk around, and each of them is slightly different - although I'm not sure Mr DT is really that interested in the houses. 

I have just asked him what his favourite NT place was though and, after extensive digging through my photo archives after his vague description of "a three-sided big house which you could get a shuttle bus down the driveway too, somewhere Cornwall way"....we've found out that his favourite place so far is Lanhydrock. Don't all rush at once. 

Stourhead

Mr DT and I were invited to a good friend's wedding in August this year. It was a no children event which posed some problems for us and how we were going to work it with Baby F. It's not that we mind weddings being child-free, he would have run amok anyway, but it was in Bath so a several hours drive away and we were trying to go through all of the options of how long we stayed away for, did we just go up that morning and stay one night with Baby F having a sleepover at Nanna & Poppa's, or did we go the day before so we weren't rushed and stressed on arrival...in the end, we managed to swing it that Nanna and Poppa, and various other family members would all come with us! Combining a customary big family holiday with the wedding! Genius. So we went and stayed for almost a week in the Bath area and then Mr DT and I just popped off to the wedding one afternoon/evening and went back to our family holiday home afterwards. 

It worked out perfectly! I can highly recommend taking the childcare with you (hee hee). 

It also happened that it was The Mother's birthday on the day we travelled to Bath so she was allowed to choose where we stopped for lunch. All of us are National Trust members and we find it easiest with the smalls to set off fairly early in the morning, stop for breakfast at a service station and then head to somewhere National Trust owned for lunch and to hang out until our holiday home is ready - it's a routine we do almost every time we go and stay somewhere in the UK. The little ones need a good run around after sitting in the car for any length of time and big old country estates usually have enough space for that!

The Mother requested we go to Stourhead which was a huge sprawling estate with its own little village in the middle, massive lake with various follies, huge house and formal gardens... it just kept going! The lake part reminded me a little bit of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire which we had a family holiday at in 2015 (pre partners and babies!) which was also ornate lakes and water features with temples and follies set throughout the landscape. 

The Palladian villa that is now on the site, Stourhead House, was built around 1717, after Henry Hoare I purchased the land and knocked down Stourhead Manor to build this rather grand, presumably much larger building with nicely balanced features, stone columns and grand staircases. We did go through the house, although apart from the library, where Baby F sat down for a few minutes to read a book with me on the window seat, it was pretty much a whistle stop tour as big old grand houses don't actually impress 2 year olds and all he wanted to do was to be outside where he could roam free and pick up the thistles he couldn't touch on the chairs inside. 

Over the summer, many of the National Trust properties were having a 'summer of fun' I think it was called, and they had extra toys or things for children to play with in the gardens, usually on a theme. At Stourhead they had little ride on tractors which the boys absolutely loved, giant jenga and hoops to roll around. We stayed for a long time playing with the tractors and driving them around the haybale course. 

When we'd eventually got bored of that, you have to walk back the way you'd come to the house and walled kitchen gardens, and take another turn to what turns into a little hamlet with a road and more buildings arranged in what I think was a stable set up (a posh one) with a courtyard where you could sit and eat ice cream. 

Then you are able to get into this enormous landscape garden! It was built by Henry Hoare II and designed by landscape architect Henry Flitcroft in a classical style, inspired by Henry's Grand European Tours. The plants and trees have been changed over the years as new flora discoveries were made, or the next descendent coming in with their own favourite type of tree, but I think the general layout has mostly stayed the same. There are several buildings you can go in and explore, and you could find yourself coming across the Temple of Apollo, The Pantheon (I've been in the actual Pantheon and I'm not sure it compares but it's still pretty), the Temple of Flora, the Grotto, or walk over the Palladian Bridge. Every time you round a corner there's another beautiful view across the lake of another gorgeous building, it's really very clever. 

So many of these beautiful watery places are currently affected by the suffocating Blue/Green Algae which is why the water is such a strong colour in these photos. We came across it a couple of years ago at Painshill Park, which is equally very similar in style to this garden with the bridge and little buildings that look like they've been stolen from other places around the world. 

If only I had a garden where I could have all of this space to roam around in! Although the original garden I think had to employ over 50 gardeners to keep it in tip top condition so perhaps I should scale back my coveted acreage a little bit as that is a lot of people to employ for trees! The views I think are worth it though here. 

And, of course, walking so many miles around the houses and lakes and pathways, had the desired effect for us of completely wearing out Baby F and his favourite monkey, Bertie. The rest of the journey to our holiday house was very peaceful.