Visiting

Whilst waiting for lunch to finish cooking, I am sitting at the table typing to you, dear ones.

We have Eldest and his lovely girl with us for a few days, Youngest and his lovely girl will be landing later as we are getting together to celebrate Youngest's birthday. It is wonderful when they descend - Moss and Pan (the cat) are absolutely delighted and don't know which person to shed their fur on the most!)

Yesterday we visited East Riddlesden Hall again -  where the four of us wandered through the gardens which seemed to have survived the heat and lack of rain surprisingly well despite some of the plants looking a little sunburnt.

There was a wedding reception happening in one of the huge stone barns where brightly dressed and happy folk spilled out of the doors in loud and cheerful voice. The bride and her groom were taken around the gardens for their photos - hope they have a long and loving life together.

The bees and butterflies were making the most of the late summer flowers and the borders were abuzz with activity. Particularly the herb garden where even the non flowering herbs were being used. I remember reading somewhere that bees will chew on herbs to get access to their essential oils and the general agreement was that they could be doing it for medicinal reasons - how wonderful is that?

The house is always open however we usually just enjoy the garden and café. On Saturday we decided that we'd go for an explore. The house is a bit of an enigma as there seems to be a lack of relevant historical records. As with all these places, the experts can only 'suppose' or 'surmise'  to extrapolate stories. The volunteer guides were generous in their information and explanations but most came with the proviso - 'this is what the experts think but it could be open to further investigation'.

The house, when obtained by the NT, was bare bar one item - a grain 'ark' so all the furniture and furnishings, paintings and ornaments have been gradually accumulated over the last 90 years. Some original pieces from the family home as well as others from now long gone homes from the same era.

Every corner had something interesting and I suspect we could have stayed longer - chatting with the guides was very satisfying and we learnt so much.

One of the larger and more ornate rooms - a possible master bedroom had it's curtains drawn to prevent the precious textiles from fading. The 'Black work' embroidery bedspread was fascinating - the work(wo)manship was perfect and each leaf seemed to have a different pattern. I was as fascinated by it as I was the last time I came (some years ago in my capacity as a NT volunteer).

After we'd explored every room and many a photo was taken, we returned outside and sat in the grounds with hot drinks watching the ducks on the pond and the wedding party. We'd been very lucky with the weather - showers had been promised and it was only as we were planning on leaving that the clouds began to look a little menacing.

The rain in the evening was glorious - steady and deep, the garden today (Sunday) is looking quite satisfied!

Hope you all had a good weekend - here is to an excellent week! xxxxxxx