Visit to Burghley House (part two) - the Sculpture Garden

 So here is part two of our visit to Burghley House; the Sculpture Garden.  It was a bit of a relief to escape from the shrieking but happy and wet children in the Garden of Surprises and head into the slightly wilder but very lovely park area.  There were areas of wildflowers which were kept in check by metal scalloped edging, which was very effective and the flowers added a much needed splash of colour.

 We all liked these.

 I was rather remiss as I didn't make any notes about any of the sculptures - I just took photos of ones I liked, such as the lifelike stag above.

 The fighting horses were made of willow.

 I wasn't sure whether I liked this - in fact I found it just a little disturbing, although there was a flash of recognition as Lincoln has a stainless steel face by the same artist (Rick Kirby) at the Drill Hall, which is an entertainment venue.

(Photo of the Lincoln Drill Hall face from http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013_07_01_archive.html )

Here it is.  Just one thing - why are they both so grumpy?

I really liked the park area the sculptures were set in and the way different vistas presented themselves as we walked around.  Some of the sculptures are permanent, whereas others were part of a temporary exhibition. 

We spied another stag through the trees and across the lake.

 The canada geese were real.

 Swans were a-swimming and I liked the reflections of the crocosmia.

 This labyrinth had some interesting patterns...

..but then nature can do a good job with patterns on her own.

 The oversized flowers couldn't be ignored.

 I thought the sinuous lines of the reflective metal worked well with the backdrop of green.

 These sculptures were sea-related, with fish tails and shell like forms.

The restful green of all the foliage in this little valley was beautiful.

This sculpture made a gentle melodic noise when the discs were gently tapped, which was an added sensory delight.
We agreed that we had really enjoyed the Sculpture Garden and this was definitely worth visiting.
(I noticed that Phil Spencer is presenting a new series on Stately Homes on More 4 and guess what the first one is?  Yes, Burghley - what a coincidence!  It is on tonight on More 4 at 9.00 pm.  I think I'll be watching!)

Visit to Burghley House (part 1)

 I visited Burghley House (built for William Cecil in the 1600s) last week; I last visited over twenty years ago.  I used to live in Stamford, opposite one of the entrances to Burghley Park, so it was all familiar.  I was interested to see what had changed.  There had been some building to create a new entrance and exhibition space, but, as you would expect, the house remained as I remembered. The last time I visited, it was by guided tour only and while you do get lots of nuggets of information from the guides, you are limited as to how long you can stay in each room.  This time, no guided tours but audio ones if required and a guide was in each room - some of them added to our discussions (particularly concerning women artists and sitting for a portrait).  We could spend as long as we wanted to in each room, which was a bonus.  Photos without flash were allowed in the house, but in the event, I didn't take many.

 I liked the orchid and fern display in the massive copper pot in the kitchen.

 The array of servants' bells also intrigued me - there was another wall like this to my left.

The Heaven Room is described as the painter Verrio's masterpiece and is indeed very impressive. Burghley featured as Rosings Park, home of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Dame Judi Dench) in the 2005 film of  Pride and Prejudice.  There is an interesting blog post here. 

 I was more taken with the fabulous floral carpet!

Outside the orangery (well, we were obliged to stop and have tea), there is a small rose garden with a lovely Magnolia Grandiflora.  However, Burghley does lack the typical beautiful gardens which I, for one, expect to see at an English Country House and I remember being disappointed by that when I was much younger on a previous visit.
There is a relatively recent addition to the gardens with 'The Garden of Surprises' which comprises different gardens around the theme of water and plenty of opportunities to get wet!

I liked the calm of the tree water fountain.

The rill edged with lavender was also lovely (but paddling was not allowed, sadly).

There was some pretty planting in some of the gardens.

This one squirted mist at you as you went in.  There were lots of wet children running about and laughing, having a marvellous time, but it was all a bit manic and we were quite relieved to head out to the Sculpture Garden (more about that in my next post and I am pleased to say that the Sculpture Garden did make up for the lack of formal garden.)

A quiet view into the Garden of Surprises.

We wandered across the park (noticing the ha-ha on the way, designed as an elegant solution to stop meandering livestock from getting onto one's front lawn, without destroying the view of one's rolling acres).

We went to Lion Bridge which gave a pleasing view of the house across Capability Brown's landscape (although I'm sure those trees didn't used to be there, obscuring part of the house).

The view the other way - a quintessential English landscape, designed and implemented by Mr Brown and his huge team of workers.

One of the four lions continuing to guard the bridge.  Burghley is an amazing house with some stunning artworks and furniture and a perfect way to spend a day.

Christmas in July swap 2016

I signed up to take part in Kim's (wisdom with needle and thread) Christmas in July swap.  I took part last year (here is the post)  and really enjoyed it, so decided to take part again.  The idea was that you would be given a recipient's address and someone else would be given yours.  Three hand made Christmas items from a suggested list would be made and other items could be included if the sender wanted to.  The gifts would be posted in time to arrive for the great unwrapping on 25th July.  My sender was the lovely Debbie from  debbie's corner. The parcel arrived and I had to ignore it until 25th July (which required some willpower!)    

I undid the parcel to discover more exciting parcels waiting for me and I opened them up to find...  

...a very generous and lovely selection of beautiful things!  Debbie is obviously very creative as she had sent me some fingerless gloves, an appliqued placemat, a beautifully cross stitched decoration and another beautifully stitched box decoration, as well as pencils, a notepad, a cracker, a selection of tea and two recipes.  Wow!

 You can see what I mean about the beautiful stitching on the decoration.

 Inside the box are some flower tags - another surprise!

 I do suffer from cold hands, so gloves are always welcome.  A HUGE thank you to Debbie who was so generous and sent me the most beautiful things.  I am very lucky.

The recipient for my parcel was Gracie at needlespins and dragonflies.  I had sneaky peek at her blog to see what she liked and was able to include some things I hoped she would enjoy.  As you can see, the Christmas things were bunting, polymer clay heart decorations and a felt star.

The other things were a UK cross stitch magazine, a pug dog keyring and a pair of pearl and sterling silver earrings.
Thanks to Kim for running the swap and doing all the organising and again to Debbie for my lovely gifts.  Here's to Christmas in July 2017.

Make do and mend - Bag number two

I spent a day last weekend sewing hexagons together and then machined them onto the second bag which had a logo on one side which I didn't want.  I chose shades of blue for the logo side and the hexagons did a great job of covering the logo.

 It was very relaxing sewing the hexagons together.

 As I felt that the other side of the bag also needed a bit of brightening up, I sewed more hexagons together.  Five of these were given to me in a swap by Dotty's Daughter, so I hope she'll be pleased to see I am using them!

Here is a close up of the greens and blues.
I am really pleased with the way both bags have turned out and have enjoyed these relatively quick projects.

A bit of upcycling - or should that be 'Make do and Mend'?

I was given two very nice thick cotton bags which was great.  However, there was a company logo printed on them which I didn't really want to see.  I made a calico patch and sewed it over the offending logo and then printed some patterns using wooden stamps and fabric paint.  I was really pleased with the end result. You can see the patched side above.

 The other side of the bag, without any logo.

The stamps I used were Blockwallah  stamp blocks which are hand carved in India out of a type of rosewood.  They are very decorative and beautiful in their own right and if I had an empty shelf, I would display them.  (I bought mine from Create and Craft  and I have bought them all with my hard earned money - no sponsoring or freebies here!)  I thought I would post about them because I really like them.
The second bag will be decorated with patchwork hexagons (once I have sewed them together...)

Buoyed by this success, I attempted another project.  I was going to throw the ironing board cover out because it had worn where the iron usually stands.  Then I had a brainwave and located an old cover which I had kept as a spare.  I cut a piece from that and patched it over the current cover and hey presto, a cover that we can still use.

OK, it looks a bit odd, but at least the colours work!  Now, what else needs sorting?

Poppies - Wave

 Part of the poppies sculpture - Wave -  from the Tower of London "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" , has come to Lincoln Castle as part of its tour.  As we hadn't been able to visit the sculpture in London during 2014, it was lovely to have the opportunity to see a part of it.  I took lots of photos, as you can imagine, and I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

It was a sobering thought that each poppy represented a life lost and that this was just one small element of the main sculpture.

I have always loved poppies and this beautiful painting was given to me for my 21st birthday by my parents.  It takes on an added significance now.
Lest we forget.