This week we have mainly been enjoying the company of my sister Sallie and her husband Rod who are visiting from Utah by way of Croatia and Switzerland. It’s always lovely when they visit and it gets us out and about to sites old and new.
We’ve kept them pretty busy, I think. We’ve visited Broughton Grange Gardens, attended a production of All’s Well That Ends Well at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Sezincote Gardens in the Cotswolds rounded off by a stroll around Stowe Gardens just down the road from us on Saturday. The family (Nick, Lucy & Annabelle and Adam, Ava, Jessie and Julieta) are coming for lunch later today and, sadly, they leave on Monday. You can see why we’ve had to cram so much in in such a short time.
Broughton Grange Gardens we’ve visited before with the Garden Club and it is lovely. Wednesday was the last day they were open for the season so Sallie and Rod’s visit just squeaked under the wire. We were joined by our very good friend Vicky who had not been previously and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the site. It’s relatively compact and, as it was the end of the season, there wasn’t as much colour and vibrancy as we had enjoyed earlier in the year. We must try to get back in the Spring when the tulips are in bloom. (The day was a bit cloudy and it is the end of the season. The photos I took ranged from poor to very poor so I’ve “borrowed” a few from the Broughton Grange Gardens web site. I think you’ll be able to tell.)
Wednesday evening we set off to see All’s Well That Ends Well at the theatre in Stratford. We (almost) always enjoy our trips to the theatre in Stratford and this production was enjoyable if perhaps not great or outstanding. That may be more to do with the play itself rather than the production. The acting was fine, as it always is, but I came away feeling that this is not one of Shakespeare’s finest works. It reminded me somewhat of the occasional movie you see where it seems that the actors have done it just to pay off their tax bill or something. Still, it’s always fun to have an evening out and Stratford is always good value, I think.
On Friday we went to Sezincote House and Gardens in the Cotswolds (just near Moreton in the Marsh). The Garden Club had been earlier in the year but we were not able to go on that occasion – Daisy was relatively new to us at that time and we didn’t feel we could leave her alone all afternoon. So, Sallie and Rod’s visit enabled us to go for the first time ourselves.
I suspect most folks would describe Sezincote as “interesting.” Where else in the Cotswold do you find an India Moghul house and garden? From the Sezincote web site:
The house was the whim of Colonel John Cockerell, grandson of the diarist Samuel Pepys, who returned to England having amassed a fortune in the East India Company. John died in 1798, three years after his return, and the estate passed to his youngest brother Charles, who had also worked for the company. He commissioned his brother Samuel, an architect, to design and build an Indian house in the Mogul style of Rajasthan, complete with minarets, peacock-tail windows, jali-work railings and pavilions.
Once completed, Sezincote dazzled all who came. When the Prince Regent visited in 1807, an event commemorated in a Daniell painting owned by the family, he was so impressed that he went on to change his plans for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Designed by John Nash, it echoed the exotic Indian style he had admired at Sezincote.
Saturday morning we ventured down to Stowe Gardens near Buckingham. Penny and I have been many times in the past and at various times of the year and it’s always lovely. While we had rain at Sezincote, Saturday the weather was glorious and we enjoyed a great tromp around the estate. Daisy came along (the National Trust is generally very dog-friendly) and she had a blast. Lots of doggy pals to meet, greet and sniff (she’s finished her kennel cough isolation) and, although she had to be kept on the lead the whole time, there were still lots of squirrels to chase. Penny’s right arm is probably a few centimetres longer now after the dozens of times Daisy attempted to bolt off in pursuit of a squirrel only to be suddenly restrained as the extendable leash reached the full extent of its length.
So, a lot of lovely visits crammed in to a very short period of time. Sadly, Sallie and Rod are off back to Switzerland tomorrow and we’ll be back to our usual wearisome routine. Never mind, we have builders arriving on Tuesday to start the renovation of the Guest Wing bathroom. That will be fun.
Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister Susie on Wednesday. Many happy returns.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg