A very dapper house

Can a house be dapper?

If it is indeed possible, Montacute House in southern Somerset, would surely take the cake. Or bow tie & bowler hat, probably.

We visited last month, and it was well worth the drive down there from north Wiltshire. Look at that driveway! In fact, the whole village is picture perfect.

The 'grandness' of Montacute is especially impressive as it was originally built by a family of yeomen farmers who rose in status to become one of the preeminent families in the district. Montacute has a long history and consequently a roll call of notable tenants. Once home to Sir Edward Phelips, a key prosecutor against the gunpowder plotters, and for a short while, Lord Curzon.

The yew hedges in the formal gardens are almost as handsome as the house, at the very least they are tall, well groomed and in places quite quirky, very befitting of a house such as Montacute.

These days, Montacute boasts a small collection of works owned or entrusted to the National Portrait Gallery. They hang in what is the longest 'long gallery' in England. At 53 metres in length, it runs the entire width of the house, and was once used as a sort of exercise room. When the weather was too bad to be outdoors, the family would walk up and down the gallery to get their daily steps in. Pre pedometer times call for such measures I suppose.

The lawn was being put to good use the afternoon we visited. A group of silver-haired locals had gathered to play croquet. If it weren't for their 21st Century attire, I am sure the scene would have looked not unlike that of a summer afternoon a century or two ago. 

The everlasting sweet peas were living up to their name, still in flower and reaching high, even at the very end of summer.

This is what passed for graffiti in the 18th Century. And in the library no less!

See those quirky yew hedges, trimmed to imitate the irregular shapes of clouds perhaps? I love how they're allowed to grow into that undulating, almost pulsing, formation along the pathway.

An Elizabethan mansion is always going to be predictably impressive, but Montacute House is beautifully kept and somehow 'elevated' above other homes of the same era that I've visited. It might be the orderly garden with just the right amount of quirk. It might be the collection of exquisite and historically important portraits. Or it might just be that sweeping driveway, emphasising the perfect symmetry of the house.

What ever the magic of Montacute, I stand by the 'dapper' description.

Kate  x

The Cotswolds blanketed in frost

The frosts have been heavy and widespread recently, but that didn't stop us getting out to new parts of The Cotswolds on the weekend. This time? Bibury to play the tourist at Arlington Row, then on to Burford to warm up in a cafe and poke about browsing the high street. 

Like most Cotswold stone villages, Bibury has its history entwined with the wool industry. The river Coln (and the stream from the Arlington mill) babbles past the most picturesque cottages, all higgledy piggledy and as quaint as they come! 

The cottages of Arlington Row (above and below) were built in 1380 as a wool store and then later converted to weavers cottages in the 17th Century. 

They looked like a magical fairytale land with the frost covering them. 

The swamp-like land adjacent to the cottages is called Rack Isle, it separates the cottages from the mill. It has now been turned over to wildlife preservation. It is seasonally flooded to provide natural habitat for water birds and meadow plants. The name 'Rack Isle' harks back to its industrial past as it was the land used for hanging the wool to dry. If you look hard enough, you might be able to spot some wooly sheep in that patch of lovely midwinter sunshine on the hill behind the cottages.

Although Bibury was frost encrusted, there are signs of spring beginning to emerge. I almost walked straight past these snowdrops pushing through the frozen earth at the doorstep of one of the cottages. I am glad they caught my eye though. I have been eagerly anticipating snowdrops blooming in England. They're a different cultivar to the snowdrops we have back home in Australia. These particular ones are slow to open and keep that perfect elongated 'drop' shape as they defy the frosts and freezing temperatures. They look slightly forlorn, but I find them really enchanting.

I wish I had some on my doorstep.

Kate  x

Punting through Cambridge

It is a cliche tourist thing to do, so we did it. In all honesty though, punting is a great way to see a lot of the iconic parts of Cambridge in a short amount of time whilst learning some fascinating history/statistics as you go. We booked a private tour which lasted about 45-50 minutes and took in all the bridges along the river Cam that are associated with the university colleges, all the big name colleges, as well as the Wren Library and the King's College Chapel.

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The Bridge of Sighs connects the accommodation of St John's College (left) with the lecture/exam rooms (right), hence the 'sighs'.

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This Virginia Creeper has totally taken over one entire side of this accommodation wing.

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In the accommodation quadrangle of St John's.

St John's College's main rival is Trinity College, next door. Trinity is the largest, wealthiest and most awarded of the colleges. Amongst it's alumni it boasts:

32 Nobel prize winners, 

25 Olympians, 

6 British Prime Ministers, 

4 Oscar winners,

just to list a few. 

It's wealth is estimated at somewhere around 700-800 million pounds plus!

I have very few photos of Trinity College, we didn't tour inside it apart from going into the Wren Library which is every bit as amazing as you would imagine a Christopher Wren designed building to be. Unfortunately, but understandably, photographs inside the library aren't permitted. Inside we saw the 1926 hand written manuscript for Winnie the Pooh and a first edition Shakespeare.

King's College is perhaps one of the most iconic of the colleges, and it's chapel one of the most recognisable buildings in Cambridge.

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The ceiling is breathtaking at 24 metres high, taking only three years to construct the fan vaults.

Come Christmas it will be all the more special to tune into the King's College Choir carols having been there this year.

As lovely and historic as Cambridge is though, I was very glad to escape the swarm of tourists and students for the peace and quiet of nearby Grantchester in the afternoon. We wandered the meadows along the Cam, poked about the vicarage, then had dinner at The Green Man.

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Grantchester Meadows.

Kate  x

I'm so glad...

...I live in a world where there are Octobers.

I really am. October has a special place in my heart. But now I get to experience a bit of what L.M Montgomery meant when she wrote those words. She was speaking seasons. Or a seasonal shift that was special and unique to Octobers.

For the first time, I am getting to transition with autumn exactly as it unfolds in the northern hemisphere, with all the nuances that brings.

Friday, the eve of October, was a near perfect sunny day. I spent the afternoon sat next to the Thames with an old friend, drinking pimms and prosecco, soaking in the sunshine and company. We chatted for hours, watched swans drift by, and noted the barges on the river carrying peat and firewood for the coming cooler months.  

On Saturday morning Alex and I took the car out for a drive along the country lanes around Oxfordshire. It was misty, damp and very much a contrast to the previous afternoon. We started at the Chilterns and promptly let ourselves get lost somewhere between Henley and Reading. To be here on the cusp of autumn is such a treat. The harvest is done, the fields are empty of the summer crops, but the roadside still boasts cow parsley (Queen Anne's lace to all those back home), and the hedgerows are filled with blackberries. The hydrangeas are mottled and fading, tiny cyclamen carpet the undergrowth, unfazed by the deep shade and dim light cast by trees.

The trees are just on the turn. What a show is still to come.

Tomorrow I head for Bath.

Kate  x

New adventures

We made it!

Henley-on-Thames

Almost a week in and jet lag free (long may that continue), we are settling in and tackling administrative chores. I haven't really given my camera much of a work out yet, but with a trip to Bath, and perhaps Cambridgeshire in the very near future, that will change soon and i'll be over-sharing.

Kate  x