The Distancing Diaries - Day 164 & 165

Monday (day 164) was a bank holiday , not that it made much difference to my usual routine. I was up at just after 6am, caught up with blogland, did a Wii Fit workout and had fruit & yogurt ready & waiting when Jon got up.

In need of fabric for mask making we popped to the clearance charity shop and bought a couple of all-cotton shirts to chop up. I found two interesting sounding paperbacks, a brand new & still in its original packaging desk mat to use as a cat feeding mat and a pretty sun top for £1, although I doubt I'll be wearing it just yet, apparently it was the coldest August bank holiday in over 50 years.

Once back I threw my new garments in the washing machine and unwrapped the desk mat, it was instantly appreciated. Within 15 minutes I was pegging the laundry on the line. I do love our new washer!

Wearing: Vintage India Imports of Rhode Island maxi skirt (eBay), 1980s Anokhi waistcoat (online vintage shop), Cheesecloth blouse, Guess belt & 1970s Newey & Eyre deadstock hair clip (all charity shopped)

After noodles Jon popped out for supplies and I made a crumble with the windfall apples we'd harvested yesterday. Back & with the shopping sanitised, Jon mowed the lawn while I cut back the ivy threatening to engulf the wood pile, cleared the spent dwarf French beans and raked over the now-empty patch. 

Once we'd finished we sat under The Egg (wrapped in our coats) pondering on what area to clear next.

Tea was half a quiche with some Thai-spiced cheesy chips and salad, with assorted leaves, herbs & a crystal lemon cucumber from the veg plot.

After tea we caught up with Gone Fishing and watched the final episode of the fascinating BBC4 documentary, African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power, this week exploring the art, music & culture of Kenya.

On Tuesday (day 165), after my Wii Fit session and our fruit & yogurt breakfast, Jon made sandwiches, filled the flask and we headed off to the village of Broadway in The Cotswolds to visit the gardens of  Snowshill Manor, just over an hour's drive away.

Born in a London suburb in 1883 Charles Paget Wade was the son of wealthy parents. He'd trained as an architect but, when his father died in 1911, he inherited enough money to give up work. Whilst in France, serving with the British Army in WW1, he saw an advert in Country Life magazine for Snowshill Manor, a Tudor manor house with 14 acres of land. On his return in 1919 he bought the property and set to work revamping the house and turning the estate into an Arts & Crafts garden with the help of his architect friend, Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott.

 Charles Wade first met Baillie Scott whilst working on Hampstead Garden Suburb between 1907 and 1911. In spring of 1920 Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott designed the initial plan for the garden. He sent it to Wade, together with a letter explaining his design. With the help of a local builder, William Hodge,Wade then set about transforming the former farmyard into an Arts and Crafts garden to include garden rooms, topiary and overflowing borders with terraces and walkways to provide structure. At Baillie Scott’s suggestion Wade also put a Venetian wellhead he had collected into Well Court: ‘Should like to get your stone cistern from the workshop and put it in the middle of the lower garden.’

Snowshill is stunning (hence the reason I got carried away with the camera). We loved the clever use of colour in the planting schemes and the quirky additions like the model village and that gorgeous honey-coloured Cotswold stone gladden my heart, it looks like the sun is always shining. But in today's case, it was. After yesterday's unseasonal chill we were treated to 20°C sunshine. 

Unlike most of the other gardens we've visited, Snowshill didn't have a one-way system, but as visitor numbers were limited it was easy to allow plenty of room for people to pass so again it looked like we had the place to ourselves.

WEARING: Vintage Jody T of California maxi dress (£5, eBay), 1970s felt hat (charity shop), vintage tooled leather bag (car boot sale)

WEARING: Blondie tee shirt (retail, sale), 1960s chores jacket, Rockport desert boots, printed cotton shorts (all charity shopped)

Wolf Cove - We loved Snowshill's model village!

After eating our picnic we drove back home, arriving just in time for the tree surgeon to arrive to look at the lime tree and give us (and the neighbours) a quote. We've just got to wait for the council to grant permission to prune it although he's hopeful that the branches are so close to the house that they'll have to say yes.

I spent the rest of the day editing my photos while Jon provisionally booked us a room in a 16th century Venetian townhouse for the first leg of our trip (I've got so many body parts crossed that I'm getting cramp!) 

Stay safe & see you soon.