The Distancing Diaries - Day 172 & 173

Tuesday (day 172) started in the usual manner, with a Wii Fit session and fruit & yogurt for breakfast. After Jon made sandwiches & filled the flask, off we went for our weekly beauty & culture fix.

The destination was Croome, which we'd last visited in March, 2017 (HERE). Croome is in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire, in the shadow of  the verdant Malvern hills, a 50 minute drive from door-to-door. 

Inherited by the Earl of Coventry at the age of 28, Lancelot Capability Brown was recruited in 1751 to make Croome the cutting edge of taste and design. When Brown arrived the parkland was an unproductive marshland with formal gardens outside the house. 

Brown swept away the local village, rebuilding it further away and shrouded by trees. He removed Croome's Medieval church and replaced it with a new Gothic church overlooking the park.  

The formal gardens were dug up and in their place Brown created natural looking parkland as far as the eye could see, complete with flowering shrubberies to walk through, temples and follies to add interest, carriage drives to ride on and a hand-dug 1¾ mile long serpentine river topped with a lake.

WEARING: 1970s Young Innocent by Arpeja printed cotton maxi (online vintage shop), orange fedora (retail buy), vintage tooled leather bag (eBay), 1970s Sheffield stainless steel choker (blog friend)

The Temple greenhouse was Robert Adam’s first garden building at Croome and is a Roman Doric building constructed of Bath stone with a central portico with pediment not unlike the front of the Pantheon in Rome. Adam charged £15 for the design in the early 1760s which included designs for garden furniture, such as benches with Lion’s paw feet, to go inside.  The large windows are replacements for the lost originals and they are designed to be removable so they can be taken out in the summer months. 

The building housed some the 6th Earl’s collection of exotic plants such as orange and lemon trees, birds of paradise plants, cacti, canna lilies and oleanders.

Capability Brown expertly drained the land at Croome by installing a system of culverts across the estate - brick built drains under the ground which fed into the new lake and river.

 

He created elaborate illusions in his new landscape – the river was designed to appear as if it drifted off into the distance around a corner, but in fact abruptly came to an end behind some cleverly planted trees and shrubs.

At Croome Brown created an original masterpiece of landscape design. This was only part of Brow's work on the estate, not only designing the park but was also the architect chosen to remodel Croome Court into the Palladian style.

I loved these elegant Coade stone sphinxes the first time we visited, three years later I was still transfixed by their beauty. They really are sexy beasts. 

No, it's not a hobbit house (although Jon assures me that it looks like one), it's an ice house.

Thirty years after he started, Brown was still visiting Croome and had become ‘sincere friends’ with the Earl. In February 1783 he died whilst returning home from dining with the Earl at his London home. Their friendship and shared ideals were immortalised in a monument to Brown erected by the 6th Earl at Croome’s lakeside and still seen today.

To the Memory of Lancelot Brown:

Who by the powers of his inimitable and creative genius formed this garden scene out of a morass.

 

As you can see from the photos, we finally had some heat and sunshine. After our picnic lunch we headed home, got changed into our gardening gear and spent the rest of the afternoon moving plants, tidying the garden and rewarding ourselves with a cheeky beer at sunset. Tea was fresh pasta with homegrown basil and some cheese that we realised after eating it was two months past the sell-by date. We survived!

We watched The Stolen Maharajah on the BBC i-player, the heartbreaking tale of Duleep Singh, the princely Sikh boy ruler of Lahore who was cheated of his inheritance by the British Empire. Highly recommended by us - I'd love to know what you thought. 

On Wednesday morning I did my Wii Fit workout before Jon joined me for fruit & yogurt. During lockdown some damp patches had appeared on the bathroom ceiling and the roofer we've used previously popped round after breakfast to re-position the slipped tiles. Anticipating a sunny day, I did a load of washing but the minute I stepped out of the house to peg the laundry on the line the heavens opened so I had to hang it in the utility room instead. 

On Monday, just before Jon & Frank were due to head off to the vet, we were knocked sideways by the sudden announcement that several Greek islands were now no longer in the travel corridor, including the island that we're booked to travel to (which isn't Corfu this year). Research on a reputable travel forum revealed that although package holidays have been cancelled, flights are still going ahead, although travellers have to quarantine for two weeks upon returning to the UK. These forums always have their fare share of doom merchants, posting that travel insurance is invalid and that if anything happened travellers will end up thousands of pounds in debt (some people really do seem intent on sucking the joy out of life). Jon called the company with whom we have an annual insurance policy and was assured that, as we'd taken the policy out before the WHO had declared an pandemic, we were covered for every possible eventuality, even repatriation if necessary. Of course quarantine is no problem, we've already booked a supermarket delivery slot for the day we return. Reassured, we booked accommodation for the final leg of our trip, a room in an old sea captain's house, just above the sea (photo above).

We had a visitor! A lovely lady who reads the blog and is the mother-in-law of one of Jon's oldest friends, from back in his punk days. She'd had a clear-out and thought I might like these clothes she'd had since the 1970s and had been stashed in the loft for years. Aren't they gorgeous?

WEARING: Vintage Anokhi maxi skirt (eBay), viscose sun top (charity shop), 1960s turquoise & copper pendant (inherited from Mum), yellow chappals (roadside stall in Mumbai, 2018)

Jon popped out for a few supplies and brought the sunshine back with him. I pegged the washing on the line, changed out of my long sleeved dress into something more weather-appropriate and joined him in the kitchen for noodles.

I gave the £1 sunshine yellow camisole I'd bought from the charity clearance shop last week a whirl only for Jon to say how good I looked and that I needed to take the outfit away with me. I didn't have my reading glasses with me when I bought it, thinking it was cotton rather than crease-up-like-a-rag viscose - hardly the best travel option - although I must admit that it would look rather good in the Mediterranean light.

I got changed into something else and threw the sun top & skirt on the "possible" pile then cracked on in the garden, planting my bulbs while Jon saw to the peas and gave the tomatoes an organic seaweed feed. Richard, our postman, arrived with two of my ebay purchases...

A 1960s embroidered cheesecloth blouse, made in India for Moaren Folklore (no idea why that arm looks yellow, it's perfect in real life!), and an incredible pair of oversized 1970s West German sunglasses with orange frames and purple lenses. 

Shortly afterwards Izzy, another of our postmen, turned up with my Lush order, Jungle conditioner - soon to be discontinued, Aromaco deodorant bar, Jon's Dirty shaving cream and a 7 to 3 biodegradable cleansing wipe I was keen to try.

I spend the rest of the afternoon reading in the sunshine. Earlier a friend had messaged me via Facebook asking if I had a skinny purple scarf she could borrow for a funeral, which I had, so her husband popped round to collect it and, as we'd not seen one another since lockdown, had a bit of a catch-up.

Tea was roasted vegetables with haloumi, served later than usual as Jon was chatting to our lovely cat sitter, Michelle while Frank maiowed throughout the conversation. Both the lads adore Michelle and flirt with her terribly although you can't blame them , she's tall, slim and drop-dead gorgeous and they are red blooded males.

It's Wednesday which means rum and cola night and after all the worry & uncertainty about Stephen, Frank and our travel plans I think we need a gallon of the stuff.

Stay safe & see you soon.