The Distancing Diaries - 22nd & 23rd October, 2020

 

On Thursday morning, after my Wii Fit session and breakfast, Jon made sandwiches, filled the flask and we headed off to the neighbouring county of Shropshire. Forty minutes later, we'd parked the van, presented our membership cards, collected our free maps and entered the grounds of the gorgeous Attingham Park.

Attingham Park was the seat of Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick and Whig politician, who was awarded his title in 1784 by William Pitt the Younger in gratitude for assistance given in the restructuring of the East India Company. Hill already owned a property on the site of Attingham Park called Tern Hall but, with the money he received in addition to his title, he commissioned architect, George Steuart, to design a new and grander house to be built around the original hall.

Work on Attingham Park was completed in 1785 and is the National Trust's fourth most visited property. Although visitors have to pre-book and numbers are limited it was probably the busiest place we've visited since the pandemic began, not that you can tell from the photos, social distancing was strictly observed at all times and, as always, everyone was respectful and happy to wait while you took photos. I was complimented on my outfit by eight different people, I didn't tell them that my dress was actually a vintage wool housecoat.

Attingham Park has had rather a colourful history, originally a family home, during the First World War, Thomas, the 8th Lord Berwick, lent the property to a Dutch American family, the Van Bergens, who established Attingham as a hospital for soldiers wounded at the front. by 1916 it had sixty beds and an operating theatre. During the Second World War it was home to a group of evacuated schoolgirls from Birmingham. It was gifted to the National Trust in 1947. From 1948 until 1971 it served as an adult education college.

Regular readers may recall that we've visited Attingham Park before, on my birthday in December, 2017 (HERE) and with our dear friends Ann (Polyester Princess) and Jos on a gloriously hot June day in 2018 (HERE)

Although Jon and I had a lovely day out at Hanbury Hall last week, the garden failed to inspire us, the rigid formality of the parterre and the lack of colour just didn't live up to the opulence of the house. Attingham, however, was a joy. The walled garden was bursting with life, vivid Autumnal hues and inspirational planting. 

A garden to lift the weariest of spirits. 

Roaming the Deer Park we never for a moment expected to encounter any and were mesmerised when they started to appear from the wood, unphased by both human and canine visitors.

It might not be my favourite season with its dark mornings, endless rain and the damp chill in the air, but there's no denying that Autumn can be beautiful. Thursday was the perfect day to visit, as it stayed dry and the brisk wind had dried the earth so the pathways weren't muddy.

I've never seen so many varieties of fungi in one place .

Majestic is the only way I can describe this wonderful stag who appearing in the forest clearing, happily chomping on a twig. He was less than twenty yards away and wasn't at all bothered by our presence. We stood in wonder, marveling at the beauty of nature.

Our four-mile ramble through the woodlands took little over an hour. Not for us the bog-standard British rambling gear of padded nylon jacket, fleece, Gor-Tex boots, waterproof trousers and a bobble hat....

Along with my vintage wool housecoat, I'm wearing a quilted 1970s Indian block printed Phool jacket, a felted wool hat and Clarks' Orinoco boots (all bought second-hand.) Underneath I'm wearing my ex-M&S Heatgen leggings, some brand new boot socks from the charity shop and a long sleeved bodysuit. If I wanted to wear a uniform I'd join the army.

Jon's all layered up, too. His Scotch and Soda coat, mustard tee shirt, Levi's skinnies, Clarks' boots and 1970s cycling top were all charity shop finds. His trusty distressed leather cap was bought at The End of The Road Festival 5 years ago.

Whatever these beautiful flowers are I need them in my life.

After a leisurely stroll around the walled garden we ate our packed lunch in the van and headed back to Walsall where we spent the remainder of the afternoon raking up leaves and making a start on the winter window boxes.

Tea was a caramelised onion and cheese tart with Greek salad & tzatziki. Later we watched a couple more episodes of Spooks.

On Friday I was up at 6am and, after checking next week's weather forecast, I booked next week's National Trust outing for Monday, which looked to be the only dry day of the week. After my Wii Fit workout I wrapped the latest eBay sales, caught up on blog reading and joined Jon for breakfast.

I'd underestimated the amount of plants I needed for my window boxes so, once dressed, Jon and I went back to B&Q to pick up a few more of their half price cyclamens. They'd added some violas to the reduced to clear section so I snapped up six of them for £4. On the way home Jon popped into Morrisons for a few essentials and to drop the parcels off at the post office whilst I sat in the car listening to 6Music. 

Friday morning's outfit (I got changed into my gardening dress after my noodles) was the new-to-me Sanita clog boots, a vintage suede coat, 1970s tooled leather belt & Aldo hat (all charity shopped) and my very posh tissue silk 1970s dress by Treacy Lowe which some friends found for me in a charity shop a few years ago. According to the Vintage Fashion Guild: 

Treacy Lowe was a fashion firm that was started in 1971 by Kathy Lowe Howden. Started working in fashion in 1948. She worked for Marshall Fields as a buyer for their Import Bazaar. She took a break from fashion from 1961 to 1966. In 1966 returned to work as a fashion and merchandising coordinator for Jaeger in London.

She started Treacy Lowe in 1971 with her husband Kenneth Howden, a retired English businessman. The Treacy Lowe line was known for its bold and variated stripes and use of color. Their garments cost between $120 - $300+ in the mid 70s.

I've only ever come across a couple of her dresses online and they command huge prices (hardly surprising as they cost a small fortune back in the day, even the lining is pure silk). Holt Renfrew is a Canadian store, so the dress is rather well-travelled. How it ended up in a charity shop in the Black Country we'll never know..if only clothes could talk! 

I finished off my window boxes (three with pink cyclamens, two with red) and swept the patio whilst Jon wrestled with a huge variegated ivy that had become pot bound after ten years in the same container. We moved the olive tree into the shelter and planted up the window boxes outside the Kinky Shed.

The white paintwork could do with a touch-up, that can be a job for the Spring.

A blast of torrential rain had us running indoors for a coffee but I was able to return to the task in hand forty minutes later, changing round the pots whilst Jon planted up the ornamental cabbages in the blue ceramic pot that used to house the ivy (some of which we've replanted in the chimney pot).

After half-an-hour spent reorganising the terracotta plant pots, I packed everything away until tomorrow as apparently we should have a couple of hours before the rain makes a come back.

Tea was fresh four cheese pasta with Jon's homemade sauce (made with basil and tomatoes we'd grown ourselves) and a couple of slices of garlic bread.

Plans for tonight involve rum, Spooks and Gardener's World. Rock'n'Roll, that's us!

Stay safe & see you soon.