Shropshire

We had been looking forward to this weekend for ages as we were meeting up with Barbara and Mike from Northampton. It was a late night on Friday with Colin and Tess (I tried a new chicken recipe from the cook book we were given for Christmas - that turned out o.k. except couldn't find the right pasta and remembered Tess was allergic to bread etc so ended up with rice, and from memory the chocolate mousse recipe I used to make in NZ - it set quite hard - so a bit too much chocolate I suspect but the choccy lover liked it). On Saturday bright and early we headed off to Shropshire for the weekend. By, the time we had arrived Mike had finished his second cup of coffee and after driving through heavy rain and dropping temperatures we drank our first while he had his third. There wasn't much enthusiasm from any of us to climb the hills around Carding Mill and walk along the top to admire the view (mist) and so we decided to have what Mike later called a National Trustathon - an apt name for exploring old houses and gardens during the weekend. Over the weekend we did three situated around Leominister (it is pronounced Lemster), Attingham Park, Croft Castle and Berrington Hall - all with their family history and landscaped gardens.
Attingham Park - the story of love and neglect. This is a rather large 18th-century mansion that from the outside didn't really have much appeal. It is quite interesting inside (there is a room shaped like an Octagon, a boudoir - where ladies go to "sulk" or "pout", and a nice tea room where we warmed up a bit). During our visit we learnt the "art of the fan" an "indispendable accessory of a lady worthy of the name" (why haven't I got one?). Actually it meant that the fairer sex never had to speak as they could communicate through the fan signals eg: Fan held in the left hand means "I am alone" but in the right hand: "I am married/promised". Fanning with the left hand means "Come closer and chat with me" but with the right hand "I wish to dance". Obviously important to make sure the right and left hand don't get mixed up and if a man was standing opposite would he think it was her right or his right? I did wonder if we could introduce this fan language again so we could sign for a cup of coffee (fan raised to the mouth), sweep the fan along the floor (please do the vacuum cleaning) or under the arm (have you done the washing yet) but decided the silent word may have little affect on today's man!!

The highlight was a walk through the deer park and the gardens around the house in the drizzle. It was landscaped by Humphry Repton who in the 1700's created a few gardens. He was one of those lads destined to go into the family business (his Dad was a tax collector) but had the courage to say "No, I want to create something beautiful instead". Around Humphry's park was a number of statues in the 'Give me Shelter' exhibition. Mike our tour guide did a great job of reading the leaflet enthusiastically describing the exhibits while the rest of us stood looking at the statues puzzling over the artists meaning and then coming up with our own.
There was Traum - a concrete, steel gilded tower with a gold coloured hot air balloon inside that you could just see through the lowest slit in the concrete (standing on tip toes). 'Traum' which is German for 'dream' but somehow it feels quite close to the English word 'Trauma'. How could you imprison one's dreams in a concrete tower rather than flying away with them -dreams aren't for capturing and hiding away, but for living - we all agreed on that one.
Then there was the clay, sand, straw and wood bird hut that was named 'How to survive in the Coming Bad Years'. It stood amongst some wonderful old trees (there are 1000 old year trees here just like in Sherwood Forest but we didn't see any Grandad's of the forest). The statue was described by one non-artist as an 'oversized Dalek' and we agreed with the description - actually it was meant to be a bird poo capture hut ie the birds live there and as a thank you for shelter and food provide poo to fertilise the land. By, the time we got to this one we all agreed "We just don't have the imagination to be a modern artist".
There was Dispossession a whole lot of little red monopoly houses sitting on stalks either covered by the water or above it. It apparently is meant to 'echo the memory of the succession of lost communities' - and was pointing the finger (Harry would say 'borax') at Humphry the landscaper who diverted roads and the River Tern to create his park. It also represents the shift from agricultural and industrial land use to leisure-driven land use (of the rich I think). Somehow we never came up with our own meaning for the little red monopoly houses but we did think that the yellow water lillies were rather pretty.
Then there is Roman - illustrating the curves of the River Tiber that runs through Rome. We could walk through this one and so had great fun with our umbrellas - I imagine that the artist Keith Wilson, might not have been too impressed but it was all a memorable bit of fun...
And the large huts made of polystyrene, steel and cement, that describes the displaced communities and war torn territories in war covered areas like Pakistan. The artist was apparently inspired by the sand-cast concrete sun shelters that are along Gadani Beach in Baluchistan (they did look a little bit like huts for surf life savers to sit and watch) and we could actually feel the desolation in this statue - it was probably the best.
And lastly Cellakabin, a rather creepy building that looked from the outside like a wooden cabin, or play house, or bird watchers hide, but inside had a mirror image under ground that reminded us of a cell or a hiding place. I guess it was all about first and different impressions really but we didn't stay long looking at that one.That night we stayed at a local hotel (floor in one room had containers to catch the rather bad leak), enjoying a carvery and good company - it did take a while to get there as Mike set the Satnav to take us on a direct route but instead it took us along a circuitous route of B roads through puddles and mud returning us back to a corner where the hotel stood (next time I'll navigate!!). Next day after a leisurely breakfast and some time looking through the window in the hope of clearing weather we went to Croft House - where we saw the best statue yet - no description but it really does look like a Bakewell Tart.

We arrived at Croft House and was treated to a short conservation tour - which took us into the entrance hall, dining room and a living area where the guide told us about the evils of the five agents of decay, light, humidity, pests, dust and wear and tear (we'd read about it the day before), and then a historical tour (we had to return to the gate 10 minutes away to get our free tickets to this tour) which took us to the same rooms but we did learn some interesting historical snippets.
Croft Castle was first built in 1100, was rebuilt around 1400, and was converted into a manor house in the 16th century with extensive renovations later on. It's been in the same family since the beginning except for quite a long time after the 17th century when the family lost a lot of money in the South Sea bubble (the 18th century stock market crash - it was all to do with Britain facing a financial crisis and borrowing money from the South Sea Company at a 6% interest rate and a promise of exclusive trading rights in the South Seas - the company planned on monopolising the South American slave trade. The company issued shares, and once the first issue sold well, reissued more with the promise of huge profits that were never realised - so a lot of investors went bust! Sound familiar?). The family and the castle were reunited back in the early 1920's and it was gifted to the National Trust (the family still live in the apartments - quite a common occurrence here as it means the family don't incur huge death duties and the properties are looked after by the trust). We also discovered that the volunteers do all the cleaning (every day there are visitors - dusting, vacuum cleaning - that was news to us). We also wandered around a rather large walled garden, spring flowers galore, grape vines, fig trees (figs and walnuts are apparently the Turkish Viagra - for real - this is from some friends who have recently been to Istanbul - just to prove it here is the photo) and some lovely trees we hadn't seen before.
Berrington Hall
Lastly, there was Berrington Hall, where the band played and lots of people dressed up (including the Home Guard - or perhaps Dad's Army) in period costume to commemorate d-day. The Hall did have some interesting interior (like the huge laundry with drying racks) and a lovely children's bedroom, and little walled garden. The Hall sat in a typical English landscape designed by Capability Brown - another famous landscaper from the 1700's - but the son of a what sounds like a less wealthy family as his mothers Christian and maiden name aren't even recorded.
His "serpentine" gardens are called that because the lakes are usually in the shape of a serpentine. Lancelot Brown was called "Capability" after he once commented that he could see the 'capabilities' of an area for landscaping. I fear that I may have a nick name at work - I was at a meeting the other day which involved a telephone conference - I introduced myself as it came to my turn and the guy in London didn't hear and said 'Sorry I didn't catch your name - Minky who?'. Everyone laughed - of course!!

And that was our great weekend and we are looking forward to the next one with Barbara and Mike already.

To finish the week off...we have caught up in NZ re the new All Black captain and the result of the David Bain trial and that there were 3 cases of swine flu in Wellington - keep safe everyone.

In Bristol there has been a long strike by rubbish collectors.

In England the local body elections there has seen a big swing against Labour and the EU elections has resulted in no Labour members for the EU - I can feel a government crisis coming on ...how long will Gordon Brown persevere every paper asks.

And some workmates were watching all Friday NZ against Ireland in the 20/20 - we won!!