Fairy Grotto

I decided to take a break from the re-organisation of my photographs which is now proceeding apace, and try out a some enhancements to a few pictures. This is one you may have seen before, but not quite like this! 

Sence Valley Country Park

We may moan about our local councils from time to time, but occasionally the authorities do manage to get things right. We had a most enjoyable afternoon yesterday at the Sence Valley Country Park in north west Leicetershire. This is a reclaimed open cast mine area which has been developed over the last 5 or 6 years and done magnificently. There is no trace of the old industrial scar, and the place is a magnet many species of birds and animals.



The Forestry Commission primarily look after the site now as part of the National Forest. This pair of swans and their 5 cygnets looked well at home.



Before yesterday we had been commenting on the lack of butterflies this year in our garden. They have all gone off to Sence Valley, and here you can see a couple of small heath butterflies enjoying the oxeye daisies.



One of the damper areas had what I think are marsh orchids. There are 2 varieties, north and south; I'm not sure which one this is.



This is one of several wood carvings to be seen on the site. Very reminiscent of the Easter Island carvings. 

Saving The Planet

Well, the rains have come at last. Now I don't have to feel so guilty about watering the garden last night. We live on a small island here just off the mainland of Europe and have always been mocked in the past for our awful weather. Well, here in the East Midlands it has not been too bad just lately, presumably thanks to global warming even if George W Bush doesn't believe in it yet. Maybe someone should turn off the air conditioning in the White House so that he could get the message.

Back to the point; our garden was beginning to look pretty dried out and so I decided that, planet or not, our garden had to be saved. The northern and western parts of the country are awash with water so I can't see why it can't be moved around a bit more. After all, oil gets moved around the world on a regular basis, and you could argue that the need for water was even greater. We have invested a lot of time and effort, not to mention the cost, into making our garden a pleasant place to be and so I think it deserved a drink. So it had a good soaking last evening, and now the heavens have opened and completed the job for me.

Here are a few of our roses which really are looking superb at the moment.


Sweet Juliette



Iceberg



Iceberg


Before the rains came we had some glorious sunsets which I felt worthy of the camera.


Sunset

On the whole I believe that the planet is worth saving, but in the meantime I shall continue with the watering.

More Packwood

I have been having something of a dilemma just lately, trying to get to grips with the best way of cataloguing my photographs. This has resulted in several changes of mind about how to go about it. It all started off with the discovery of Picasa from Google, which at face value seemed to be the solution I had been looking for. However, my own methods had been a bit haphazard to say the least and I had to spend some time reorganising files to get the best out of Picasa which essentially works on a time line method. This is fine when working in Picasa, but when trying to find photos through any other software, can cause problems.

So back to the drawing board. Then today the latest version of Serif Photoplus arrived together with Album Plus which promises to be the definitive answer to all my problems. My lack of postings lately has been the main result of my efforts at re-organisation. Hopefully this will resolve itself soon, but until then I have a few more from my afternoon at Packwood. I hope soon to have a full gallery of these on my Smugmug site.

Any suggestions for foolproof methods of cataloguing photographs will be thankfully received.


Packwood House viewed across the lake.

Canada Geese enjoying Packwood House lake.

Looking into the walled garden at Packwood House.

Packwood House - Sermon on the Mount

At Packwood House the gardens contain an area that is known as "The Sermon on the Mount". The assembled multitude are represented by a fine collection of clipped yews, some over 50 feet high. The mount is reached up a spiral of clipped box.

Looking back towards the house you can be forgiven for being amazed by the amount of work involved in keeping these trees clipped.

This is a great place to lose your children, as they love playing hide and seek around the trees. 

Packwood House

These pictures were taken at Packwood House in Warwickshire, another superb National Trust property


Aquelegia


Geranium

Since Retiring

Since retiring from full time employment some 9 months ago I have found that the greatest change in my life is being able to spend my time as I want to. A lot of things have suddenly started to make sense to me and I have grown to appreciate a great many things that before went unnoticed. Much of this is not really that exciting, but the little things, like what a great joy it has become to watch the birds in the garden and realise just how much creatures of habit they are. A pattern emerges of their life through the seasons which I never had the time before to observe. Bits of what went on got noticed, but never the whole scene, and it is truly fascinating.

The garden itself has suddenly become more interesting as being here more often means that I see things that before were quite unknown to me. Having taken up my camera again more seriously has helped in this regard as it forces you to be more observant. I just wish that my mastery of photography was really up to the task. I was able to pop out this morning when I noticed one of our irises by the pond had suddenly opened out. Last year it was very reluctant to flower so hopefully it is going to be better this time round.



Iris

For some reason I had it in my head that the wood pigeon was also called the collared dove. I now find that this is not so; it is in fact also known as the ring dove. I tell you this just in case you might be labouring from the same misinformation, and to set the record straight here is one of our visitors, just to prove that I have not been wasting my retirement.


Wood pigeon alias Ring dove 

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I also find that I now have more time for reading and so acquire lots of useless information. Did you know for instance, that botulism got its name from botulus, the Latin for sausage after 6 people in Germany died in 1793 after sharing one. I always suspected there was something a bit dodgy about sausages.

Syon Park

On one of our trips to London to visit our daughter we took the opportunity to take a look at Syon Park, home to the Duke of Northumberland for over four hundred years and still owned and looked after by them. Situated across the Thames from Kew Gardens it has a very lovely setting, although the approach through Brentford is not the most attractive. The house from the outside is rather austere almost fortress looking, and was originally the site of a late medieval Abbey. It has Tudor origins and contains some of Robert Adam's finest interiors, which were commissioned by the first Duke of Northumberland in the 1760s. Syon House, a three-storied structure of brick with some ashlar facings, square angle-turrets, and flat, lead-covered roofs surmounted by battlements, is built round a central, open courtyard about 80 feet square, and stands at an oblique angle to the Thames on the north of the village of Isleworth. Described in the 19th century as 'one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the county of Middlesex' and in the 20th as able to 'hold its own with the lesser palaces of the Continent'. Syon came into the possession of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland on his marriage in 1594, and is the last of the great country houses in the environs of London to remain in the occupation of its ancestral owners.


Syon House

We took the audio tour of the house which was, I thought, good value although how much of the information I was able to absorb is open to debate. I am usually reluctant to buy the guide books on offer at these places because you tend to spend so much time reading that you almost forget to look at what you are reading about. And, if you are anything like me, you will instantly forget it all. As usual, photography is not allowed inside the house, but there are some reasonable pictures on their web site which I have borrowed the purposes of this piece. All the exterior pictures are my own, and for which I take the full blame.

The tour starts in the Great Hall which is certainly impressive, being based on a Roman Basilica and whose purpose as designed by Adam was to provide an impressive entrance for all the Duke’s guests. This is still the case today, even if many of the guests are just the general public paying for the privilege. The decorative stucco work throughout the house was all the work of Joseph Rose who was often employed by Adam in many of the great houses of England; in this room the black and white of the floor being replicated on the ceiling.


Great Hall
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The ante-room, by contrast, is the most richly coloured of Adam's rooms which survive, with verd-antique columns, gilt Ionic capitals and statuettes, an entablature with a honeysuckle frieze on a blue ground, gilded trophies on the walls, and the whole reflected in a polished scagliola floor, one of the earliest uses of the material in England. The anteroom is actually 30 feet wide by 36 feet long, but by standing the columns away from the south wall Adam created the effect of a square room. He heightened the state rooms along the south wing, but retained their other proportions.


Ante Room
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The diningroom, finished in stucco and adorned with statues in place of damask or tapestry that it might 'not retain the smell of the victuals', is some 66 feet long but only 21 feet high and wide; for picturesqueness, he placed apses at each end, with ornamented halfdomes and screens of columns, and whilst white and gold predominate in the dining-room, the deep colouring of the statue niches was not part of Adam's plan.


State Dining Room
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The red drawing-room is a profusion of rich colour, with plum-red Spitalfields silk damask on the walls, a specially designed carpet executed by Thomas Moore of Moorfields in 1769 on the floor, and an elaborate ceiling with wooden medallions painted by Cipriani. This replaced the original plan for a simpler ceiling in white and gold to match the pattern of the carpet, as so many of Adam's ceilings match the floors. The fireplace of this room was made to Adam's designs by Matthew Boulton; both this and the ivory pilasters of the Spanish mahogany doorcases are decorated in ormolu. The doors of all the rooms on the south wing's principal floor are so placed that a vista of the entire front may be obtained when they are open. Behind the State rooms are the private apartments which overlook the central courtyard. These rooms are still used when the family is in residence so that they can keep apart from the visitors to the house.


Red Drawing Room
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Once a bedchamber in the 18th century, it has more recently been used as a family sitting room. This room is adorned with 17th century Dutch paintings collected by the 1st Duchess and 18th century porcelain. The attractive marble fireplace, with its carved plaque representing Aesop’s Fable of the Fox and the Stork was brought from Northumberland House, (the Percy family’s principal London residence, which was demolished in 1874). The two 18th century armchairs in front of it have tapestry covers stitched by Helen, 8th Duchess and her sister in the 1930s.


Duchess Sitting Room
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In the long gallery Adam contented himself with a masterly redecoration which has been acclaimed his greatest work; he described it as 'finished in a style to afford great variety and amusement'. The ceiling is set out with circles down its length of 136 feet; each circle is held in an octagonal framework separated from the next by a square. Horizontal unity is achieved by cross-lines which tend to expand the apparent width of a room which is in fact no more than 14 feet wide and high; vertical unity is given by a series of 62 pilasters painted by Pergolesi. Secret closets open from the gallery at either end.


Long Gallery
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The interior of the house is matched in its grandeur by the grounds and gardens which have been renowned for their extensive collection of rare trees and plants since 'Capability' Brown landscaped the park in the mid 18th century. Within the 200 acres of parkland designed by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown from the 1750s to 1770s, there are 40 acres of gardens and an ornamental lake. These gardens are renowned for their extensive collection of 200 species of rare trees.

The crowning glory of Syon Park's gardens is the Great Conservatory. The 3rd Duke of Northumberland commissioned Charles Fowler to build a new conservatory in 1826, the first of its kind to be built out of gunmetal, Bath stone and glass.


Great Conservatory

It was originally designed to act as a show house for the Duke's exotic plants and inspired Joseph Paxton in his designs for the Crystal Palace.


Great Conservatory Walkway

The inside of the dome is very impressive and gives a much greater impression of its size than from the outside.


Great Conservatory Dome

Also living inside the Conservatory was this peacock showing off his magnificent tail. Quite how these creatures manage to fly is beyond me, but obviously they can, as there was no other way up there. He was also creating the most deafening noise as he called to his mate somewhere on the other side. We had seen her earlier by the restaurant begging for food. She seemed to have different priorities to him!


Great Conservatory Peacock

The object of his desire!


Peahen
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This towering ornament in the gardens was created c.1758 when the 1st Duke of Northumberland converted a large orchard into the 'Syon Pleasure Ground'. Flora stands on a 55 foot (16.7m) column and overlooks a lawn named after her that has organically grown herbaceous beds containing ornamental thistles, Euphorbias, Pholox, Scabious, Gypsophilia and great clumps of Prince of Wales plants. Not sure if the bird on her head adds any dignity!


Flora

The other principal feature of the pleasure ground is the lake which is a haven for wildlife including terrapins, although we didn’t see any.


The Lake

Also there are many flower beds and borders, which will look better later in the season I think.


Borders

One thing that Adam or Capability Brown could never have imagined, was the constant roar of planes coming into Heathrow, just a few mile s up the road. It certainly didn’t do much for the tranquillity that you might otherwise have expected from the beautiful gardens.


Plane

Numerous television historical dramas, Byron, The Lost Prince, The Young Visiters, Longitude, Looking for Victoria, Daniel Deronda, Agatha Christie's - Poirot, Wives and Daughters, Love in a Cold Climate, to name but a few have been set here.. Syon House is widely featured in the Robert Altman feature film Gosford Park and has also appeared in The Madness of King George, The Wings of the Dove, Emma, The Golden Bowl and The Avengers

For more information take a look at Syon Park: The London home of the Duke of Northumberland