National Trust Jaunt...

We joined the National Trust with the plan to visit plenty of Heritage properties throughout the country whilst we hang out in the UK. This time of the year the gardens aren't at their best but viewing any garden in winter, as the weather allows,  beats viewing a tv from the sofa on a winters day.

On Saturday night we had a  planned  trip to the Coventry speedway so with a bit of extra planning we left early, 11.30am,  and fitted in a visit to 3 Trust properties all within 40 minutes, driving from the NB.

The first was Charlecote Park which has been home to the Lucy family since ownership of the land, 1247. The house was built by Thomas Lucy starting in 1551 and completed 1558.


After parking the car you cross the country road to walk to the main buildings.


The car park is adjacent to a large plant & tree nursery also...

Selling fresh vegetables....

Up the drive and one...

Enters through the gate house which stands in "as it was built condition"...

Then the....

Magnificent family home fills your view...


The front entry has....

Shaped Yew trees.....

The weather was looking a bit Dodgy so we decided to stay outside and have a look around the gardens and deer paddocks....

Along the way was....

A small thatched building.... Summer house...

With...

A craftsman made door and  roughly trimmed branches as roof supports..... Awesome..

Out toward the paddocks and roaming deer where years ago a local of the area, William Shakespeare, was apprehended for poaching and appeared in court.
We passed this....

180 year old Mulberry tree..... looked like "Willy" had stolen all the bloody fruit....

 

Inside the house the first room visited was the Great Hall where...

Stands this Pietre Dure table. Originally from the Borghese Palace in Rome...
The marble flooring is Italian Marble from Venice...

Through the door into the dining room...

We've booked for our Xmas lunch....

 

A feature was this...

"Charlecote Buffet" carved by a local Warwick craftsman... only took 5 years....


Moved to the ...

Library... paintings adorn the walls  and those vases are from the 4th - 6th century BC...  

One of ......

 

The 3 most treasured collections of books in the National Trust...

Next was the billiard room. A Trust historian told me...

This was the "Mens Room". When occupied the Woman could go upstairs and get in the "Sack" to wait. Might be 2 -3am in  the morning when the gents retired and probably "Inebriated" would need a "Hand" to get it off... the clothes and things...

Queen Elizabeth 1 stayed at this "pad"... She liked to play.....

The Harp and probably "tickled" the fingers on this beauty.....


Sitting alongside was this.....

Chaise Longue.... more amazing craftsmanship.....

 

The "Ebony Room" contained this....

 

Bed which was originally a East Indian settee.... The servants would have had their hands full emptying "Potties and Buckets"...

The stairway....

Was a stairway.....

The view out of the dining and library windows...

A "Capability Brown" section of his landscaped grounds... and the Avon river flows by...

The kitchen contained... two rooms....

With this large range and a "Pizza" oven... Leonie contemplates her pizza order...

On the floor were...

Original Flagstone pavers... plate racks and washing gear...

The other kitchen room had.....

Another range and large open fire for cooking  with the "Flue" operated by chains....

A large....

Preparation table.....

And more...

Plates, jugs and "Gleaming" brass stuff....

How about this for ....

"High Tech" communication...From each room a "Get Me Another Bloody Tui" bell to the Servants working and "Hang'n Out" by the kitchen....

In an unattached building was the...

Laundry with tubs to heat and wash clothes.....

And adjacent was the.... every home should have one....

Brewery.... they made a thousand gallons for a wedding on site... Then everyone thought the "Bride" was a "Stunner"....

 

A two way....

Water pump... Hand driven... in the laundry with an upper chute to flow water to the brewery.....

 

To get around the family had many.....

Horse drawn carriages... This one being the "Top of the Range".... Fully enclosed with "Four On The Draw".....

Outside a "Well" preserved...

"Two Stroke" water pump.....

And how it was ......

"Viewed" in them days........

Tomorrow  more NT stuff.....

 

Autumn Leaves.....

Are falling. We left Thrupp on Saturday morning heading for Aynho to our winter mooring. The canal and moored boats are littered with fallen leaves as is the tow path and it makes for quite a slippery surface after rain.
I got up early, 7.10am, to take the car to Deddington,  which is a mile and a half from our moorings in Aynho, and then I'd park up and bus back to Thrupp, 7.57am bus, then we'd take the boat up and today walk to get the car and to have it handy to the boat. At the Deddington  bus stop all around was plenty of activity as vendors were setting up for market day in the village centre.
Glance at the time it was pretty well bus arrival time when a lady approaches and says,
" the bus stops around on the main road on market day, you better run"
Bloody Hell, well run I did to miss the bus by 30 seconds.
An elderly gent on the other side of the road yells out,
"I think it was a minute Early"
Stuff this. The next bus aint for and hour and six minutes, it's to early for the pubs to be open,  so back to the car and drive 15 minutes bact to Thrupp.
I politely explain to Leonie that our early start plans are Shot to Bits, have something to eat then drive back to Deddington.
Catch the bus ok and you wouldn't believe it. This one turns off the main road and goes to two out of the way Freak'n villages plus does the usual detours to pick up punters and adds 30 minutes to the trip.

Finally casting off at 10.30am the wind had picked up and made for tricky reversing the 100 yrds back through the lift bridge to turn  in the basin. The wind blew the bow across the canal and I thought each owner off the NB,s we passed had come out to wish us Bon Voyage but it was more likely the fact  we gave there boats a good slap,n with our bow as we passed.....

Moored in Thrupp and.....

Littered with autumn colours.....


Cutting a......



Path through after leaving Pigeon lock....


There's a short stretch on the river Cherwell and ....

 

The warning boards were only just onto the yellow meaning more water than usual making the tight turns easier to "broadside" around...


We were going to take two days for the trip but because of the doggy weather forecast, like 80mph gales, we decided to push on.
We never stop to eat mid day or afternoons  preferring to keep plodding  on.

So a couple of.....

Pancakes with sugar and golden syrup filled the hole......

The weather was ok with a short shower of rain having no effect and failing to deter.....

 

The "Clint Eastwood of the Cut" peeling back the miles.....

We  had to pass through....

 

 

Just another old gate on the towpath....

After pushing ourselves past the endurance levels of a Tour De France rider this....

 

"Stairway to Heaven" emerged from nowhere... put the bloody windlass down Babe.......


Leonie gets to steer.......

While I do the locking......


And after our 7.5hr day the....

 

Rail bridge by Aynho and our mooring was a welcome sight...

Today we walked and got the car then checked out a couple of superstores. The winds have been pretty strong but tomorrow, Monday, morning is storm time.......

 

Under The Cover.....

Of Darkness we moved down to the water point to top up the tank tonight.
Because we havn't been around much during the day of late and a morning fill would require a 6am start, bugger that, a decision was made after dinner to go for it.
We had to reverse back down through the lift bridge to the water point then return to our mooring forwards. The good thing about the time is no one is likekly to be moving and pinch our mooring while we fill.

After filling with water....

Leaving the Thrupp basin...

 

 Steering toward the lift bridge....


I must say that in the dark distances and margins look a bit different to day time..

Successfully  through the lift bridge.....

When we arrived at the mooring earlier this evening narrow boat....

 

No Problem had not long arrived followed by NB Matilda Rose..... They had all done a big day on fire wood.....

An interesting building caught my eye, not 75 metres from where I'm helping Spence in the panel shop.

Seems it houses...

A Roman water well several hundred years old.....  

The building may not be as old as the well within. This whole country has these amazing finds many hundreds of years old.
A lot of structures still standing and working date before NZ history began.
Back home in Taradale finding any history near work doesn't exist unless you count Harold still working at the dentists.... 

Talking about being at work, sort of anyway, at the mechanics workshop next door an elderly Indian man drove up in a London Cab vehicle. It is a working Oxford cab..
He explained to the mechanic it had failed a MOT, said he'd been in the UK since 1959 which is usually the start of asking for discount,  and upon  passing over the MOT report which stated rust  in the chassis the mechanic went to some lengths trying to find the said rusty section. No luck.
The Indian driver then said " oh sorry I bought the wrong car to you"
At this stage the mechanics thinking "What The ..."
But hey if he's got a couple of cabs, they usually have a monopoly on the job, then OK...
"I be back soon" he reverses out the drive..
He also said to the mechanic he was 89yrs old...  NA you cant't drive at that age, not a cab...
Well he looked pretty crap reversing between cars...
After about 20 minutes he returns..


The cab that he got confused with the other car.....

 

 Easy to do if you got more than one....


The......

OTHER car.....  Like a curry and lamb roast are the same to look at.....

Starting to believe the age thing as well..

Here..... There........

Had a few sunny days with some showers chucked in just to make getting the washing dry a bit like a game of chess. How Stupid is that, I don't even know how to play chess.

Dropped Leonie off at her "place of employment" on Friday, a phone call to her on Thursday sort of twisted her arm to start a day early. Well what a Waste of time that was as the Lady in charge of her section took the day off. Result, a days pay but a frustrating day and could be termed as a Waste of time. Back tomorrow so lets hope a better day...

Anyway we are moored at Thrupp which is an  easy commute into Oxford then we'll head to our winter mooring at Aynho for 1st Nov,...

It's easy to see why Thrupp probably has the best gardens and tidiest surroundings  on the "Cut" when....

A working bee on Sat, see's a large turnout of volunteers.... There were many more workers....

Lawns mowed the length of the canal road, gardens done, rubbish picked up and while fences and posts were being painted ......

This "Fella" sat unrestrained as his owner toiled nearby.....

After a few wet days the sun shining made....

 

These alpacas, opposite our mooring,  look less Bedraglled  than when drenched from the rain....


Our mate Spencer was going to see long time friends race at Donnington Park race track today so I went too.
It was the final round of the championship.
Into the pits and first stop was to the team garage, Father & son racing.... The Mighty Mini class...

The two mini team were.....

Rearing to go.......


With a couple of hours to go before the mini race we, me & Spence, ventured out to watch from the Pit lane wall. You know, where on TV you see Christian Horner, Red Bull F1 team Principle operating from.

I'll take a photo I think..... through the gaps where they show the pit boards...

This one.....

And this one.... Porsche race cars.....

And then  " OOIIIIHHHH", a big man approaches in official looking gear, had one of those Dangler things around his neck with ID incase he gets lost and ends up at the dog pound..
"What you doing then"?
"I'm taking a photo"  I'm thinking is this a secret test session or something. Christ I'm happy to  sell the photos back to whoever but I'm not going to jail.
"You can't take photos from the pit wall unless you've got  an accredited media pass"
Just then out of sight on another stretch of the track a racer went off and the Red lights and flags came on and this dude with the Dangler and all his other Dangler Endowered mates went into panic and Over Power Control Mode.
So I made my Escape with the "crap photos anyway".....

 

The Mini race was good and Dad....

 

Drove his Mini like it was 16 foot wide holding the main rival 3-4 places behind which secured the achievable 2nd place in the Championship for his, son, team mate.....

 

 

In another Class of racing a competitor in an MR2 lost control, in front of us, coming off the main straight, into the gravel trap.... out of the gravel, foot hard down......

 

Across the track ... UUUHHOOOO 9 cars coming,  Slam into the side of a Mazda.... still doing about 60mph...
This MR2 came off worse....


Managed a photo with... to say we were there...

Spencer...

Just before some members of his "Fan Club" came along...

 

 

"Didn't you ride for Oxford Cheetahs in the speedway league?".....
"Yeah Yeah"...


In the pits in a VIP park was this Cool looking.....

 

 

Late model Morgan....

With a.....

 

Boat Tail rear end....

An enjoyable day for sure......

Some Forecast....

The dawn didn't relate to last nights starry sky as come daybreak and the rain came down. It cleared by mid day but with no urgent chores to do it was stay aboard for the day.

The news paper head lines have been Doom for the long range weather forecasts with predictions of a 100 yr cold blast arriving as early as November. Well were  all for a white Xmas but a couple of months of white would be sad..

The predictions of a long lasting  Arctic blast will probably not eventuate, anyway any snow will be a change from 35 C days at Xmas back in NZ...

Driving in these conditions will be challenging in a 2wheel drive...

 

 

A day like this and you'd be playing Pocket Billiards all day long....

No doubt tomorrow will bring new predictions...

Nine Till Four......

Wev'e had a bit of a plan of late and now it's all coming together.
We'll be mooring up at Aynho on power from 1st Nov, until end of Feb, still living on the boat. We were originally going to stay on the canal proper just moving as needed but after talking to far wiser people than us being on shore power seems the best option.

So that means we'll have a lot of spare time and the plan has been to find some work to relieve the boredom.
I already had some part time work in Oxford so Leonie got her CV out and about two days ago and now she is employed starting next Monday...nine till four...
Yeh Haa more money for Beer.....

Today has been a good weather day, no rain ,no cold...



And when the sun departed today.....






 The fire was set and inside the warmth soon spread through the boat.....


The sky is clear.....

With plenty of stars promising a fine day tomorrow....


The mist....

 

 

Started to roll in followed by a red glow......


I retraced our route, by bus,  and went to pick up the race tuned Focus. It'll be handy getting us to work...

My brief from the Missus was to remember that apple tree we saw a few days ago and stop the car and get some apples.
This I did with no off road parking on the 70mph stretch, cars missing my arse by inches. Then the tree had been picked of reachable fruit, no smart ass comments, so grabbing the branches pulling them down whilst standing in knee high stinging nettle was the answer. I managed to get a few...


So....

This is the reward... Apple Crumble... with ice cream of course.....

Tomorrow till Monday practice setting the alarm clock.... for Leonie.........

 

What A Difference.....

A Day Makes, yesterday cold and wet but today even though rain was forecast was sunny and mild.
The strong winds had stopped leaving many small tree branches across the ground.

We headed off only intending to travel 3 - 4 miles but made the most of the day and but for 1 mile almost reached our planned destination...

With the sun shining through the tree tops.....

 

It made for  an enjoyable cruise along....

The recent rain has....

 

 Made the paddocks and tow path  very lush again...


We all know about hunting and killing and eradicating the farmers pest... Well now...

 

The "Wabbit" is fighting back....  He missed this time....

On the return from Paris we dropped Dale off  in the  Sommerset county.
While there  we visited the Stourhead Estate....

Owned until 1946 by the Hoare family, Banking, it was then gifted to the National Trust..

Had a look through the family home then took a stroll through....

 

The nice landscaped grounds...  Featuring a man made lake...
Started out fine but by this time the rain was steady....

Imagine on a Monday morning the "Boss" takes you and your wheel barrow and shovel and your "cut lunch" to a spot with an X on the ground and says'''

"start here and dig out a lake. I'll be back in 7 Yrs.....

And when you've dug the lake.....

Just build a nice  little bridge over there.....

The grounds have many Greek Sculptures placed  throughout.....

This Fella....

Hercules stands in the Pantheon.... Reckon by the look of his body he probably had the same for  breakfast as me....

There's several "Grotos" around the lake, this ....

Dude waived... mistook me for Hercules I suppose....

 

Inside this grotto there was.....




A bit going on with the floor design....


Looking across the lake in the misty silence the....

 

Appollo Temple looks over the hundreds of  Rhododendroms.....

And back to the present. Last night the rain fell steadily and this morning it still was so....

 

For the first time in a long while it was on with the wet gear...

Mind you its great.....

 

 Weather for Ducks.....

All moored up with the fire going....  comfy as....

 

Narrow Boat FireflyNZ......