Our first adventure took us to Bath. We rode a train there and it was such a fun ride through the countryside. Bath is an incredibly beautiful city and seeing the ancient Roman Baths was a sight to behold.
What was truly amazing is standing somewhere that is was so old. The temple was built between 60-70 AD. The pure genius of people then to create something like this simply blows my mind.
The city is rich with architecture, shopping and lovely restaurants. Here Sallieann stands beside a postbox. Isn't it pretty? They make our postboxes look rather dumpy. LOL! These are still in use as a lady walked up and dropped her letter inside!
People here in the states told me that the food in England was not very good. Well, I do believe they were fibbing as everything I had was amazing and being a vegetarian, the choices were plentiful. This is what I had at "The Ivy" in Bath. It is a vegetarian shepherds pie. The center is an eggplant stuffed with quinoa. Then the herb, mashed potatoes cover all sorts of root veggies in a scrumptious gravy. This veggie girl was in happy land!
We went into a cute little shop and I saw this pillow. It described my feelings about England perfectly. ;)
Bath was the closest thing to mainstream "tourist" attraction that we did. What's wonderful about visiting somewhere with local people is that you can discover things off the beaten path.
Our next journey took us to one of the National Trust properties, Montacute House, which is a late Elizabethan mansion and garden in South Somerset. It was built in 1598 by Sir Edward Phelips and it is one of the few prodigy houses to survive almost unchanged from the Elizabethan era. Let me just say that it was absolutely stunning!
Not only the house, but the gardens as well. Everything is so lush and green.
Jules knows just about every flower, tree, grass and creature around. She is an excellent tour guide.
Jules and I collaborated on a project in 2017 called Briarside Lane in which there was a project called the "Pudding House."
Jules gave me a painting and I created this wool and embroidery version.
It was so much fun to stand in the actual place that inspired Jules! Talk about walking into your art! :)
All the detail that went into building this mansion. I'm a total architectural geek, so I soaked up every last detail.
This is the view looking out across the gardens. Way down in that open area was once a Roman road. Now the sheep are the only ones on the road.
Speaking of sheep, I tried so hard to get close to the sheep. I wanted to pet them! Sallieann still laughs that I went running out into a field after them. Jules has it on video. They weren't having any part of this crazy American bunny lady though. Nope, not, go away woman! LOL!
This is looking inside a hedge. Magical isn't it?
This is the hedge!
The trees, oh the trees! This is a Chestnut tree. Blight killed these trees here in the US, so it was a special treat to see one.
And the chestnuts!
I would love to have one of these in my yard. So sad that we don't have them anymore.
Inside the house, I was amazed by the details in all the furniture. Nothing pressboard, MDF or made in China here. Solid, strong, real and absolutely beautiful. The green on this bench was so lovely.
All the intricately carved wood. Everything has a story to tell.
From the wall mouldings,
to the exquisite carvings on this bed, the details on the trunk,
to the framed portraits,
historic books
and the stained glass coat of arms window panes, the details took my breath away.
It made me think about how disposable everything is now. How much is wasted, consumed, destroyed and made so cheaply. Looking at things like this, that are hundreds of years old, I pondered the waste in the world today.
This was fun to see the all the royals during the time of this mansion.
Beth had a nice chat with these folks.
We had coffees and lunch at a charming cafe on the property. I had the most incredible soup and the bread. Their bread is nothing like our bread. I rarely eat bread here as it makes me fat and fluffy. I ate bread there almost every day and not one bit of trouble. The girls told me it's because our bread is loaded with sugar and chemicals where theirs is not. Natural food. Hmmm... what a nice concept. ;)
The last bit of Montacute house that I want to show you is this model, which is quite large if you scale it to the table in the far right. This model was made for the filming of Wallace and Gromit the Curse of the Were Rabbit.
Talk about details!
You know I loved it with the bunnies everywhere! When we got home that evening, we all watched the movie.
And so I will leave you with one of my favorite clips. See ya back here next week for part III of this adventure.
Michelle
14 comments:
Thankyou for sharing more of you journey. Quite interesting to learn all about Bath & Montacute House. The little house is so cute. Looking forward to seeing your next post about your holiday. Hugs, xx
Oh Shell....
Wait.
I don't know where to begin!
All I know is that thanks to technology over the last 20 years, I have "been" to places I never thought of or considered. Being the Francophile that I am, I've only focused on France as my crush but after "visiting" England through Netflix shows such as Escape to the Country and the Great British Baking Show, I have become extremely curious and enamored with this place. I trust your interests and instincts and I can see that what you have experiences is exactly what I want to see.
Oh the beauty.
Thanks for the post. I too love European architecture. It’s great and timeless. Hugs.
And now you must watch 'A Close Shave'. Shaun the Sheep is waiting for you......
Beautiful, and really so lovely - all those old places - you've captured them for us to see and feel and to share what you saw & felt. I feel like I was there with you all! Thank you for the pics and the historical stories that went with it.
Thank you for the tour, I enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed seeing Montacute House as I've never been there.
You have been selected to spend the next 5 years living in Montacute House and redecorating the whole place. Enjoy. (Oh - and regular cleaning and dusting too.) - Boris
Love the photos of your trip. I went over when my son was going to school and spent time in Canterbury. It was so lovely there. So nice in the smaller cities.
WOW, just WOW. Amazing structures and intricate details on EVERYthing! The flowers and meadows are quite lovely. I would be right there with you, trying hard to pet the sheep. I distinctly remember my parents filming me petting a lamb on its head, when I was about 3....and the lamb was taller than I!
That hedge is something! Looks like somewhere the Keebler elves would live and work. And I just can't get over the age of those structures. But, eeeewww....I don't think I could jump into that bath water. That is just waaaay too green for me!
And your art truly does justice to that pudding house...so cute!
Such beautiful photos of Montacute House. I spent about half a day in Bath and absolutely loved it. I wish I could have spent a few more days. I didn't get to Montacute House but did visit other great and historic homes. I loved that you saw the original Pudding House and it was one of my favourite blocks in Briarside Lane.
Lovely photos. Did you try the waters? 😆 Montacute house is beautiful.
And thanks for the clip of Wallace and Gromit - the bunnies in the fridge door makes me laugh every time. Looking forward part 3.
lovely photos, great archtecture. I haven't been to Bath for many years, but I do have happy memories of visits there. The person who told you food in the UK isn't very good may well have visited many years ago when indeed our food was not particularly great, but now it is, particularly for veggies as so many of us here are veggie.
This all looks gorgeous. Enjoy your trip.
I feel like that about England too - I have been lucky to have been there three times and each time it gets harder to leave. I save all my extra money so I can go there!
I loved these pictures of Bath - I've never been but would love to see it.The history and the architecture over there are amazing and it's wonderful to look upon things that are so old. I read somewhere once that the main difference between North Americans and Europeans (including the English) is that we think 100 years is a long time and they think 100 miles is a great distance - so true, at least from my experience!
I also enjoyed your post with all the Samplers - I have always loved them. Such a beautiful record of something someone learned a very long time ago...
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