Castle Howard - A Fantastic Setting for a Flower Festival

If there is one thing that I love about stately homes apart from the exquisite architecture and furnishings, is the carefully placed flower arrangements all skillfully put together to give a softness to the often austere rooms.  When we visited Castle Howard in its magnificent Yorkshire surroundings, we were greeted with even more intricate designs for their flower festival.  So, with this in mind dear readers, I have decided to write about Castle Howard in two parts.  The first being the internal decorations, and the second will be external grandeur.  My photos are all jumping and itching to get into this blog post so this is going to be a bit picture heavy.  As usual, grab yourself something nice to drink, maybe a Pimms and a slice of Victoria sponge and walk with me (making sure your crown doesn't slip) through the most amazing rooms.

The long halls full of sculptures and paintings.  Rich beauty on show against the historical stonework.

The enchanting staircase greets you, adorned with carefully crafted vegetation.  Against the illuminated lantern, the banisters shone with the artwork surrounding them.

The bedrooms full of sumptuous furnishings and cleverly crafted flower arrangements.

I think this is a bust of Silenus, the Greek God of drunkenness and wine making - what a happy chap!   

The Great Hall was incredibly crowded so a lot of patience was needed before I could take any photos, but here are some of this particular area.

Even the smaller staircases were adorned with bursts of beautiful, fragrant colour...

Of course, I can't go to a stately home and not capture a chandelier or two.  These glittering jewels that hang from grand ceilings are a joy to my eyes.

The glimmering glass also reflected in the goblets below.  Lunch anyone?

I loved this arrangement... S is for... Sweetbriar!!

This turquoise room was so vibrant and beautifully furnished.

Each room in turn showed the amazing craftsmanship of those who had put the arrangements together.  Beautiful!

By far, my favourite display was in a huge hall like room with books lining the walls...

 A coronet cascading its flowers from the ceiling...

At the bottom of the coronet... pages... fluttering in any breeze that caught the single pages as they hung from the exquisite flower structure.

Phew!  Are you still with me?! Well done!!  Well, that was part one.  Part two will be coming shortly showing the external magnificence of this house along with the spectacular gardens.

In the meantime, have a wonderful week.

Wordless Wednesday - The Tulips Bloom

The little lipsticks of colour start to unfurl.

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Wordless Wednesday

The Field of Sunshine

Every Saturday I get up early to start the house work before the rest of the family get under my feet (I am sure they think the elves and fairies do this on a Friday night!), and then the rest of the day is mine.  With Mr and Miss Teen doing their own thing nowadays and Hubs having his own jobs to do to get the house ship shape, me and Tia can pop down to the Fen for a quiet and refreshing walk.  With the week being fairly dry I knew that the tracks would be easier to walk on for me and Tia wouldn't be as muddy, so off we went with Tia in her favourite position in the car with her jowls flapping as she popped her head out of the window.  Once her seatbelt is released, she chooses where she wants to go, and luckily this time she wanted to head off on her favourite track.  It was dry in places so she went on ahead.

I was glad she chose this track today as I could see in the distance a yellow line.  There are lots of these around the villages at the moment and it is not the usual rape seed that tickles and angers the nose.  No, the yellow line was a field of gorgeous sunshiney daffodils.

We happily walked along the deep dyke getting closer and closer to the sunshine field with hints of what was to come at the side of the slippery banks.

Our only company apart from each other were some horses in their coats, this one was very inquisitive...

... above us the Crowland Gliders were taking advantage of the good weather ...

... and the farm machinery all primed and ready for the season ahead.

Before long we were at the field.  The wind making the little petals of sunshine dance in sequence and enjoying the snippets of the spring sun.

Line after line of these precious flowers all saying goodbye to the winter months and looking forward to the year ahead.

I'm so glad that Tia decided to take this walk today, her face says it all!

Back home and with a cup of tea for me, a Bonio and fresh water for Tia, it was time to refresh the bottles of springtime with the latest blooms.  A happy and content Saturday with an evening to relax and plan the weeks ahead and maybe a spot of crochet!

I hope you have a moment for you to enjoy this weekend.

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Sunlit Sunday

A Bottle of Springtime

Even though grey and dark outside today, there are little hints that spring is very much on its way for a stay.  The tell tale signs surround our Lincolnshire village, one being the vans parked up on muddy verges with hundreds of workers with their backs bent and moving across the fields, and the other is the swaying yellow daffodils shouting out pick me, ready for the Mother's Day bouquet for 6 March.   I would have taken some photos of this swaying sunshine but with the skies being grey the photos would have been quite depressing, so instead I went around the garden and collected some happy springtime for you.

But first, we had to go into a neighbouring town to get some essentials and a couple of things caught my eye.  Kilner bottles.  "I know", I thought to myself, "let's have a couple of bottles of springtime".  With two bottles purchased at a very reasonable price, I thoroughly enjoyed the lackadaisical way of just popping in the stems and letting springtime make its own display.

Cherry blossom blushed its way into my line of vision as I get out of the car and so that was the first sprigs to be cut.  So beautiful and dainty, freshly burst from the cold twigs and screaming spring.

The shy hellebores always give me a little surprise when I come across them.  I don't like cutting them so only a couple were going to join us in the house.

I was surprised at just how many spring flowers were saying hello and how it made my heart sing when I put them into the Kilner bottles.

Daffodils ready to unfurl, hyacinths that had been hidden away, cherry blossom and snowdrops.

I don't usually cut snowdrops, but I just had to see them at my leisure on the windowsill.  I love their clean colour and fine lines.  And, oh yes, in the background that is rain on the windowpane.  Here we go again!

My hyacinths in their pots have become very heavy so they were added too, well, a case of necessity as their stems broke as soon as I touched them.

My kitchen windowsill is looking more spring like now with the two bottles and my bay tree (a gift from my parents).  It won't be long before the kitchen window baskets outside will give me a show of blooming bulbs to enjoy from inside.

And my mantelpiece has the glorious hyacinths and hellebores to look at and enjoy their scent during the evenings.

The living room is now beginning to get its touch of spring with the brighter colours going in, especially from the newly finished blanket.  Tia decided to make an appearance in this photo!

While pruning the hydrangeas, I came across ladybirds who are beginning to wake up and escape from their winter hideaway.  I plan on planting quite a few hydrangeas this year, I enjoy their different stages throughout the seasons and the colour changes - a new favourite shrub!

Springtime in a bottle.  Isn't it glorious?!

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Sunlit Sunday
Roses of Inspiration at The Enchanted Rose