Brideshead visited and restored

Yes I know it should be revisited, but as it’s my first visit I can hardly revisit can I? Though I will admit when we booked our trip to Yorkshire last year Castle Howard was high on my ‘to visit’ list, which may just have been swayed by the TV series which aired in the early 80s. MOH though, was of course, completely unaware of this.

In fact the walled garden was fantastic and by far exceeded my expectations of a walled garden, I’d like to a post, but it seems I’ve not shared them yet. Clearly I’ve been keeping them for myself (and the other hundreds of thousands of people who visit each year!)

But once we were in the house, I was on Brideshead watch. So I was pleased with the Brideshead Restored exhibition.

The rooms from this exhibition were completely destroyed by fire in 1940, five years before Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited novel. While the original series was filmed at Castle Howard, it also hosted the cinema version released in 2008. The burnt out shells of the rooms still remained when Miramax were looking for locations, and the producers quickly realised there was an opportunity to turn these rooms into film sets.

In 2007 the area was cleared for carpenters, set builders and painters to transform it into a dramatic painted interior. The murals have been “convincingly distressed” to look as if they have been part of the fictional Brideshead Castle for many years.

This room was used for two scenes in the film - dinner on the first evening when Charles Ryder stays with the Marchmain family, and Lord Marchmain’s deathbed scene if you must know. I don’t think I’m breaking any secrets by saying in both cases some licence was taken by the film makers.

The view from the windows also featured strongly in the film, and when it’s this good, why wouldn’t it?

And I couldn’t end this post without a glimpse at the Brideshead cast reunion. Sigh.

I’ve a feeling I’ll be dipping into the book for a top up of some teenage memories. Let’s just call it the Downton effect…

In the Dry Garden at Hyde Hall

The flowers for today’s Flowers on Friday post were taken in the summer last year at the RHS garden in Essex. Usually I head there while MOH does a mad, hundred mile cycle around the Essex countryside, but I didn’t make it this year as after dropping him off, I headed out for lunch. So in a belated attempt to get my Hyde Hall fix, and to remember how warm the sun was on my visit, here’s a selection of photos from the Dry Garden, which shows how plants can cope, or adapt to cope, with less water.

They can also look pretty too. The allium heads, which have gone to seed above echo the heads of the blue agapanthus below. Yes, more agapanthus, they’re taking over on my blog at least, as the replacements for hydrangeas, and they’re lovely too, but I have less opportunities to photograph them these days. Maybe it’s the gardens I’m visiting, or maybe there are fewer of them around following their peak as the plant trend a year or so ago. Who knows.

The yellow fronds of the plants below reaching towards the blue skies make a great photo, but looking at the leaves, I’m pretty sure many of us would give them the weed treatment, I’m certain MOH would!

The grasses which edged - and colour matched - the path which winds its way through this garden. They look, and were, sun baked - and so was I on this visit.

Did you know?

The smaller and thinner the leaves of the plant, the more likely your plant will cope with less water. Think heathers, rosemary, thyme and of course succulents which buck the small, thin leaf advice! Even cistus though are good in coastal and are also drought tolerant, their leaves adapt becoming smaller and more lustrous than they would be in the UK. The ones we saw in Portugal, in the Alentejo region were outstanding, and the fragrance was more concentrated too.

The photo above is one of my all time favourite photos. To me, it just shrieks summer. When I first saw it I thought I could enter it into a photo competition, I forget which now, but in the end the deadline came and went. Maybe another time, or maybe I’ll just keep popping back to this post and “ahhing!”

Mowgli, Indian street food in Liverpool

We had some great food in Liverpool and discovered some great restaurants. After a Moroccan feast for lunch, sumptuous steak Saturday night, on the Sunday were were up for something different. After some internet searching I kept coming back to one restaurant, or actually restaurants, and that was Mowgli, which promised Indian Street Food, and didn’t disappoint, we struggled to finish everything we’d ordered - but clearly tried our best.

What I wasn’t expecting was to be so wowed by the decor. The photos are darker than I’d usually post here, and it was quite a dark and moody space, but one lit with plenty of fairy lights, which gave it an almost magical feel. The birdcage lamp shades threw shadows across the walls and ceiling, adding to the overall atmosphere.

Even on the staircase, there was ropes and more fairy lights. We started with cocktails - a Mowgli G&T for me, complete with ginger and a Smokey Cardamom Old Fashioned for him. When it comes to cocktails, we’re pretty straight forward and can often guess which one each will order. For the food there was so many options we could have chosen, and the menu definitely encourages an ‘eyes bigger than your belly’ approach if you’re not careful. We just about finished ours, though I’m not sure which of them we’d have left out.

The bar caught my eye, look at the end of it below, it’s made from stacked sleepers on their end, and is a really effective and natural looking addition. It was of course, finished off with more fairy lights. Ropes hung from the ceiling and pulled taut were used to divide spaces between tables, in open kind of booths.

And walking around the rooms, was Mowgli himself, painted onto walls, and featured on the menus. He’s walking (in a stationary way) with purpose isn’t he?

So a great space, and great food. If you’re in Liverpool, or visiting, then one of their restaurants is definitely worth a visit.