Two footstools and a tassel

Today it’s all about the footstools and a tassel at Blickling - if you’ve visited you might recognise the flooring of the Long Gallery. And if you haven’t, the Long Gallery is just what it says. It’s original use was for exercise and it has the most amazing ceiling - which I’ll share another day - today we’re spending time looking down, rather than up. And admiring the needlework.

The colour on both of the footstools were still pretty vivid, and both had a very polite note that they were too fragile for visitor use, though both looked very inviting. This one features birds and flowers, and what look like chillies. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but to me they could be.

And that bird definitely has its eye on them, so could be in for a surprise.

The second is more floral, and in all of my photos I think it’s upside down. So you can either enjoy it as I did, or turn your neck to try and imagine it the right way up.

Aren’t they both great? I think on balance the first one would be my first choice, but aren’t they both fab?

The tassel above also caught my eye, a relatively simple thing, but so much detail. And so, so pretty.

A woodland walk

It’s been a while since I had an urge to go to the woods. I’ve no idea why I did, but I did - and it was a good urge to follow up on. Even now, looking at the photos to create this post has been a good thing. Though obviously not as good as being there in person.

Petts Wood is relatively close by to us, but it’s a twenty minute car journey. We visited in October, so the photos are probably greener than it currently is. Even though it’s just over seven miles away, and somewhere we’ve driven past many a time, this was the first time we’d stopped, and the first time it was our destination.

We’d thought ahead and put our walking shoes into the boot, and changed into them before heading along the paths. But then again, not that clever enough to remember they were still in the boot of the car when we went food shopping just before Christmas. Finding them innocently there with a trolley load of shopping was quite a discovery.

I’m a fan of bracken anyway, but this view I could just keep breathing in. Maybe I should set that as my desktop wallpaper - though in reality, I don’t often see the wallpaper on my laptop as it’s covered by many layers of open windows.

The trees were fascinating too, and it’s true that the more you look, the more you see. At first glance the tree above looks an unusual shape, but looking more closely you’ll see that the horizontal part is actually a fallen tree that’s continued to grow towards the light, just in a slightly different way to when it was vertical.

The other thing that amazed me is that we’re less than twenty miles from central London, but the picture below could be much further afield.

These two photos represent how important it is to look down, as well as up. MOH was whinging that I was walking too slowly, but there was too much to see to race around. Perhaps if it were a place that was more familiar he might have a point.

And as we headed back to the car, the markings on the tree to the left definitely made us smile - it summed up our mood too.

Succulents on the terrace

You’ll know I’m rather partial to a succulent or two, and so having been relatively ‘starved’ of ogling other people’s succulents when I saw these perched on the wall overlooking the main lawn at Standen, it didn’t take me long to be standing in front of them.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

I mean, who could be disappointed with the dusky grey pink variety above or the pink, orange and yellow flowers of the one below.

And that large rosette. Pure heaven. Though my succulents tend to do this, and migrate to the edge of the pot. I’m glad that that is usual behaviour, however frustrating that may be.

But I think the one that stole the show was this pretty, pale pink flower. How delicate, and how exquisite. And even better it let my iPhone capture its detail - always a winner for me.

That was quite an unexpected succulent fix, but one that I didn’t realise I would enjoy quite as much as I did.