Landlubbers making the most of it

 Grace has finished the cratch board now, progressing from painting on the trellis...

…to  adding the leaves, and finally the rose buds and open flowers. It looks lovely! (The white marks on the windows are reflections of light through the trees behind me, not bird poo!) Now all she needs is a dry enough day to varnish it.

On Wednesday, desperate for a change of scenery, we visited Upton House again. We've been National Trust members since our first holiday together in 1974, and entrance to NT properties is free to us, so visits can be fairly casual and as frequent as we want. We've been to this one four times now in eight years. It's a lovely place to relax, enjoy the house or gardens - or both - have a picnic, soak up the sun and take in the views, and it was a great blessing to us yesterday.

The weather the next day was very wet, so the cratch board remains unvarnished.

It's a dog's tale

I've always wanted to see a play produced by the Mikron Theatre Company. They are one of five theatre companies (to the best of my knowledge, and according to Google) to be based on the canals, the others being the Puppet Theatre Barge, Alarum Productions, Bonnet and Belt Theatre Company, and Widgeon Theatre.

Imagine our delight when we read that Mikron would soon be performing in Welford, at the very end of the Welford Arm, right next to the Wharf Inn. I bought tickets straight away.

And we went last night, a fifteen-minute drive from Kantara. It would have been a trip of nearly four hours by boat, which we would have loved to have done, had I been able.

The play was brilliant, a comic history of  Cruft's dog shows since the first one in 1891; the competitiveness and the corruption, the fanaticism and the fakery - and the loss of a rescue dog called Gary. The players - four of them, each playing several roles - were first-rate singers and instrumentalists as well as actors. The audience were delighted by it all.

It was an out-door event on the green at the end of the canal. Their narrowboat Tyseley (built in 1936!) lay in the water behind the stage. The performance was due to start at 7:00 pm, and the rain started at around 6:00. By half-past, it had stopped, and Grace and I left the shelter of the car to take our seats. Well, we actually took our own picnic chairs, so we went to take our allotted places in the covid-safe seating arrangement. Apart from a few spots of rain, there was no more until about twenty minutes from the end, and it was beginning to get serious as the play drew to a close. But nothing spoiled our enjoyment. It was hugely enjoyable.

Out and about at last! (Landlubbing)

Yayy! We've booked to visit National Trust's Upton House Gardens on Thursday. Visitor numbers are controlled by the allocation of a limited number of tickets for arrival slots at half-hourly intervals. It'll be the first time we've been out for anything other than for shopping since we arrived here on March 3rd! Needless to say, we're looking forward to it very much. We'll only be allowed in the gardens, not the house, but that's fine with us. We've been there twice before, and have a huge collection of photos of the interior. This time, the sights, smells and sounds of the gardens will be plenty enough; a panacea to our souls.

(Preview)

The local swallow community have got a new trick when it comes to catching flies to eat. It seems now that there's a number of them who have learned about out-sourcing the job. At least, the wet part of it. For now, not wanting to get their beaks/faces/heads (depending on the height of the waves on the water) wet, they swoop around looking for some other mug who has got wet and got a fly. And when they see such a bird, they fly in and snatch it from their beaks! It's crazy, but it's what it really looked like, though I have no idea how often these fly-snatches succeed.

I've been very pleased to be re-acquainted with Rona House. Rona did a solo circumnavigation of the globe in her yacht, Cacique, in 1990-93. She introduced herself to me by email while she was reading my first book, Life with our feet under water. I was intrigued by what she told me of her solo journey, and she sent me a copy of the log she had kept in the form of letters sent as she travelled. These are now available on the web, and I do recommend that you read them. It's fascinating, and very scary in places! There's a link there that takes you to her Flickr collection of photos taken at the time, but click here if you want only to see them - or to see them first. 

Now retired from yachting, Rona is spending half of each year in NB Patience here in the UK, and loving it. (What is there not to love?)  Photos and videos of her canal and river experiences are also on Flickr.

 NB Patience

And from me, clouds!

*******

A really good day out

Grace had painting to do. I had various odd jobs to do. We needed to take Kantara out and touch up the scrapes and scratches on the hull blacking. But the weather was glorious, and we just couldn't resist the temptation to drive out somewhere interesting and beautiful. We've been to Upton House and Gardens twice before, but the National Trust recently notified us that the house is staging something of an exhibition, celebrating the life and work of former owner, Lord Bearsted. In particular, how, in 1939, he used his fabulous country house to support the war effort.

One of Lord Bearsted's 52 business concerns was the family's merchant bank, M. Samuel & Co., housed in London. When war was declared, he foresaw the danger of bombing in the capital, and moved the entire staff of 22 into his house, from which they continued to run the business. This helped to keep the wheels of the nation's commerce running during the war years, and the bank further helped the government by funding all sorts of projects, from supplying parachute silk to a system of credits for purchasing eggs from Hungary.

But far from ensconcing himself in the bank in his house throughout the war, Lord Bearsted joined the secret services, while his wife financed and helped run canteens in the bomb-struck East End of London. Both got involved in the desperate struggle to help fellow Jews in peril across Europe. 

Since we last visited the house, it has been transformed to how it was during those years. It was all very fascinating. Unlike most exhibitions of its kind, in this one, visitors are encouraged to touch artefacts, sit on the chairs and at the desks, lie on the beds, read the letters, both business and personal, and peruse the numerous newspapers and magazines of the era.

Lord Bearsted had a large collection of paintings and porcelain. Most of these were bequeathed to the National Gallery at his death, but many of them are still on display in the house. He arranged for some of them to go, with many of the most important works from the National Gallery, to slate mines in Wales for safe-keeping during the bombing of London.

I've never been one to feel awed when in the presence of anyone famous, but I was star-struck when faced with a huge Canaletto painting, just inches from me.

We even had a wartime lunch. "Woolton Pie". Seasonal vegetables topped with potato and cheese, and served with a thick gravy. Very tasty. The sky was cloudless, the sun was hot. Just perfect for strolling in the gardens, or sitting and enjoying the views.

Unfortunately, the lake had leaked away and was mostly quite dried up, but, coincidentally, it had been deliberately drained during the war so that the water couldn't create reflections which might have been seen by enemy aircraft crews, and prompted bombing.

It was a great day out, with the added bonus of outward and return journeys by different routes through beautiful Warwickshire countryside.

Better weather - let's make the most of it!

Yesterday was positively mild! I went for a walk in the afternoon, with T-shirt under a shirt, no jacket. The sky was blue, the marina was a hive of activity, and one could almost feel Spring in the air!

  

We even had the heating off for several hours.

Today, the weather was not quite so good - there was some cloud, and it was somewhat colder - but we took the opportunity to get out and enjoy a visit to Upton House and Gardens, a National Trust property not far from Banbury which we last visited 7 years ago. The gardens weren't much to see because growth had been hindered by the prolonged winter, but the house was interesting, and the stroll around the grounds was very pleasant.

Fingers crossed for more weather like this - AND BETTER!