Edwardian Elegance

Hello friends.

It has been a very warm and sunny week here in this Small Corner. Hopefully, you have also enjoyed some sunshine.

Taking advantage of the good weather, my husband and I visited a wonderful house and gardens hidden on the outskirts of the city centre, near the University- a real oasis of calm and beauty.

Winterbourne was built in the early 20th century as a family suburban villa and is surrounded by approximately 7 acres of gardens. It was built for John and Margaret Nettlefold, with much of the garden designed by Margaret herself. She modelled the gardens on the designs of Gertrude Jekyll.

The house is Edwardian and follows the style of the Arts and Crafts movement that was popular at the time. There are also many examples of local craftwork around the building.

The main rooms face south and open off a wide hallway, with the drawing room leading directly onto the terrace, seamlessly linking the house and garden. There are many original features which enhance the rooms, along with period furniture and William Morris wallpaper.

The house changed owners several times until the end of World War II when the University of Birmingham inherited it and became a hall of residence for female students. In 2010, following some refurbishment, the property and grounds were designated a heritage site and later became an Arts Council-accredited museum.

There are also exhibitions which reflect the Nettlefold's industrial connections with GKN (Guest, Keen, Nettlefold)

I enjoyed seeing this Edwardian home, as it gave me lots of ideas for my dollhouse. Hubby also enjoyed the exhibition on the industrial heritage of the original family.

The gardens also reflect an Arts and Crafts feeling with the curved steps leading down from the terrace to lawned areas and a wonderful extended nut archway. In the 1930's a pergola and Japanese bridge and tea house were also added. We enjoyed wandering around the woodland walk and seeing the sunken rock garden. There are also several period glasshouses containing collections of orchids, alpines, carnivorous plants and cacti. We didn't stay in there too long as it was so hot on that day.

(These Gunners were enormous) 

(My eyes were drawn to yet another hosta!)

Back home, our lovely D baked another cake. This time, it was a vanilla sponge cake with cream and caramel topping. There is currently about a third of the cake left on the plate.

While on the subject of cake, we also celebrated a " 60" birthday for hubby's younger sister this weekend. It was lovely to meet up with everyone, and although the hotel food and organisation were not great, we still had a good time celebrating together.

I also managed to pick the blackcurrants in our garden, and above are two of the pots of jam I made with them. 

It appears that the weather will be more changeable this week, with sunshine and showers expected. 

Whatever you are doing this week, have a great time and enjoy the long Summer days

B x 

Cricket on a Sunday Afternoon

Hello friends. 

I hope you enjoyed a lovely week.

Last Sunday afternoon, hubby and I spent a lovely afternoon with our son and daughter-in-law at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham. Before I begin, I want to point out that I am not usually a sports fan of any kind, but sometimes I can surprise even myself. 

Hubby and our son have always had an interest in watching cricket, and our son worked at these grounds when at University. As retirement is coming up shortly for my other half, I had flippantly suggested he take himself off to the cricket grounds some days. That resulted in our son booking tickets for the 2024 Vitality Blast, a set of matches completed in a day, unlike Test cricket. They are generally known as T20s.

We were able to see both a women's match and a men's match, which were both great fun to watch.

The whole atmosphere was wonderful, with everyone clapping for all sides - bowlers, fielders, and batters - true sportsmanship!  I actually learnt a lot and at least know how the scoring works now. There was some amazing play, with one of the bowlers bowling out six unfortunate players and gaining a hat-trick as well. I think we will be revisiting Edgbaston after retirement. Here are a few pictures from the match; that's my sports reporting for now. I did have a great time, though.

On Friday, hubby and I were off again in search of another interesting home and its gardens. Baddesley Clinton, in Warwickshire, is about 40 minutes away from us and was perfect for a sunny afternoon. This was originally a medieval manor house with strong Catholic connections. This religious fervour could be very dangerous, especially during the English Civil War, and the house was a safe place for Catholic priests. The Ferrers, who owned the property, leased the manor to two sisters at that time. They had several hiding places, or priest holes, cleverly fitted, which proved to be life-saving on several occasions when Catholic priests were being hunted down.  

As it was a hot afternoon, we decided to take a stroll in the shade around the house and made some new feathered friends.

 

We also enjoyed seeing more of the formal gardens and my favourite flower was this beautiful Peony.

Back in our own garden, it's the turn of some other fruits to take centre stage after the strawberries did so well. I have a couple of blackcurrant bushes scattered around, and they have all produced a lot of berries.

The gooseberries are also doing well, although someone has been munching on some of the leaves. I need to be a bit more vigilant to prevent the sawfly from attacking next year. 

This week, in this small corner, it looks to be another warm week to enjoy in the garden.  I'm going to add more bark mulch to the woodland area at the bottom of the garden, which has become a little overgrown over the last few weeks. Although there is less need to weed there, I'm hoping the mulch will help retain moisture in the soil for longer when it has been watered or rained on. One or two plants also need to be removed and replaced, and so a trip to the garden centre is also looking likely. We also have some family birthday celebrations in Essex next weekend, which will be lovely

I hope you have some lovely plans for the week and that the weather is perfect in your own corners.

Best wishes

B x

Half Term Catch Up

Hello everyone. 

After half-term week, this week has been much quieter, giving me the chance to catch my breath and fill you in on a few of the other things we did during the holiday, as promised.

First, we visited Hereford Cathedral. This cathedral has been a place of worship since at least the eighth century, although large parts of it were rebuilt in the Norman period. Gothic styles have also influenced it. In the crypt of the cathedral is the chained library, which has ancient books and manuscripts chained to the bookshelves. They are handwritten and contain beautiful illustrations. 

One of the other most valuable treasures of the cathedral is the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world dating from the late thirteenth century. It is, however, not a map in the modern sense but rather a summary of the worldview at that time—a pictorial encyclopedia and map of the medieval mind.

Although I didn't take pictures of either of these important artefacts, I hope you enjoy the variety of stained glass windows in the main cathedral.

One of the other lovely things about half-term school holidays is that D often likes to bake.  Here is her half-term cake that she made this time. It was delicious and super chocolatey! 

D and I also went shopping together and came back after a lovely few hours, with several shopping bags of items for our holiday together in August. We are cruising around the coasts of France, Italy, Spain and Corsica. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Back in my garden this week, I'd like to introduce you to my newest baby hosta. It is tiny compared to the ones at Barnsdale Gardens but holds a lot of promise, according to the plant label. I noticed a leaf in the photo with a rather large hole, and after checking the health of the rest of the hostas, I can report that they are all fine. Someone must have munched on it before I planted it.

The foxgloves are all doing well and the bees are simply loving them.

And this Iris was a beautiful surprise when it opened up during the week. It has had several flowers already and seems to have settled well in the clear water of our new pond.

The Rodgersia has also grown tall and lush in the merry-go-round of sun and rain this year, too.

It's an excellent year for strawberries, and I've already seen many delicious ones while visiting other blogs recently. I replanted my plants earlier in the year and added a couple of new ones from the rampant runners that had grown. This is D's hand so that you can see how enormous the strawberries have grown.

Meanwhile, there is another quiet week ahead for this small corner, but sometimes, that is a very good week indeed. 

I hope that whether your week is busy or relaxed, it is a good one wherever you are in the world.

Take care

B x