Wollaton Hall and Deer Park

Hello, everyone.

Over the weekend, we visited Wollaton Hall and Deer Park in Nottingham. It was a lovely day to explore and discover more about an area we hadn't visited before.

We looked around the Hall's interior and read about its long past and more recent history. 

Sir Francis Willoughby built the Hall between 1580 and 1588 and richly decorated it. He possibly hoped that Queen Elizabeth I - the ruling monarch at the time - would visit.

Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth never came to Wollaton Hall.

Maybe the distraction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and constant intrigues at court kept the Queen's diary full!

We particularly liked the painted ceiling and walls of one of the staircases, which were added by subsequent owners. 

Although the Hall remained in the family until the early 1880s, Nottingham Council eventually bought it in 1925. They opened it the following year as the city's natural history museum. There is a large selection of stuffed animals, birds and reptiles on display, but we were not fond of them. However, we found the geological displays with fossils and minerals much more enjoyable. We also saw Titus the T Rex dinosaur, or at least his bones were on display.

We also learn that filmmakers used the Hall as part of the set for "Batman- the Dark Knight Rises" in 2011.

While at Wollaton Hall, we also visited their tea room for coffee and cake.

 This was D's choice: Jammie Dodger Blondie.

Afterwards, we took a leisurely walk down to the lake and saw some of the wildlife swimming in the water.

However, our favourite part of the day was the close encounters with the resident deer in the park. It was hot and sunny yesterday, and these young bucks were taking shelter under a large tree close to our walking path. There were two types of deer at the park: Red Deer and Fallow deer. 

We took lots of photos of them.

Tomorrow is a Bank holiday here in England, and although it looks to be wet, it will be good to spend time together as a family. Whether you have the day off tomorrow or not, have a good week, everyone.

B x

We've Been Framed

Hello, and welcome back to our small corner.

D here, and last week, Mum talked about several small projects she had finished. I have been working on the brown scarf for a few years, and the pretty crochet flower was just what it needed. However, that was only one scarf that I had started.

Mum tells me that posting a picture on the blog might encourage me to finish this scarf sooner than the previous one.
We shall see!!

Here is my current progress. As you can see, the new WIP scarf is a lovely shade of blue, which reminded me of the sea.

During this week, I did a framed picture of some mermaids swimming with colourful fish. It will fit nicely with the colours in my bedroom when it goes on the wall.

And now it's back to B's corner.

I also framed a few pictures this week while continuing my quest to finish projects. The artwork is by a friend who works a lot with pen and ink, and the felted birds were by a lady at a craft fair I visited in Bakewell last year. Unfortunately, I didn't get her name, but her work will be displayed in our living room.

 

A few weeks ago, I saw a lovely little crochet bag pattern here and, with my limited crochet skills, decided to give it a go. I had plenty of yarn left over from previous projects and found some suitable fabric for the lining. The pattern was easy to follow and could easily be adapted to make it a bit bigger. I used some ribbon for the handles so I could use the bag to go out for a meal in the evenings. Project finished :-)

It has been so wet and windy this week all over the UK that it has been challenging to do much outside. I do hope all of you have been okay wherever you live. However, I managed to take a few pictures to show the progress in the greenhouse. These are the lettuce I sowed a few weeks ago, and they can now continue growing in a tomato grow bag.

I also have some baby spider plants, which are doing quite well. 

Here is a mummy spider plant with lots more spiderling.

As Autumn is here now, I am cutting out some fabric leaves for a project. It may even be finished by next week.  

And that is all our news for this week. Please keep safe if the weather continues to be bad where you are and D and I wish you a great week.

B and D xx