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Monthly Archives: November 2022

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Trip to Chastleton House

Blasdale Home Posted on November 30, 2022 by SteveJanuary 6, 2023

30th November 2022

We visited the National Trust’s Chastleton House to see it decorated for Christmas. We try and visit a National Trust house at this time of year to see the Christmas decorations. We bypass houses such as Waddesdon Manor, as a protest, because they charge NT members who visit at Christmas time.

Chastleton House is a large house clothed in dilapidated splendour. The previous owners fell on hard times, with the resultant leaking roofs, no heating and poor decoration. The NT has preserved this look throughout the house. The house was decorated for a 1960s Christmas. You can see vinyl records, the old tube monochrome TV, the old 60s GPO phones and valve radios. The homemade crackers were brilliantly made by the volunteers from crêpe paper and toilet rolls. Do you remember making paper chains by sticking together coloured pieces of paper? The volunteers must have spent a while making all those on display! Great use was made of games and various glasses and cocktail paraphernalia. Champagne coups were a feature and some wonderful 60s food. There were also exhibits from before the 1960s. At Christmas in 1938, the children’s parcels were parachuted in by an uncle who was an RAF pilot. The parcels were scattered across the front lawn, stuck in trees and attached to the house. R spied a thriller written by one of the last private owners. Yes, she ordered a copy, but sadly could not find one with the same attractive jacket.

There was limited access to the gardens, but nice for a quick wander.

After our visit we looked for somewhere to eat (yes, shockingly there is no NT tea-room!), and ended up in the roadside Cotswold Cafe next to a garage. Excellent; it was very clean and served very good basic grub. I had a baked potato with baked beans, cheese and salad while R had a tuna mayonnaise filled roll with salad. The cafe was decorated with old motoring memorabilia, see the model campervan photo.

After our lunch we headed to the nearby limestone Rollright Stones, where you park in a layby in Oxfordshire. There is a nominal fee of a quid each to visit, which we put in the honesty box. There are three monuments – The Kings Men, a late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age stone circle, with nearby an Early or Middle Neolithic dolmen, named the Whispering Knights, while across the road (and in another county, Warwickshire) lies the King Stone, thought to be a single monolith Bronze Age grave marker.

Well worth a visit, though everything would have looked better on a bright sunny spring or frosty winter day, rather than the heavy overcast sky we were greeted with.

We have visited Chastleton House on other occasions. The previous visits were in 2007 and 2005. Did we remember doing so? Mmmm.

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Posted in Gloucestershire | Tagged Chastleton House | Leave a reply

Portmeirion Number 5

Blasdale Home Posted on November 18, 2022 by SteveDecember 17, 2022

18th November 2022

Our final breakfast at 9.00, and then packed up and the porter ordered, to take our bags back to the car. We had timed this to the T. The weather is now typical wet Welsh weather, pouring with rain. It rained until we were out of Wales. We had planned to stop on the route but decided not to. The inclement weather making it unattractive. The car behaved, and we made it home with plenty of electrons in the battery. A lovely break.

Tomorrow we are off to Cambridge for a Gonville and Caius Feast.

Posted in Wales | Tagged portmeirion | Leave a reply

Portmeirion Number 4

Blasdale Home Posted on November 17, 2022 by SteveDecember 17, 2022

17th November 2022

Our final day here in the village. A walk around the village and up to Castell Deudraeth and back. Visited areas of the village we had not looked at this week. Today we saw a couple of humans swimming in front of the hotel against the incoming tide. A bit chilly I would speculate, rather them than me. Tonight, I put the car on charge around teatime and watched some more episodes from The Prisoner over our G&Ts. 7pm soon came around so we decamped to the hotel, but this time for the tasting menu. Very good meal. It had two options, meat, and vegetarian. In the main, most of the courses were the same, except when there was meat for which a veggie alternative was served. I had meat, and Rosemary had the vegetarian, which included fish courses. We also added an excellent cheese course to the meal.

After dinner, the car was Fully Charged, so it was unplugged ready for the morning. We were stuffed.

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Posted in Wales | Tagged portmeirion | Leave a reply

Portmeirion Number 3

Blasdale Home Posted on November 16, 2022 by SteveDecember 17, 2022

16th November 2022

Another wonderful day, how wrong were the weather forecasts from a week ago. I rushed out before breakfast to take a few pictures during the golden hour. Back in plenty of time for our breakfast at nine. The breakfasts are excellent, a good Welsh/English breakfast, plenty of cereals. juices, pastries, and cooked fish delicacies. R made a mistake (for me) asking for Gluten Free toast for us both. So, my Welsh breakfast arrived without the fried bread, toast, sausage, and black pudding. A bit disappointing. This mistake was not repeated by R.

After breakfast we had our Wednesday Zoom call with the SadGits. We sat outside the hotel in the bright blue sky chatting to our friends across the world. I think we set a trend, when we left there were many others ordering cakes and coffee (not that I was allowed any cake).

Today we walked around the Chinese Lake, admiring the trees and reflections. We also visited the new motor-home camping spot which Portmeirion has built. It was very nice. All pitches have hedges delineating them. All pitches have power. There is even a charger for those coming in an electric camper. It is the price which would put us off. The price does include entry to the village, so maybe they are expecting people to stay only a couple of nights.

Again, we had some G&Ts back in our suite, while watching yet another episode of The Prisoner. At 7 we headed over for our supper.

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Posted in Wales | Tagged portmeirion | Leave a reply

Portmeirion Number 2

Blasdale Home Posted on November 15, 2022 by SteveDecember 17, 2022

15th November 2022

Today was predicted to be a lovely day, so we decided to walk to the furthest point of the woods. We often walk to a bench here and feed a Robin which appears to accompany us through the whole walk. Actually, it is highly likely to be several different Robins who follow for short distances. Due to a miscommunication with R, we headed along the coast path which goes through the Ghost Wood, and then up some steep paths. The path was also very overgrown and not clear. The guidebook we had showed the path but had some lines through the path. Examination indicated the path was closed. We made the bench, going beyond it to where R had not ventured for a long time. No Robin, so no one to share lunch with. There were Oyster Catchers feeding on the sand banks where the tide was coming in. They are very noisy.

The walk back was simpler, taking the route R had wanted, along the stone wall. We were soon back to civilisation.

Back at base for G&Ts, then supper at 7.00, this time a different menu.

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Posted in Wales | Tagged portmeirion | Leave a reply

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