Easter in the Countryside

Predictably, I was all too happy to spend four days in the countryside over Easter. After all, the part of the world where the Boy grew up left me charmed when I visited last year.

However, we weren’t as lucky with the weather this year. It was rainy and cold and windy for most of the time, but we still managed to squeeze in a few hours walking around.

And what I realised is that this moody, grey, drizzly weather actually suits the English countryside, it brings out its beauty. At times when we were walking in the fields, with the wind blowing and dark, menacing clouds gathering above us, I felt like I was a character in Wuthering Heights. Which was kind of awesome.

Plus, when in the country, what’s more appropriate than putting on your wellies to hop around muddy fields for a while and returning home rain-soaked and flushed and happy just in time for tea?

Cliveden House

My recent stay in the great english countryside wasn’t just valleys and hills. It also included a visit to this magnificent estate, set on banks high up above the Thames.  The grounds are lovely and varied, the house itself is stunning and the views across the valley below are gorgeous.

Strolling down the sloping banks away from the house got us to a stretch of the river that was impossibly beautiful. It was hard to believe this is the same river I see every day in the heart of London.

If you happen to be in Buckinghamshire someday, do visit Cliveden, it comes highly recommended.

The Georgian House

A few weeks ago, The Boy took me to The Georgian House in Bristol. Clearly, he’s a keeper, because exploring a fully restored and decorated, late 18th century merchant’s house is probably the best way to spend a grey, rainy Sunday morning if you ask me.

Attention to detail has been paid in all the rooms, from the drawing room and the bedroom upstairs to the kitchen and the laundry room in the basement. The whole house is the perfect place for you to play out your georgian/regency fantasies.

The rooms that are above ground are all very grand, all sparkly chandeliers and delicate china and polished silver. I could almost see the ladies doing their needlework or playing the pianoforte in the drawing room, the gentlemen doing business in the library surrounded by hundreds of leather bound tomes. But the less glamorous rooms in the basement were the ones that I thought were amazing. The kitchen, the pantry, the laundry room, bare and in sharp contrast with the comfort found upstairs illuminated the hard life of the servants.

If you are ever in Bristol, I highly recommend visiting The Georgian House, especially if you, like me, dream of being a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. And if you have time, do as we did and go two blocks up Park Street to The Last Bookstore for some guilt-free book buying since every book there costs £2.

You can find The Georgian House at:
Great George Street – Just off Park Street
Bristol
BS1 5RR
General House enquiries: 0117 921 1362

Admission is free

Picture of the day 29/05/2011

Lovely evening spent with The Boy, drinking cocktails in a a lantern lit garden.