Waddesdon Manor

Today’s (Sunday, 17 November) trip was to this lovely stately home. It has been closed for the last month and is only open for a Christmas display. The display was lovely. There were Christmas scenes in all the rooms, a question to answer about each room (to win a prize), and the place was stunningly done up. I wasn’t all that impressed with all the Christmas stuff although there was a couple of rooms which weren’t standard Christmas. One of the scenes was “The Snowman” by Raymond Briggs and for anyone who’s not read or head of this delicious children’s story, have a read. Here’s a version, I think the narrator is David Bowie.

Anyway that bit was delightful. Christmas carols all around the place. But I would have liked to have been able to see the house without all the glitz of Christmas around. So we mainly looked around the grounds and they were pretty stunning. Starting with:

Now how stunning is that !!

Now this was interesting. Topiary. And judging from what I’ve read, it was done for Queen Elizabeth’s Jubliee and I gather that during the Jubilee year it was near the house itself, whereas now it’s tucked away in a corner. Also in the couple of photos I found of it, it was flowering. I would love to have seen it in flower.

Sadly, most of the outdoor statues had been covered up or removed for winter. These were in one of the gardens, looking vaguely like ghosts. Again, I think I have far too much imagination.

I rather like this picture. Not sure how to describe it. I think it is a party of ghosts getting ready for a night of scaring people. The big guy in the front of the photo is telling them all to behave themselves.

Notice the trees are rapidly losing their leaves and starting to look quite stark.

This was the road up to the Manor gates. Looks like any suburban street until you get past the gates.

And the ornate gates. All these places seem to have incredible gates.

These are all out of order. I seem to be just following my thoughts tonight.

These thingees on the building tickled my fancy for some reason. I wasn’t sure if they were little verandas or stairs or what. I don’t even know what to call them. Hence the word “thingee”

 

Here they are close up

Not veranda. Not stairs. Simply decoration. However, the stairs inside follow the pattern of the outside and are spiral stairs.

As usual, I was not allowed to take photos inside. A shame, but I do understand.

This was the back of the building I photographed waiting for M&K to come out of the shop.

From the manor we walked to the old stables which today had a mini-market.

How good job did I do on that one. I really like this one.

Among the shops in the Stables there was a van selling donuts, dipped in chocolate while you waited. You got three donuts on a skewer and the guy in the van (very cheeky young man he was), dipped them into the melted chocolate while you waited. Then you needed hundreds of serviettes to clean yourself off afterwards. I didn’t take a photo of them, I was too covered in chocolate to manage my camera.

There was also a train. Now anyone who knows me, knows I like trains, even this kind.

As you can see, the day was slightly dampish. A bit of rain, but not enough to stop us from wandering around without getting drenched.

A magical cave

We’re not allowed to go in because we might disturb the hobbits that live in there.

And the last thing we saw was the aviary. I tried to get some photos of the birds, but the mesh between me and them seemed to bamboozle my camera sometimes. This photo was fine for some reason.

This is a Sulawesi Ground Dove. Apparently they can’t fly and are not native to the UK. But hey, you get that and she is rather pretty. I’m assuming she’s a she.

My final photo for this blog.

Madeleine

Monday, 17 November 2008