A Grand Day Out

The sun shone out of a big blue East Anglian sky for our day trip to Audley End House and Saffron Walden yesterday.   We felt like two excited schoolgirls off on our summer holidays.   Anne had had her nails polished and I'd had my hair cut and was wearing quite a fancy necklace, so we were all set for the day.   All aboard the Skylark for Audley End House.

Huge topiary hedge

Walled kitchen gardens, which used to supply the house with all their fruit and vegetables and plants for 'her indoors'.   Lots of espaliered fruit which yesterday were really getting the benefit of the heat radiating from the brickwork.

hundreds of terracotta pots, which were coveted by my companion  (though I have to say that this became a bit of a theme for the day ....)

pomelo - gigantic lemon-like but sweet fruit native to South East Asia, growing happily in the hothouse

Then off to the Jacobean stables, as we had been told a very handsome groom was on duty.    Actually the horse was pretty gorgeous too.

round by the river over the daisy-strewn lawns landscaped by Capability Brown

to the Tea House Bridge designed by Robert Adam

and back to the service wing of the house and into the laundry

coveting of pegs took place

followed by coveting of lacy linen

I think these are irons, but it's not a pastime I'm very familiar with ... not much coveting going on

round the corner into the dairy with it's sparkling white tiles

and my turn to covet

then what we wanted was a nice sit down and a cup of tea

Then we had a tour of the state apartments in the main house, but no photos allowed, so you can always go to the website to see.

After lunch we drove a couple of miles to the wonderful little town of Saffron Walden, mainly to visit the Fry Gallery ..... which I'll tell you about another day.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend whatever you're doing!