National Trust Property Visit - Cliveden

After sitting in traffic on the M25 for a couple of hours on our way down to visit The Sailor in Southampton, and facing the prospect of at least another 2 1/2 hours, we decided to abandon the attempt and came off the next exit which was fairly near the National Trust property Cliveden.  We had Percy with us so couldn't go into the actual gardens, but there is still plenty of ground to walk over and we enjoy a couple of hours walking along the river Thames and through the woodland grounds of Cliveden.

Looking back across the hills to Cliveden itself.

Zooming in on the clock tower.

Dukes Statue and Seat which overlooked the River Thames

A glimpse of the River

Farmstead across the way.

Loved the way the vegetation framed this little bridge

Boat rides along the river are available from here.

So the afternoon didn't turn out too bad in the end, but it felt like we were in the car a very long time to not actually make much progress.  Will have to attempt to visit DS1 during the week instead.

Journal 52 - Week 31, 32 & 33

The last three weeks journal pages for 'Journal 52' are: 

Week 31: 10 Minute Challenge

For this I simply wet the page and then used water colours to make 'splodges' which I then turned into birds and other animals.

Week 32: Perspective

Week 33: Comfort Zone

I enjoyed this week - once thinking about it for a while this is what I came up with.

By stepping out of my comfort zone by joining in with this Journal 52 Challenge and trying things I would never have attempted before and 'showing' my work  I have learnt so much and had a lot of fun and will continue to do so.

The Rose Garden work continues.

I am definitely an 'all or nothing' sort of person - when I have the energy to do something I put everything into it.  Finally the sun was shining again today and I managed to dig up the rest of the front garden and planted another seven roses.  

This was what I started a couple of weeks ago...

I dug up a middle strip and planted four roses.

Today it was time to dig up either side of the strip.

The hardest part seems to be skimming the first layer of grass off - that pretty much left me in agony, but I was determined to do it while the sun was out and I was feeling like it.

Once the grass was skimmed off, I dug it all over and then placed the roses out.

I ended up swapping them round a bit.

From top to front I planted:

Iceberg (Korbin)  a white Floribunda Bush Rose  with large pure white fragrant blooms

Moment in Time (Korcastrav) another floribunda rose with masses of bright red blooms with a delicate fragrance.

Blue for You (Pejamblu) a purple Floribunda rose - hopefully this one will stay purple as my other one turned pink!

Chandos Beauty (Harmisty) a hyrbrd Tea Rose which will hopefully have pale pink blush flowers and a lovely fragrance.

Time to dig the last three in...

The back three roses are planted and they are:

From back to front:
Absolutely Fabulous which really does smell Absolutely Fabulous and has lovely yellow blooms.

Tickled Pink (Fryhunky) a floribunda rose with lovely colour and fragrance.

Souvenir Du Dr. Jamain a David Austen 'Old Rose' with lovely deep burgundy flowers

I still need to weed what was the existing edge rose garden and then I will put a bark type mulch over it all to stop weeds and give something to walk on when they need pruning so as not to end up too muddy!  Then of course I need to sort out the rest of the front garden!  But progress is being made...

Another of the roses that was in the existing front garden is 'Designer Sunset' and is ever so pretty.

In the back garden 'Oranges and Lemons' has finally decided to flower....this rose is currently in a large pot - they really don't do so well in pots, so eventually once we have moved the raised vegetable beds, I am going to plant it out along the path.

I am now of course aching all over!  But at least it is a having worked hard type of ache.

Oops, a few more roses for the garden!

We set off at lunch time with the intention of having a bite to eat at a local garden centre cafe and then having a look in a couple of bathroom shops, however.... we got distracted.  Seems we came home with five more roses!  Oops!

David Austin Old Rose 'Souvenir Dur Dr. Jamain 

Floribunda Korcastrav 'Moment in Time'

As my other 'Blue for You' turned PINK we thought we would try another.

'Tickled Pink'

Plus another 'Absolutely Fabulous' as the scent really is absolutely fabulous!

So guess what I am going to be doing this week.

Progress being made...albeit slowly.

Slowly, slowly we are getting things done around the house.  The outside has now been fully painted. Our crittall windows have been serviced and the horrible secondary double glazing has been removed - for the first time since we moved into our house we can now open all our windows with ease.  It is just wonderful.   Of course, it now means we have all the internal windows to re-decorate and paint now.  But most of the rooms either needed doing or freshening up any way.  

We also got nice new bathroom windows and this too has made a difference and will also mean that we can now get our bathroom refitted another job that has needed doing since we moved in!

Last Monday we had a call to say that the new garage door was ready and could they come and fit it.  This meant a rather urgent clearing of the garage - just the impetus we needed to get a job done that had been long overdue.  I think we managed to clear about eight boxes that had needed sorting through for a couple of years or so!   A big car load went to the local charity shop, and I have a boot load of stuff to drop off at the tip tomorrow - yes it has been sitting in my car for almost a week as other things have stopped us going.

The old garage door wasn't especially secure and all the wood surrounds were rotting, plus it wouldn't open or close properly as someone tried to lift it from the side instead of from the centre so it got all twisted.

Nice new door - just need to get the top board repainted now.  Not sure we like the handle so low, but on a whole we are very pleased with the new door and the fit.  I quite liked the idea of having a green garage door to match the green trimmings on the front of the house, but in the end we decided against it as we weren't sure we would get the correct match of shade for the green.

Our old bathroom windows - these were also Crittall and we debated quite a long time as to weather get them serviced along with our other windows or to replace them with uPVC.  In the end we decided to replace them as it would make redecorating much easier in the conservatory/utility room, plus make it easier in the bathroom when we got it refitted as well.

So out they had to come.

New ones fitted

Cleaner lines - on a whole so much better. 

The walls and sills have since been repainted white and it all looks lovely and clean.

So my next job now is to design the refit of the bathroom and then we can get that booked in to be done.  I was going to do it today, but other things happened, so that is my job for tomorrow.

A few rose pictures to be going on with...

'Smiles' to brighten your day.

Ingrid Bergman

Korresia

This rose was planted before we moved in and just recently has started looking glorious - strange how for almost 15 years it hardly flowered and now it looks spectacular!  It is just outside our back door.