October already

I thought that due to the UK national lockdown and now local lockdowns that this year would drag along but for me it seems to be flying by. It feels like I blinked and September was gone and now here we are at the start of October. October is an odd month in the UK as you can get some glorious late summer days that are really warm and then the next day is cold and wet. The average temperatures for the month are usually between 7 and 14 degrees Celsius or 44 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperatures are usually warmer in the south of the country with London being the warmest. It can and does snow in part of the UK in October but mainly in Scotland although Leeds had snow on 24th September this year. This weekend we have weather warnings for very heavy rain.

The above paragraph was written on 1st October and it is now Sunday 4th. John, Lucy and I have been away for the weekend in Suffolk. Even though heavy rain was predicted the weather wasn't too unkind except for the journey on Friday. Our plan was to try and complete the Orwell and Stour river walks but we had a wet weather back up plan. Saturday was very wet in the morning and so we decided to visit places in Ipswich. Our first stop was Christchurch Mansions. This is a Tudor mansion with over 500 years of history. The house has a lot of art work on display by Constable and Gainsborough and in the Wolsey Gallery there was an exhibition about Ed Sherran.  You can read the history HERE  and HERE

The one way system we had to follow through the house took us to the gallery first. Ed Sheeran is from Suffolk and there was a lot of pictures and objects on display about his life and music, all starting with a lot of portraits of him.
 

The teenage girls going through the exhibition at the same time as us were very excited. The house was interesting and had some beautiful furniture. This tallboy was interesting because the inlay wasn't ivory as I assumed but horses teeth.

The fabric seat covering were very pretty

In one of the rooms there was this embroidered piece. Unfortunately the light from the window was reflecting off the glass.

Here's a close up. There were all sorts of flowers and creatures on the embroidery

As we walked round the house we came across a lot of long case clocks including one room that had 4. They were all in working order and running fairly to time. Some very very ornate like this one.

There were mannikins in period dress as part of the room settings. I rather liked the chatelaine displayed here, you wouldn't lose your scissors with them attached to a chain.

The one way system in place meant that we weren't able to enter several rooms. None of the bedrooms were open and you had to peer in though doorways or round corners. I particularly like to see the bedrooms as there are often quilts displayed on the beds. This one has something on it but I couldn't get close enough to see properly. The dress was nice but I'm so pleased we get to wear much more comfortable clothing.

We came across a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, entitled Makutu (1969)

Down in the laundry room there was a collection of irons. Thank goodness for our modern steam irons. Doing the laundry looked extremely hard work.

Having finished the tour of the house we had lunch in the tea room before exploring the park. Lots of autumn colours here and fungi.

In the afternoon we explored Ipswich museum and then the town. Our hotel was by Wherry Quay and we walked alongside the marina.

We came across Noah's Ark. This is a floating exhibition of bible stories. We didn't visit as we were running out of energy and time. We all needed a rest before we went out to dinner.

After dinner back in our hotel room we sat and chatted. I'd taken my crochet with me but didn't manage to do any because the crochet hook had slipped out of the bag into the boot of the car. I wasn't going hunting for it.

Today we managed a walk and I'll tell you about that tomorrow. I want to do some stitching before bed. This week I'm working on my millennium sampler. I'm currently working on the border.

Tomorrow I'm in work and teaching face to face for the first time since March. I have a new group of students starting and I'm really looking forward to it but I'm a little nervous as well.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching

Take care

Lyndsey