A weekend away, part 1

 Last weekend John and I were away. We went to Swanage on the Dorset coast and had planned some walking, bird watching and generally relaxing. The last few weeks have been very busy with work, family, two dogs and other activities. We needed space to just be the two of us. On the Friday we planned to stop at Kingston Lacey to see the house and have a walk in the grounds.

The house was built by William John Banks, a wealthy land owner, between1834 and 1855 in the style of a venetian palace. Over the years it has been remodelled by different members of the family to suit the changing times and styles. All of the furniture and items within the house including an amazing art collection is as it was when the family lived there. The estate is now in the care of the National Trust.

As we climbed the stairs to view the rooms I took a picture of part of the garden and grounds. We didn't get to walk round the grounds as we had left London late in the morning and so had limited time. I did enjoy the reds and oranges leaves. The autumn colours this year have been amazing, especially as many trees are still holding onto their leaves.

I took a picture of the dining room as the table had been decorated for Halloween but unfortunately the sun was so bright it cast shadows over the scene. I did like the dinner service being used in the display. This tapestry was to one side of the chimney breast.

In the Spanish room there was a lot of art on view. I found the room rather dark and over the top but other people really like it. I did like these 3 panels which have flowers to show the season. I didn't take a photo of the 4th season but I'm not sure why not.

The walls in this room were covered in leather panels with tooled work on them. This in part is what made the room feel heavy and dark to me.

In the next room there was several settees covered with tapestry/ needlepoint

and this delightful Indian cabinet. The cabinet was made in around 1760 in the east Indian port town of Visakhapatnam, a centre for textile and furniture making. The town became well known for creating inlaid ivory work. 

I didn't take photos of the main bedrooms but I liked the ones in the attics. This room was for a child.

The attic bedrooms had been decorated to look like the inside of a striped campaign tent. The rooms for adults would have been reserved for bachelor guests.

On the way out of the building we visited the wine cellar. There was a lot of dust on the bottles.

Having toured the house we visited the stable cafe for some tea and cake before continuing our journey to our hotel. We had to contend with some road closures and some drivers on their way home from work were getting a little ratty. We arrived at our hotel with time to chill out before goin in search of dinner. No expensive restaurant for us. We headed to a fabulous fish and chip shop we know and sat on the promenade enjoying our meal while watching the tide roll in and the sky slowly turn dark. We took the long route back to the hotel and enjoyed a glass of wine to end our day.

Tomorrow I will share what we did on the Saturday and Sunday. For now I want to get on with some slow sewing since it is Sunday. I also need to plan my sewing month as I didn't get time to do that yesterday.

Take care

Lyndsey