Life more or less settled down again after my visit to A & E - though I still don't feel back to normal, and I seem to have a lot of medical appointments to come.
We had a visit from Paul's cousin and his wife for a couple of nights. Unfortunately, it seemed to be constantly raining - they arrived in the rain, and it was hardly possible to shown them round the garden, as the showers were so frequent and so very heavy. We thought a visit to Winston Churchill's home, Chartwell, might interest them, so we went in the morning, when the weather was a little better and we thought we might be able to see some of the garden before the forecast afternoon rain started. Although the rain arrived earlier than expected, we saw a bit of the garden before the house opened at 11, so we escaped getting wet at first.
We admired the rose garden and the fish pond, the trees and all the wonderful views, but if won't post many more Chartwell photos as I've already posted quite a few before. The house is fascinating - no photos allowed of course - and we all enjoyed it, even though I've been round it a couple of times before. It has been preserved much as it would have looked when Churchill owned it. The rooms you can visit are carefully decorated with the original furniture and books, memorabilia and gifts, and some rooms contain the many honours and medals that Churchill received, and uniforms that he wore. I particularly enjoyed the poster that offered a £25 reward for him, dead or alive, after he escaped imprisonment by the Boers during the Boer War. There's also a necklace made from the mane and tail hair of the horse he used for his escape, a rather strange memento!
The rain came down in sheets while we were in the house, but fortunately had stopped by the time we finished, so we went to view the kitchen garden and the Golden Rose Walk while waiting for the studio to open. The kitchen garden has some wonderful pumpkins
They are a special display for Halloween I think. There seemed to be a competition to win one, but Paul won't eat pumpkin so I didn't bother entering. The golden roses were well past their best, but the dahlias were absolutely beautiful.
My mother would have been delighted with them, she was especially fond of dahlias.
I also saw some other flowers I didn't recognise, but they really are the most fabulous colour. They are a little like Agapanthus to look at, but nothing like the colour.
Paul's cousin's wife knew what they were and told me the name, but I'm afraid I've quite forgotten it!
By 12.30 the studio was open, and we could go in and admire the paintings. The studio is full of Churchill's pieces, most unframed and in various stages of completion, and hanging at least four deep on the walls. Paul said this was the first time he had really looked at some of them properly, and he realised Churchill was a much better artist than he had originally thought.
The rain came on again, so we made for the restaurant, where we had great difficulty finding a table. We had hoped that the rain, which had been torrential, would go off again so we could walk down as far as the lake after lunch, but there seemed no prospect of this, so in the end we just went home and relaxed. My back was very painful anyway; shuffling slowly around looking at things is not good for it, and I can rarely last more than a couple of hours.
After that, it was packing in the evening, ready for an early departure in the morning.
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