A Windy Walk at Stowe

Yesterday we paid a visit to Stowe Gardens, probably our favourite local National Trust property. The gardens are described on the National Trust website as "one of the most remarkable legacies of Georgian England", and are not flower gardens but 250 acres of parkland designed to illustrate various aspects of early 18th century politics and morality, with carefully placed statues, follies, temples, bridges and landscape features. I don't think we have ever seen everything in one visit - yesterday we probably walked about 4 miles and didn't cover the whole estate.

The weather has been quite miserable since the it changed so dramatically from summer to autumn on Tuesday, but yesterday was better with at least some glimpses of blue sky. It was also very windy - just the sort of bracing autumn day I like, so long as I am wearing enough layers!  The building below is rented out by the Landmark Trust as a holiday home - I was curious so had a look at the details here. It is mostly one big open space with circular bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom in the corners.

While the gardens belong to the National Trust, the house is a very expensive public (meaning private!) school- it is the sort of school that has its own golf course. This is one of a pair of stone lions guarding the main entrance to the house from the gardens and enjoying an extraordinary view across the park. After our  walk we had lunch at the cafe. The menu is more limited than in non-Covid times, and it only has outdoor seating, so we warmed up with hot pasties (my vegan spiced cauliflower pasty was exceptionally tasty). I was fascinated by a dog whose owners were seated at the next table - he was a black and white border collie, with one light blue and one dark brown eye. I had never seen a dog with different coloured eyes before, but I discovered later that it is not too uncommon in certain breeds and is known as heterochromia.

H spent the day at her office for the first time yesterday. She had been interviewed at one of their big city offices, so it was the first time she had seen the inside of the building. Some others on the grad scheme were in too, and she enjoyed getting the chance to chat in person rather than online. She is still flying through the courses for her first two exams at 100 miles an hour, but seems to be getting to grips with the content. Next week is another college / study week, then she starts some technical training. As the government is now recommending that people work at home where they can, I don't know how much - if at all - she will be going in over the winter. We had three friends over in the evening and ordered a "click and collect" fish and chip takeaway. H was out so we we just nicely within the six person limit. We were all a bit tired and M had an early start this morning, so they didn't stay late. The way the seating is arranged in our sitting room is quite spaced out, so we were all able to keep our distance quite comfortably. 

While M was out at work today I did sorted out an online grocery order, did some laundry, had a soak in the bath, read a bit, and did some reorganising of my wardrobe, switching out some summer clothes for winter ones and clearing out a bag of things I don't wear any more for the clothes bank. I'm not one of those people who is constantly clothes shopping, and yet I always seem to have far more than I need. I aspire to a more minimalist wardrobe and have been doing some thinking about how to achieve this, and also about clothing and sustainability. I still have quite some way to go, I'm afraid. After lunch TG and I watched the live version of Aladdin on Disney Plus. By the time that finished M was home so we went out for a short walk as we were both feeling tired and it was drizzling slightly, then spent some time trying to  unravel some wonky figures on his payslips - something went haywire and ended up with an underpayment that he is trying to get sorted out.

This evening H went out for a meal with friends and I cooked stir fry for the rest of us - chicken for M and TG, and vegan "chicken" chunks for myself as I am want to try to cut out meat, dairy and eggs again as much as possible for a while. I'm often feeling quite stiff and achy, and when I switched to a vegan diet a couple of years ago it made a noticeable difference to how I felt. I want to see if it will help again. I'm going to carry on eating fish, for now at least.