Calke Abbey and Park

March 28 2017.

This is a place I've intended to visit for some years - I remember a nature ramble one Saturday with our junior school teacher, Winifred Hopper, when I was about eight or nine. At that time the Hall was still occupied and not open to the public.
Then later, my mother told me about an article in the local paper - the last member of the eccentric and rather reclusive Harpur Crewe family had died and the estate had been taken over by the NT, as a sort of time capsule. 

Stables - room for a cart too?

Turnip chopper

The house 

The inside is a clutter of furniture and collections of rocks, of insects, of books, of stuffed animals . . .

A huge rocking horse - and a sedan chair

Gruesome trophies

Bells for the servants

It's just as well most of us don't have the space to keep everything.
The grounds are extensive with a pleasure garde, kitchen garden with orangery, now a fern house. The church is close at hand, reached through an avenue of trees.

The Harpur Crewe graves are adorned with heather mounds.

Daffodils were still in bloom. 

This is a tunnel so that gardener could access the kitchen gardens unseen by any family or guests!

There are glimpse of the lake.

 and the herd of deer.

 In the gardens is a romantic grotto

 More deer close to the house 

 Behind the car park, there is a walk along by some large ponds, where a heron was waiting for fish for quite some time.

I can't resist a good reflection. . .

. . .or two .

back to reality

time to stop

making tired excuses

supermarket call

spring forward

lose another hour

five ahead

of Brooklyn now.

Misty morning

in mist-cuddled world

blackbird pecks at moss

for food or nesting

through the mist

the promise of brightness

sunshine to come

back to base

arrive at Heathrow

with two hours sleep

short night daze

Halloween

A lot of people in the UK (England, in particular) decry Halloween as an American import.  In fact it's based on a long tradition.

From wikipedia

In Scotland and Ireland, Guising — children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins — is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.
 The practise of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.

When I first came to Corby in the early 1980s the local kids would dress up and go round neighbours' houses, saying rhymes like:

I'm an Aberdonian
I come from Aberdeen
I've come all the way to Corby
to get my Halloween 

or

The sky is blue
the grass is green
please may I have
a Halloween?

Now they're more likely just to say 'Trick or treat' but it is really just carrying on a long tradition of children 'begging' at certain times of the year. We always had 'Penny for the Guy' and  used to go carol-singing around neighbours' houses - and not for charity, either.

All generally good fun and a way for neighbours to meet local kids.

I spent Halloween 2007 in Brooklyn - it was delightful to see the elaborate decorations on certain houses, where children were obviously welcomed.

I'm afraid the home-made cats' ears didn't work very well.

The shops on one of the main avenues were nearly all open that evening and handing out candy goodies, and there was a good-natured parade with music.

One of the decorated houses

A store giving out candy

The traffic lights are not part of the costume

She looks a bit spooked? It was getting cold!

And another lovely idea - share or give a scary book!