Rainham Hall

Not having been out and about much lately due to back issues we decided a week ago to make a short trip to a house in our Borough.
The National Trust now runs this place so we knew there would be a good tearoom. 

Interesting mural on the side of a shop walking through the village

Rainham Hall is no longer lived in and has just gone through a 

£2.5 million conservation project. The house is said to be one of the country's finest examples of an early 18th century 

merchants home.

Captain John Harle who built the hall owned ships and brought goods from the far east. 

Thew house is very much a museum with all the history shown throughout the rooms

Different!

This dress was hand made in exactly the same way as it would have been made in the 18th century by 2 local women. A labour of love being all hand stitched.

The stairway to the attics

Would you have wanted to sail down the Thames

passing skeletons in cages!

A walk around the garden before visiting the tearoom

We had it to ourselves being late afternoon

Lots to do at the hall for those living locally (we are 6 miles away) for both adults and children with all the various courses and learning opportunities.

We Did Not Make It!

Well what did I say at the end of my last post

"If our plans materialise for next week then I should have plenty of photos!"

We had planned a week away visiting and staying with old friends living in Yorkshire.

Previous to going I had been doing all that I could (along with Alan) to trim, prune and generally tidy up the garden after all the relentless rain and bad weather.

I obviously over did it as the Sciatica that I suffer from got worse and became very painful.

The day before we were due to leave I began harvesting Lavender to dry and sat sideways on my garden lounger to pull the surplus leaves off the stem and as I twisted sideways to pick them up I felt a searing pain across my back and down my leg. Six days later I am in considerable pain and finding walking difficult at times as the Sacroiliac joint has become involved also. 

I continue to enjoy photographing skies of all kinds and above  we see the setting sun  catching the overhead vapour trails from aircraft

and the next evening a different scene with approaching rain clouds moving across the sun

and some of the roses brought inside

We have a number of upcoming events that I do so want to be involved in, including our street party to celebrate her Majesty the Queen's 90th birthday, so need wisdom to know what I should and should not be doing.

Some warm sunny weather might help too!

Different Garden Perspectives

Some different perspectives

Quite a few shrubs removed from  here and replaced with 

4 Spirea and more grass which has now grown green and lush since this photo taken  last week

Always so much dead heading to do this time of year

lost count of how many bin loads

Another new grassed over area

I think I need to stop posting on my garden and focus on something else!

If our plans for next week materialise I should have plenty.

A Different Kind of Garden

My son's garden is certainly different.

From the initial planting in 2000 he has let it run wild apart from occasionally mowing the grass.

He is single and loves to travel several times a year. 

It works for him and the wildlife.

Photos a little hazy as passed along 2 mobiles, my i-pad and my computer!

I did take some lovely spring photos myself last year on my i-pad but of course lost them when i-pad was wiped.

Even the back of his house is covered in ivy.

I was counting up the countries he has visited in the last 6 years - quite an achievement.

He goes to see animals, scenery, architecture and the local culture.

He has thousands of photographs and maybe sometime I could start a series of posting some if not too daunting.

He has given me permission to do this.

He began his journeying on an African Safari, and the following year climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet).

He likes to go off the beaten track rather than the popular tourist places.

From that time he has visited Ethiopia, Namibia, Borneo, Bangladesh, Peru, India, Laos, Cambodia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Botswana & Zambia.

He has just returned from climbing Mount Toubkal in Morocco and next week is off to Brazil for the third time to visit friends.

So sometime I would like to share some of his magnificent photos, his hobby being photography. Quite daunting as there are thousands.