Pruning Time and New Gardening Gloves

Pruning time is here and with the sun shining this week (apparently we have had the wettest winter on record) it felt good to begin pruning my 32 rose bushes and to try out my new garden gloves.

They "fit like a glove" as the saying goes and are certainly the most comfortable ones I have come across in all my years of gardening.

 They are both very lightweight and the above pair have an advanced grip (wet or dry) on the palm side.

The back is nylon and Polyester

The above pair feel like light leather on the palm but are flexible wet or dry and have a durable nitrile coating which are also suitable for many outside cleaning jobs.

They are also machine washable.
They have the 'Which' Best Buy approval too.

Click here if you want to know more
SHOWA from Globus

As some will remember I have made masses of changes to my garden in order to reduce the work load which I will be showing as everything comes back to life.

Sheringham, Norfolk

With the wind howling outside and the rain lashing against the windows it is nice to return to October when we had some great sunny weather.

We are wandering around the seaside town of Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast where the North Sea meets The Wash

Random photos as we wander around

We have walked to the front in search of lunch

We settle for The Two Lifeboats which was originally a coffee shop and fisherman'a mission circa 1720

after which we continue walking along the front and back around the town

I so love these murals, they are so lifelike 

depicting life in times gone by

Having finished wandering around the town we are wandering  along the front, again visiting museums and the like.

This is our last day but I have lots of photos of our time in Wymondham on our way home.

Holkham Hall, Norfolk Part 2

A little extra info. on Holkham.

Interestingly our newspaper this week published an article on the many grand and stately homes in Norfolk in view of Prince William and Kate turning their backs on London and choosing their Norfolk home as their main residence at this time in their lives having many of their friends living in Norfolk.

Quoting from the Daily Mail: There are the two rival grandees of North Norfolk: the Leicesters of Holkham and the Cholmondeleys of Houghton. Both make up part of William's Norfolk shooting circle. 

The Earl and Countess of Leicester are Tom and Polly Coke. They are both older than William and Kate. While Polly is a former milliner, giving her easy chit-chat with Kate, former Army boy Tom is a royal equerry.

They have four children, (photo in last post) and home, Holkham, is a Palladian masterpiece with a 25,000-acre estate and a four-mile-long beach (some of it can be seen in previous post) where Prince Charles and Princess Anne use to play. 

A few more tapestry's and paintings.

We see a Rubens here and the tapestry's are amazing

The Queen Mother with her daughters the Princesses  Elizabeth and Margaret

into the kitchen where I seem to have lost most of my photos

 various sized roasting spits

The entrance as we are leaving

and the house itself from the BACK

Most large country houses have a Deer Park

I have not included the walled gardens as I was not so impressed with them

Added to all the photo issues in getting these two posts completed, today blogger is causing issues in not letting me upload and save photos, has taken ages.

Phew!

Holkham Hall, Norfolk - Part 1

Well I have my photos of Holkham Hall in some semblance of order, but not without effort. It looks like Windows has fazed out my usual software and I have to get my head around Windows 10 filing system which is not without it's problems.

I will be taking a few posts to complete this.

If you like architecture, art and paintings and tapestry you will certainly like the photos.

An 18th century masterpiece

As we enter the entrance hall this is the grandeur that we are faced with.

The Hall is a magnificent family home and still very much lived in and a dynamic working estate.

This unusual dining table is put together in sections depending on the size needed 

As we wander around the corridors from room to room there are famous paintings among the tapestries and architecture 

This bedroom had been used by Jules Holland, the Musician a few days before our visit as he had a gig in the grounds

Photographs of the family 

Bookshelves everywhere

The family Chapel

I think 32 photographs are enough for one post so do come back for more!