30th March 2026

Our trip included a visit to the 'Nature in Art' Exhibition which just down the road from the Travel Lodge we were staying in.  It was a mixture of art work and photos and was host to many overseas artists and photographic work.   The rather good abstract paintings below had been turned into B/W by my camera as well.

Occasionally my phone camera goes into B/W

Some stunning fire surrounds in this Georgian House.  Notice it has a 'broken pediment, a feature that always intrigues me for some reason.

 I notice there are a lot of paintings around that are abstract in their design and have come to the conclusion, that this is design work for our modern interior designers, so very similar to the Georgian era when what you put on the wall reflected your status.  In todays world though a colour matching scheme.

In the natural garden, there was bright yellow in all the shrubs, forsythia, mock orange and mahonia echoed in the daffodils.  Also, I even saw fields of yellow rape seed flowers.  Goodness know how all this was surviving in the Artic cold weather we were experiencing.

Why did I take this photo? Because that white flower is Sweet Rocket.

Andrew obviously goes Hawaiian when he surveys his domain but the whole event was of course in honour of an old friend and many,many years ago neighbour - J.  Who was 90 years old last weekend.  We travelled in style in a Mercedes, Andrew drove beautifully and I was able to see the computer system running on the car - so different from the old days ;) but I do miss the old beautiful maps that we struggled with in a strong wind.  

This is one of the sons, he was a slim dark haired teenager when I last saw him babysitting my daughter.  Time definitely catches up with you.
 

We did drive past Lacock Abbey but did not have time to stop and walk about

The hotel which was hosting several functions

The party which was in its way very touching as people met up

And one story.  I had been warned that the person who eventually bought my house the last time wanted to talk to me.  I was slightly worried about this, but I need not have.  He gave me a long talk of what he had done to the house, had some trouble with the kitchen floor.  Now this dated back to when I left the house.  This house was a new build, but the builder of the estate of bungalows had carelessly built my semi-detached on top of an old well causing a crack to appear in the back wall.  It was mended under the 10 year builder guarantee but Keith muttered about chucking stuff down the well and then putting a piece of corrugated iron over the well to hide the hole, was how the job was done.  Anyway he loved the house and with his wife they were happy there.  But like me he loved animals and kept horses down at a Bremhill stables.  He showed Welsh cobs and had won first in show with them.

When I asked him did he keep his horses to the end  he said yes right to the very end.  He reckoned it was the price of a second mortgage each month £600/£700 a month.