Second half

This is the second of the five holiday posts that I couldn’t put up on line while I was away.





We’ve now moved into the second half of our 2-week trip to Northumberland and on the second Saturday we visited another National Trust property in the area, called Wallington. The house itself was built in 1688 and is a typical square building that has one reception room leading onto another round a central hall. Its jewel in the crown is the hall that is decorated with scenes of notable moments in the history of Northumbria.They are in the wonderfully romantic style of the Pre-Raphaelites, which you may have guessed is a favorite period of mine.

As usual no photos allowed in an NT property, which is always highly frustrating, especially as they no longer print many PC’s and the guidebooks are now £5.00!





I did take quite a few pics outside in the enormous grounds, which are apparently never closed. One of the things that caught my eye were these brilliant griffin heads, they look almost comic in a horrendous way.

There is the most wonderful walled garden there that I instantly fell in love with, as the planting is so well done, it leads you from one area to another just as if you were moving from room to room in a house. One of the areas that attracted me was a water garden that had this delightful small horse ornament with small ferns growing around the head. I was so inspired I decided to do a quick pen and ink sketch of it.





To one side in the walled garden there was a very large ornate glasshouse, that had been constructed in the early 1900’s by the same company that made Kew Garden’s houses at that time. It was filled with tender flowering and exotic plants and as the rain had started again it was a great haven of peace, warmth and light. I was so impressed I made my OH promise to make me a miniature copy in his newly acquired greenhouse.





I just had to take a couple of shots of the wonderful colours.





I was also very keen on the beautiful ornate ironwork that held up the roof, there must be a linocut in there somewhere!!





And for the final 2 shots of the day I found this amazing bark on a fallen tree and this lovely thistle in the walled garden.



Just in case you thought I’d forgotten all about my good intentions of doing some creative R&R, I did manage a longer sketch, in the walled garden, of this planter in a circular ornamental area. My OH was conveniently watching some grey wagtails that had young in another part of the garden.