Restored to gilted glory

part of the nineteenth century wall for the walled garden

One of the places we like to spend some time at weekends is a local Country Park - it's close to family if we have to return quickly and there's not a lot of driving involved in getting there. There are walks, woods, a maze, plenty of wildlife and birds; there are beautiful views over the North Channel and the Antrim Coastline.

There is also a 19th century walled garden which is now laid out in flower beds, trees, benches and a collection of sundials, both freestanding and placed on the old wall. The wall is the original one that was built for the estate, and the brickwork is weathered, mellow and has a lovely mixture of colours throughout it.

It's a tranquil, beautiful place to spend some time. This is one of the more complicated sun dials, displayed there. As you can see it's a highly decorative piece of work as well as a practical instrument.

Over the last few years, my favourite sundial has been a much simpler one - it's round with a clown's face in the centre. The clown is playing a flute and it's the shadow of the flute that tells the time. I've always loved it for the details in and the expression on his face. Not clowning at all, he has a quiet dignity.

Inevitably over the years he's become weathered and at some stage his nose disappeared as well as his left hand, so he looked a little the worse for wear - but none the less dignified throughout.

On our last visit about two weeks ago we found that the clown had been restored, and not very sympathetically. He's been given a replacement nose and a (bad) paint job.

I find it hard to believe that this was how he was originally meant to look, gilded like a piece of very cheap jewellry, with a nose that has been carelessly stuck on and the cracks simply painted over. It made me wonder where the value is in restoring something when after restoration it actually looks worse and in the end loses the character that the years have given it.

I really hope that this will weather down as the time goes on and will begin to fit into it's surroundings a little more sympathetically. The picture below, showing the path in the walled garden, with the sundials on the left wall, shows how it fails to blend in at all at the moment.

I'll continue to pay my respects when we visit, after all underneath the badly applied make up is the same face that I've come to love; perhaps he'll reappear once again when the autumn and winter winds and rain have had their way.

Sunshine and rain

We got back on Sunday after having a couple of days away on the east coast of Co. Down. It was a lovely weekend!

When we arrived on Friday evening the sun was still warm and the shadows were long -

That evening we ate (and drank) in Grace Neill's -

"Grace Neill’s is listed as ‘the oldest pub in Ireland’ in “The Guinness Book of Records”, it was almost four centuries ago in 1611 when “The King’s Arms” first opened its doors for business in Donaghadee, Co. Down."

It was very comfortable, with excellent service and the food was great. I felt as if I had decided to have a meal in the TARDIS. The front entrance is tiny and the little bar just inside holds three people (four if everyone breathes in), but as you walk back through the building, there seems to be more and more space. It was a very relaxing experience, just what we needed to start the weekend.

The sunset was golden and wonderful

On Saturday morning I went for a walk along the beach, which was 100 yards from where we were staying. The sun was bright and the sky was blue; there were about four people (including me) on the beach. I had a lovely walk for an hour and got back loudly demanding breakfast!

In his poem MCMXIV Philip Larkin wrote of the men and boys shown in the photographs of the lines outside the recruiting offices at the outbreak of the 1st World War:

Those long uneven lines

Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark;

They had no idea of the horrors that they were going to have to face. On Saturday afternoon we visited The Somme Heritage Centre, commemorating a battle that was bloody (5,500 men died on the first day) and sadly unneccessary, one which my grandfather survived and in which my husband's great uncle died (he had lied about his age and was probably around 16).

The tour is well organised and very informative, ending with filmed footage of the battle and images of men and boys who fought and died at the Somme. The bravery shown by these men was unimaginable, given the horrors that they were living through. It was a very emotional experience, especially as we could have been seeing our relatives in the battle footage - we can never know.

On Sunday morning, I was back walking on the beach. Once again the sun was shining, although this time there were a few more clouds around, as showers had been forecast and as we all know, the weather forecast is never wrong!

There were less people on the beach this time, although there were a couple of added onlookers, just chillin', thinking about the cud and whether they would chew some.

The clouds were gathering as the promised showers made their way towards us

and yes, it all ended in rain!

That didn't matter though, because we had a lovely, relaxing weekend throughout which we could take our time and didn't have to hurry on to the next task. And to make it complete, we arrived home to find that our teenage son and his friends had not only left the house intact, but had actually tidied it!! Sometimes everything goes your way :)