National Trust Castle Drogo
I am slightly ashamed to post this five weeks after our visit to East Devon. The weather was glorious as I ventured back to London at the beginning of April, with blue skies and longer days helping to ease my jetlag. There was a blip since then with a few very cold days but otherwise the weather has behaved itself.
The first weekend back was spent visiting my mother-in-law. There are a few National Trust properties in this part of East Devon which are worth visiting if time permits: Killerton House, A La Ronde, Knightshayes and Castle Drogo.
With every visit to a grand property, be it a mansion, manor or castle, visitors are always reminded about the cost of maintenance and staffing: multiple rooms, endless corridors, countless objects inhabiting every corner, no modern appliances (in those days) and a large domestic workforce to manage. I admire anyone who could take on this task and I am glad it was not me.
I do like the gardens with its mature trees and in Spring and Summer, the flowers which provide colour and interest. During this particular weekend we visited Killerton House and Castle Drogo. Having taken too many photos of the gardens I got rather stuck with which to show here.
That weekend was followed by 10 days of being down with unexplained rashes, then being occupied with many overseas visitors. With the brilliant sunshine showing up every speck of dust, I have spent the past two weeks solidly cleaning and decluttering our small townhouse. Aiming to be a good neighbour, I have also been weeding and tidying up the communal garden and visiting friends who are house bound. In fact I never have a dull day and happily sink into my bed at the end of the evening.
Without further ado, here is a selection of photos from NT Killerton and Castle Drogo. The next post (I am setting myself a goal here) will be from our weekend visit to Oxford and part of the Cotswolds.
One of the rooms in Killerton House
Killerton’s Garden in Spring
The kitchen in Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo’s Garden in Spring
Spring and its showing of daffodils always reminds me of my dad because he loved reciting English poetry and Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud was a favourite. Each time I visit his burial site I think how marvellous it would be if we could grow daffodils in Malaysia.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.