Compton Verney

 

No rotary cutting tiny 2 1/2" squares or even decorating for me today. I had a glorious day out with a good friend to Compton Verney in Warwickshire. We were so lucky with the weather and were able to enjoy beautiful autumnal sunshine all day long. Compton Verney is an art gallery housed in what was until relatively recently a derelict historical mansion.The house has been in existance for over 500 years. What we see of it today was designed by a famous Scottish architect, Robert Adam, and the grounds were laid out by Capability Brown.
When we arrived, we happened to notice that there was a guided tour of the grounds about to take place, so we abandoned our plans to browse the gallery and joined the tour instead.

The tour went at a leisurely pace and it was so very pleasant standing in the autumnal sunshine listening to the history of the grounds.

The sun shone on the lake, and we appreciated it all the more knowing that days like this are surely at their end for this year, and that the next time we visit it is likely to be a lot colder and grey skied.

We learned about the restoration of the Ice House, which is in effect a large covered pit . In winter ice would be taken from the lake and stored in the ice house, where it stayed frozen ready for use in the kitchens during the summer before the days of the modern fridge!

The ice house is no longer used to store ice, but looks wonderful with a new thatched roof, and has a new purpose as it has become the home to a few bats.

All in all, it was a lovely day out, a well needed break from the sewing and decorating and a memorable way of saying goodbye to summer