‘Tis the season of goodwill….except….

 
 
 
 

…it is also the season of the “shoot”. A friend of our employer pitched up earlier in the week with several brace of pheasant. A “brace” is a Mr & Mrs Pheasant…..”hang them for a few days before you pluck them, Sir M is looking forward to them next time he comes”…….We duly “hung” and promptly forgot about them, I had recall in the middle of the night and so this morning dealt to them….that was a bit of learning curve, also a bit messy! Shot wounds and all that – I don’t know how they do it! Anyway, these “braces” of birds are sitting in a miserable pile in the fridge - I think they are much nicer strutting around the fields…..anyway ‘life as a servant’ prevails and I think their messiness will have to be nicely disguised as a “game pie”!!!
We went to the Cheltenham Races last weekend, which is a bit of a fixture at this time of the year. You share picnic in the boot of the car with the dogs and then study the horses “form” as they are paraded around before they are taken out to race. They all look so lovely and very capable……however, the ones we bet on are still running.
Parts of England are snow bound at the moment, we are hoping for a “white Christmas”, but I think that is a bit of a dream, it’s freezing cold, but so far just a few teasing flakes. Lovely walking weather.
The hole in the ground is having a temporary cover put over it, the size of the “Super Top”, locals are freaking, not realizing that come May, the whole site will look like a meadow, it’s astonishing. We fantasize that it’s a stadium for a Rolling Stones New Year Concert! Christmas is a bit of a lonely affair this year as we are manor bound, we shall make the best of it….drink mulled wine to your health and wish you were here………

Life as a servant.............

 
 
 
 

……..get’s a bit surreal from time to time – well most of the time actually! When our employer was in residence over summer, he thought that we needed more parking space for guests etc and because he thought more cars parking would spoil the look of the place, decided that it should go underground…consequently we have a HUGE hole in the meadow and a building project of industrial proportions going on around us. When it is finished it will be invisible.
Last weekend two of our employer’s family came for a “country weekend” with their friends. We had been given a brief by the parents, who was coming, what rooms to prepare, what meals were being eaten ‘out’ and what sort of meals they would like when they were eating “in”….. ……..everything changed, of course….guest numbers went up and down and rooms that had been deemed suitable by the parents were discarded by the ‘young hosts’. Meals that the parents had thought were going to be eaten ‘out’ were of course eaten ‘in’ and meal numbers fluctuated between 8-10. A traditional Thanksgiving Dinner was requested for 8pm on the Saturday night…at 7.30pm I was asked to put it on hold for 30mins as another young friend was flying in by helicopter (as you do!)……..Two hours later said young guest arrived and the meal was served! (Rod and the resident young-uns having guided the heli into a paddock with their torches, in the dark and freezing cold).
Uber-rich kids are pretty much the same as kids everywhere except they have bigger toys and people to pick up after them……they were very polite and well mannered and hoovered up cookies at an alarming rate as well as large quantities of Daddy’s Moet!!
The photos are a bit random, because I’m having “issues” with storage – the HOLE, the Manor kitchen, a fav sunset and one that I took from my hairdresser’s window in Soho – “make my day”!!!!!
Christmas is looming and we are feeling a bit bereft….wish you were here xxxxxxxxxx

Scotland...........

………is breathtakingly beautiful and having a little rustic cottage on the waters edge on the Firth of Solway is a lovely way to spend a few weeks. The weather in the Lake District was the worst EVER……the council recently put in flood measures to cope with ‘once in a 100 year event’ but nature has a way of thumbing her nose at such frippery and threw a once in a 1000 year event!! A month’s rain fell in 24 hours! We got a couple of days when we just had to hunker down and watch the sea raging outside. It’s astonishing what a difference a mile or two of sea can make. The Lake District will have to be visited another time by us. It was a really mellow experience, lazy days, walking over hills and dales, watching the migratory birds settling in for the winter. The land and the people have a sparseness and canniness that is legendary…..e.g at a service station it costs a quid for “free air”…..I believe one had to pay to use the machine! We visited Gretna Green, full of romantic expectation and found it to be disappointingly mediocre. Having said that, throwing back our bedroom curtains each morning and looking at the ever changing vista of sea and sky, took our breath away…….wish you were here xxxxxxxx

Autumn in England………

……..autumn in England is spectacular and autumn at The Manor is no exception. We have recently acquired “Polly” a Blue Cross rescue dog…she is very quirky and just as we think we are making headway with her she will go from being a dog who is very willing to please, to a delinquent who would rather live ‘rough’ than mind her p’s and q’s living on an idyllic estate!
We are persevering and walking a dog is a rather fun and vicarious way to enjoy the countryside. Today we came face to face with a deer, Polly was beside herself hoping for a game and was bewildered when the deer leapt over the “deer proof fence” and was gone!
Everyday the trees are becoming more sparse, the days are getting shorter, the nights longer and one feels like curling up with a good book.
We are driving up to Scotland tomorrow for two weeks to “do” the Lowlands and Lake District, we have rented a beautiful little cottage on a private estate, right on the beach in Dumphries….it’s “dog friendly”…….it isn’t Italy, but next year….when we have the hound under more control and she can be left without disgracing herself. Fortunately all our friends are doggy people (what Brit’s aren’t?)…so we are working towards “a plan”….meanwhile Scotland looks lovely, wie’ a wee dram, a pile of good books and an open fire who could ask for anything more…….wish you were here xxxxxxxxxx

And so……..

………we have begun a love affair with Italy…..how could you not…..? Italy has drawn people in search of culture and romance for centuries…..it has more than 100,000 monuments of major historical significance, it is the home of opera, the healthiest food in the world, it was the seat of the Renaissance. It is impossible to describe the inner experience of Italy, the profound effect it can have upon one, the impact of being there – of laughingly doing what thousands of other people were doing and have done before us – holding up the leaning tower of Pisa! Walking around the city wall in Lucca, climbing up the Citadel in Porto Venere, finding ourselves eating freshly caught fish with the locals in La Spezzia. Visiting monasteries and castles with bullet holes from the German occupation still evident in the walls. Climbing down into ancient cellars with acres of oak barrels aging last year’s vintage. Spontaneously being invited to attend local concerts of wonderful young classical virtuoso performers. We could go on and on and on………but once again our “life as a servant” is starting to take priority and the beautiful English autumn is beginning, it’s not too bad……... however, one doesn’t want to be walking under the chestnut trees with the HUGE conkers that are dropping…. that’s a whole other blog……..wish you were here xxxx

The people and the pageantry……..

……….We visited Arezzo on a steaming hot day – about 38 degrees. Arezzo is a beautiful walled medieval town set on a steep hill. It was like stepping back in time, literally!! The town was full of teams of “knights” on costumed horses. Arezzo is home to an annual medieval festival called the Saracen Joust (Giostra del Saracino). In this, "knights" on horseback representing different areas of the town charge at a wooden target attached to a carving of a Saracen king and score points according to accuracy. Virtually all the town's people dress-up in medieval costume and enthusiastically cheer on the competitors. On this particular day (a week before the tournament), all of the competitors and towns people ride into the cathedral for a blessing. The trophy then stays in the church until the winners claim it after the tournament. You can buy and wear scarves in your favourite teams colours to show support – these are for sale everywhere, but we didn’t fancy backing the ‘wrong’ team. We also saw a bride and groom wandering about the town – this is quite common – in Italy a couple get married, walk through the town and then hook up again with all the guests a bit later. It’s a very Italian thing to dress up and “see and be seen”…..every night in the piazza’s whole families, young people, old people just wander around, sit, talk and eat gelato until quite late, …………it’s a lovely, lovely vibe……to be continued

Duomos and drains………….

…………The buildings of Italy span almost 3,000 years and some of the drains bear witness to this fact as you walk through the streets!!!! There is a very distinctive “drain” smell!!! It’s astonishing how an essentially unpleasant pong can enhance ones sense of “place”!
We visited Duomo’s (Cathedrals) in Florence, Arezzo, Siena and Lucca. The Duomo in Siena (1136-1382) is one of Italy’s greatest, a spectacular mixture of sculpture, paintings and Romanesque-Gothic architecture. (it brought Rod to his knees!) Apart from the masterpieces by Donatello, Michelangelo, Pinturicchio and Nicola Pisano, is an astonishing inlaid marble floor throughout the entire church depicting a series of historical stories. The floor is usually covered with only parts of it exposed, but for the month of September it is uncovered and on show in all its glory.
Also on display is a collection of large, beautifully illuminated manuscripts for Gregorian chants predating the invention of accidentals (sharps and flats) and indeed the Duomo housing them, probably 8th – 9th century, it is amazing that the colours are still so vibrant…….maybe they are preserved by the “pong”.
We could have spent our whole holiday just taking in this one place! …….to be continued……wish you were there……….xxxxx

The paintings……..

…………….I crassly shocked my dear Italianate friend before we left for Italy …. “if I have to see another religious painting I’m going to close my eyes”!!!! She said “how can you consider Italy without experiencing religious art”??? Indeed, she is completely right……nothing prepared us for the Italian frescoes…….they are everywhere churches, private houses, street walls, public venues….. the sheer beauty aside, one has to consider the physical difficulty of painting something that you can only mix enough paint for a limited period, complicated, intricate and often executed on a curved ceiling lying on a scaffold many metres above the floor! The beauty, softness and intricate story telling almost made me want to embrace the Church once again. Some are vast and cover huge areas of wall and ceiling, others gracefully enhance architectural features, others are beautiful in their shy modesty………
The Renaissance painters never fail to move us and seeing Botticelli’s “Venus Rising” was definitely a highlight. It is quite weird to get so sated with amazing art that you have to say “enough” and take yourself off somewhere completely different to digest what you have seen……….to be continued xxxxxxxx

The statues………

……….Tuscany alone has many, many famous sculptor’s works ….. it doesn’t seem to be a big deal to the locals…. (it was for us however!)… famous ART seems to be part of an everyday environment. In piazzas, churches, in nooks and crannies in walls. Mostly iconic religious works, but not entirely…….many statues and frescoes high up on walls have fresh flowers placed in front of them. My question was – who does that? It was answered a few days later as an obviously regular neighbourhood guy, having placed fresh flowers in front of an icon, walked back down the street with his ladder under his arm, to him ‘no big deal’. Michelangelo’s compete with Donatello’s, Bartolomeo’s, Baccio’s and Giambologna’s (to name only a very few)…. they are all wonderful and inspires one to study art history – ignorance can only take you so far!!!
During our stay on the estate “Fattoria Petrolo” we discovered in the little church owned by the estate, works by della Robbia……. way, way off the beaten track. The villa Petrolo is in the heart of the Chianti region and produces very good Chianti, Vin Santo and wonderful olive oil……..more about that later……….xxxxxxxx

Italia……….

……………has always been very high on our list of places to visit and we can’t understand why we have left it so long! At last our “love affair’ with Italy has begun. After a bit of a false start in Milan, we arrived in Florence and despite temperatures of 35º we wandered around like kids in a candy store. Everywhere we turned we were face to face with art as a way of life. The statues, the paintings, the churches, the language, the clothes, the food, the people, the traditions, the very land which has inspired so much literature……there are going to be quite a few blogs about Italy folks……….wish you’d been there xxxxxxxxxx