Blippin' Marvellous

Today I had a most fabulous and eggsciting Blipmeet with Madchickenwoman.  She drove a long way to meet me at a National Trust Property near Newquay:  Trerice, a Tudor Manor House, a gentle, eminently liveable in, yet impressive House with spectacular gardens, one of the renowned bits of the gardens is the Lavender Knot, looking good today.  As rain was on the cards and the clouds darkened we started trying to get some sharp shots of the many bees that were enjoying the Lavender too.  Strange that Mcw and I have very similar cameras and two of the same lenses. 

The rain did appear so we adjourned to the café where we had coffee, a huge portion of Trerice’s famed Lemon Meringue Pie for Mcw and a gluten free cheese scone for me ( Mcw had the best of that choice, but there was no g/f cake!!).  Then the conversations started which quickly developed into an easy flow of common interests (you know one, of course!) much laughter and before long it was just like having a jolly day out with a good friend.  We also chatted to two of the NT Gardening Volunteer ladies who were most interesting, both in the 70’s and retired but were happy to share some of their adventures with us.  One of the ladies has entered the London Marathon next year and the other lady told us she and her husband had been Engineers on Concorde for many years, based in Toulouse.  Her husband was the Chief Engineer.  With that Mr T strolls into the café as the Aircraft Museum he had wanted to go to was closed on Saturdays.  He was most disgruntled and disappointed but stayed to have a cup of tea with us and then as the rain had stopped and the sun was out he was very useful in taking a few photos of us two which showed the only difference Mcw and I had today – our height!!  The Odd Couple in extra.  After Mr T departed we continued our jaunt round the beautiful gardens, taking lots of photos, of course and Mcw taking up various poses round every corner …..  She does make me laugh!! Particularly her wing flapping pose in extra!

Quite exhausting all this chattering and photo taking so back to the Café for some lunch. Two soups, coffee and yet more chat. After which we had a tour of the house.  I had been here before and love the place.  Then there was the obligatory look round the shop.  Mcw bought a very handy folding kneeler mat and a beautiful dark blue Heliotrope because she said she hadn’t owned one for years.  (I’ve since found out from her that there was a large slug it in, yuk).  I bought the scarf I’m wearing in the Odd Couple extra which I actually purchased on arrival at Trerice.  After more photo taking in the vegetable gardens we had another sit down with mugs of hot water and one of Mcw’s Sweet Rhubarb teas and yet more chat!  All of a sudden it was 5 o’clock and the shop was closing so we had to rush to pick up Mcw’s purchases.  By this time there was hardly anyone left in the grounds and lots of the staff were leaving, but there was still time for us to have another shot at those bees on the lavender – one in the third extra.

All good things must come to an end and it was time to say our goodbyes.  It has been a very special Blipmeet and a pleasure to meet such an extraordinary and lovely woman.  Since following Mcw I’ve always hoped to have a meet up, she certainly didn’t disappoint and I do hope we will meet again sometime. 

As a parting gift Mcw very kindly gave me half a dozen eggs.  On looking inside the box she couldn’t believe that three of the eggs were from Gousto, although very free range they weren't from her own hens and as she was showing them to me she dropped one and we all said ooooops as the egg crashed to the ground and the dark orange yolk spread slowly over the gravel.  A free meal for somebody anyway and the other 5 have travelled safely back to Shropshire and were all gorgeous, thank you.

Some more photos of our lovely day here and I've also backblipped the View, FlowerFriday and Naughty starlings.