Subsumed

As we had a bright, sunny morning forecast we decided to take Dad to the ruins of Haughmond Abbey. LH and Berry went on a walk close by whilst Dad and I wandered around, marvelling at the remnants of what must have been quite a spectacular range of buildings. Henry VIII did for it, of course, but it's new secular owner kept the original Hall for his own use so there's quite a bit of that remaining, but sadly, the great church was robbed of stone early on and only an outline remains. Maybe this lovely little window was subsumed as part of the new owner's remodelling; it seemed to peep out as a remembrance of former glories from inside a thick surrounding wall that had all but engulfed it. There's an extra of Dad about to hide in the corner of the Chapter House (reused by the secular owners with a 'new' Tudor ceiling). Dad is already looking for his next Christmas card picture so I was on snapping duties!

We had planned a lunch out but our chosen venue had a 25 minute wait which was impossible with Dad. Actually, it was a good thing; we certainly didn't need cake and our homemade soup was just as good as anything on offer elsewhere (a concoction made of various left over veg ... I love how you can do that with soup!).

This afternoon I've been browsing places to stay for a quiet Christmas down here next year. There's quite a bit on offer (at premium prices, naturally) but equally, quite a bit already booked. I need to do some serious planning with LD.

Berry and I had a late afternoon walk through the plantation out back. It's so convenient but I don't like it much, to be honest. The (row upon serried row of) trees block the view and it gets quite gloomy going up the track. But Berry doesn't care about such things; so long as there's interesting sniffs and plenty of pine cones to encourage the mistress to throw then she's a happy little dog!