Nether Lypiatt Manor

No doubt I've blipped this house before. Perhaps not precisely at this very green moment of Spring. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent used to live here. They are minor members of the Royal Family, but a few royals got told to go and earn their own livings a decade or so ago, so they left. Who knows who lives here now? It still looks spartan and a bit haunted. The gardens are enormous. I went round them once on an open day, but all I remember is a whole greenhouse full of streptocarpi, and some gazebos all got up to look like pagodas. No views, just high stone walls. They keep the riff raff out, as well as the views over the river Severn and mountains of Wales.

Saturday's Zoom quiz is no more , because NZ has freedom now! So I stayed in bed, then had a bath, and was all geared up to go out for a walk at 11, when I suddenly decided to look for some keys. Cue to tidy up a ghastly old box full of old hinges and Steve's father's stationery collection (he died in 2007). I also found a strange contraption that Steve tells me is for putting on a riding boot. I'll take his word for it. This object is so heavy that I've dubbed it 'the murder weapon' and put it back under the stairs.

The walk (at 11. 45) took me over the fields and valleys to Claypits Lane, near the village of Thrupp.I walked right up the lane, almost vertical, to this house, then down a wooded lane, the footpath skirting another big house,  a Nouveau Cotswold manor, to yet another entrance to a house. After that I was in glorious buttercup-filled fields, with birdsong along the way. I couldn't hear any traffic. Wonderful. I shot a tiny video to remember the occasion. No one else around, apart from a dad  in running gear and his two sons lagging behind. I didn't need to worry about social distancing, they were there and then gone, just like that. 

Eventually I came to a lane and realised I was at Quarhouse, near Brimscombe. The descent was so steep that I had to use muscle groups I had never used before in my life. Suddenly the area seemed densely populated, because the houses were not half a mile apart. Radios were being played, and hedges trimmed. I carried on to the junction with Bourne Lane, Brimscombe,  and then proceeded back along the lane to Thrupp, which is an amazingly strung-out village, again full of radios and hedge-trimming. The village school is still closed, of course. 

Back to Claypits lane, once more, and through 'my own' little woods and valley, the Heavens. People were picnicking and having little fires, and generally frolicking, as they always do, but now in a socially distanced way. Two people per picnic blanket, two metres apart.  I visited the waterfall and tried to keep myself from getting tangled up with various dogs and their owners. 

At home again, (1.45 pm) we had lunch, and I went to the pub/shop for some yeast for a friend. She was reluctant to give me back the book I'd lent her, even though I'd asked in advance, because she was half way through reading one of the short stories. I let her off, because she is being shielded and can't go out. 

Once home again, I threw together some flour, etc, for a granary loaf for CleanSteve. The bread machine did the rest. 

Then, my highly eccentric friend came by to return yet more jigsaws, rejected as being unsuitable for her. The first one I gave her had a picture that was "too complicated". I grant you, it was a bit crazy. The next one had "too many pieces". She only likes 500s. So next time , I sourced two more. One of those was rejected as having "too many pieces the same", but she conceded that she might try the other, even though it had "rather a lot of white pieces". Today she very kindly donated me one to pass on. She said she hadn't been able to do it because "it had too many brown and green pieces in it". 

She begged me for more. I showed her one with 700 pieces, but of course that was no good, and a magnetic one, which she also rejected, and two children's puzzles with interchangeable pieces. No way, Jose! At this point, I suggested that she might be more suited to another hobby. She said that no, she really liked doing jigsaws because they were great for doing while on the phone, or drinking coffee! I can only assume that she spends an awful lot of time on the phone at the moment. Or drinking coffee.

Before she left, I mentioned the bread machine loaf. She said that the best thing to do was to buy a bread mix and then to shape the loaf oneself, to make it look "more artisanal" without a hole in its bottom. I was tempted to reply that we all have a hole in our bottom...

When the non-artisanal loaf was baked, and the pears were poached, and the family members consulted about the next few Zooms, and the codes made available, I did a bit of my own jigsaw, (which has a an awful lot of cats' faces and bodies on it!) and then threw together some supper in a roasting tin. It worked remarkably well,  and we had home made chocolate sauce, and shop bought ice cream, with the pears (poires Belle Helene). Then I cleaned the kitchen. 

So, on this day, I managed to be both a domestic goddess AND go for a two-hour walk, and do some of my jigsaw puzzle. I also chatted at length on WhatsApp with a local friend, and did not kill anyone, even though I have now located a Murder Weapon!

If you've read this far, you deserve a medal. Thank you.