The alarm went off at 4.45. Since I had been awake for half an hour or so around 3 a.m. I was in a very deep sleep and left my brain on the pillow for a few hours! Anyway, I got to Malvern at 7.35 and wasn't surprised to see far less cars in the car park and far less outside stalls than usual. The weather forecast for the weekend had obviously put people off, although the Met Office's 10% chance of rain from 7 a.m. - mid afternoon proved correct. I had taken a spare top and jeans just in case though and walking boots in case the ground was wet. I managed in waterproof walking trainers as it happens.
Lots of these enamelware items about the place. Can't get excited about rusty tin items though.
Sorry, I forgot the couple of indoor stalls photos.
I was away by about 10.15 so got to listen to the Archers Omnibus on the drive back (Keith will have been relieved!) I stopped at a church too - post of that later in the week. It was a good bit of time off from my caring duties, and Keith didn't miss much as a lot of the stalls were very car-bootish - stock just not desirable. Our favourite traders/stalls aren't trading there any more so I assume didn't sell enough to make it worthwhile.
I hope you all had a good weekend. I am trying to work out how to avoid the show traffic to go and do the grocery shop (and kicking myself for not doing it in Ledbury Tesco's yesterday!) It's the week of the Royal Welsh Show and traffic through the town will be nose to tail. They have shut off the roads which go across from one side of town to the other too. I can go a very long way round across the Eppynts to join up with the road which I need for Brecon, or I can chance going towards Maesmynis, then along the steeply-ending lane which dumps you into traffic coming round a blind bend - NOT good when you are turning right. We went that way once and never again . . . If I turned left and then went into the layby 100yds on to turn around . . . just possible.
I am making a big pan of Minestrone soup this morning - it felt like a soup day. Now, having stripped Keith's bed before breakfast, I need to make it up with fresh linen.
Looks like a fab setting with that backdrop! I would’ve enjoyed a good browse as I do love the metal ornaments and the enamel containers! 😁
ReplyDeleteYou can see the beautiful Malvern Hills in the distance once you get to Hereford. A lovely place to live. There weren't many things I actually wanted, but the swallows did appeal.
DeleteThe Malvern hills are so beautiful, Elgar country as my mum would say who loved the Welsh Marches all her life having been evacuated to farming relatives in Shropshire during WWII. But, an early start and a long drive for you. Hope you fortified the inner woman with a nice breakfast at some point and I’m looking forward to the church post. We had an interesting afternoon yesterday. We visited for the first time St Mary’s House in Bramber, a Pilgrim Inn built in 1470 by Bishop Waynflete, the same Waynflete who built and endowed Magdalen College, Oxford (husband’s alma mater) and was bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. It is fully timbered with a jettied first floor under a Horsham stone roof and only one wing of the four quadrangles set around an inner courtyard survives. It was built for pilgrims to eat and rest while on the Winchester to Canterbury road which mostly followed the chalk ridges of the South and North Downs. There were some beautiful pieces of furniture and every room had its own distinct character and atmosphere. I loved the upper parlour with Elizabethan trompe l’oeil paintings on wood, the massive diagonal ‘dragon’ beam with the cross beams going off and forming a herringbone pattern like a dragon’s tail, the Sussex crane pot holder in the inglenook and much more. When it was first built it was just four huge halls with fires open to the roof and simple raised sleeping platforms for the pilgrims but after the dissolution of the monasteries it became a private house and when the current owners bought it in the 1980s it was derelict and they have poured their lives into it. I will return for sure as it is a treasure trove, a real box of delights. Parts of it reminded me of Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire as there were cabinets of for example Wedgwood black basalt teapots (adorable), almost a whole room devoted to Napoleonic artefacts, a glass cabinet of exquisite evening reticules and kid gloves for tiny hands … Elizabeth I stayed there and Charles I sought refuge there from the Roundheads - as you can imagine I was aquiver with excitement and even talked to one of the owners, a gentleman who was born in 1927 and we bonded over our very different experiences of teaching English as a foreign language in Italy - a weird coincidence after your Italian language postcard! Life is full of coincidence don’t you find? Hope you’re having a lovely start to the week and you get some time in the garden. It looks like a wet week for us which is making me happy as I have lots of reading (really enjoying The Whalebone Theatre and I think you would too as it is set on the Dorset coast) and making to do. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting things on those stalls. along with a few things that make my skin creep like the circus items. to each their own. I am often sorely tempted by things like those metal swallows, reed mace and ferns. There was a stand of them outside a lovely second hand shop at the. bus stop where I used to wait in Pembroke for the. 349 They were £30 each though. and had to stay where they were. at that price.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking Christmas present here . . . from me, to me!
DeleteEVERY time I drive past the church where Elgar and his wife are buried, I think, next time I will stop and look round. I am always in a rush to get home to Keith. More time this time but the service was about to start! Sod's Law.
ReplyDeleteMy breakfast was at 9 a.m. and was a ham and cucumber crusty roll brought from home.
Oh my goodness, St Mary's house is GORGEOUS and you described it so beautifully. That is certainly a place Keith and I would have loved to visit, back in the day. I've looked their website up and so get a flavour of the house - absolutely lovely and unspoiled. I see what you mean about the Elizabethan trompe l'oeil room - we have a galleon JUST like that here, but tucked away and not on display (kittens!!)
I still long to go to Snowshill Manor but guilt prevents me. Anywhere that Keith and I wanted to go together is off the list because it is so unfair he can't go too. He tells me to go, but I would find it very hard to do so.
Fancy me putting up the Italian postcard instead of one of Cecile's, written in French! What a coincidence. Showed what temps were like then too . . . pre Global Warming.
This reply is to you Sarah, for some reason the computer has put it down the page.
DeleteI do like the wrought iron ornaments and you bought a few lovely plants. I still haven't made it to Malvern - there is a very good priory there and son wants to go to British Camp. It was very rainy in Herefordshire last Saturday where we were. I like the painting too.
ReplyDeleteMalvern would be a lovely day out. I hope you can persuade your husband of this.
DeleteI bought one of those swallow bird ornaments for my son in law and daughter's anniversary last year. I bought it from Cuffy and Sons in Exeter. They were so wonderful! I did it all online and they sent them out from there. I thought they were gorgeous. I never really heard what my daughter thought of them. I once bought a handful of metal cat tails, what you call the bullrushes. I can't remember what they were made of, but it was shiny, and they were designed to be gathered together. When the wind blew, they made tinkling noises like windchimes. I gifted them to a friend.
ReplyDeleteThe chap selling them said these came from Exeter. I've just looked up the company and these swallows were bargains. Hope there are some more there next time.
DeleteYou had family treasures on yesterday's post and other peoples treasure on todays!
ReplyDeleteI like the painting too - reminds me of a home made out of a railway carriage.
I can remember when we stayed with Keith's brother in Essex, when we drove to Dedham, we passed a home made from a pair of old railway carriages. Bet it's been replaced by some hideous modern new-build now.
DeleteThere were some lovely things for sale there, but the upended legs ... I have no idea who would want them! I would have bought a couple of the dough boards though they are lovely. I used to find old chopping boards sold well in my shops, I used to tie a little gingham ribbon on the handle and hey presto suddenly they were snapped up twice as fast. It sounds like you had a good day out.
ReplyDeleteThe boards I have are on the large size - one has a fabulous pattern of use.
DeleteSeems like there were lots of interesting items to look at. I agree the turquoise door makes the painting.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I found little that I liked. The general quality of what is on offer has gone down a fair bit since Covid. Now I am only doing a couple of Fairs a year, my drive to find interesting things has dropped too.
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