Weekend With Friends - Part One of Two, Charlecote Park

The week gone by had seen me spending large quantities of time preparing and cooking meals and cakes for the weekend. Think Mr P thought me a little mad, but I was pleased I did this because it meant I could enjoy the weekend with our guests and not stress about what food needed to be cooked. Saturday we woke up to glorious weather and headed out to Charlecote Park. I thought we'd been there before, as the pictures of the outside looked rather like some other National Trust property we'd been to. But as we arrived I realised we couldn't have been there before. The carpark is situated right next to the most amazing farm shop/nursery.

They were selling masses of amazing gourds the likes of which I have not seen since we had visited Switzerland during this time of year.

I came back with this small basket to use for display.

I also bought a lovely bunch of dahlias. Anyway time to show you the house, as we did eventually get there!

This is the gate house! How to show off, golly I could get my home into this building several times!

The main house, with the small front garden! We were given a talk about the property and its history, which I think always helps you to understand what you are about to see.

Arty farty picture!

Then once inside we were greeted with another talk about some of the clothing worn. Apparently what look like two small girls in the centre of the picture is in fact 2 boys.  They were dressed like this so that when they were playing outside no one would kidnap them to use for labour. Also note the child on the very right hand side is suspended in mid air! Anyway the talk was very informative. Not sure I wanted to hear it all when we were informed that the family would only have a bath once a year in June! This was then often followed with a wedding!

The house tour was not massive, as a large chunk of the property is still used by the family. With the sun shining we had a picnic and then went for a walk around the grounds.

Golly this church looked more like a cathedral than your local parish church. Back to the farm shop to buy our goodies. Can't resist showing you more of the products. Golly to live near here must be wonderful, to have such a choice of vegetables and fruit etc.

We decided to try and hunt down the church that had looked like a cathedral. Inside were lots of kneelers beautifully stitched by some of the ladies in the church.

The church was so spectacular as it had been paid for by the owner of Charlecote. After our tour around the church we decided it was time to pay a visit to the local pub. As we entered I could not help but notice that there were vegetables on the bar. Wondered if it was some sort of bartering system!

After half a cider I decided a toilet trip was needed before we headed back home and whilst washing my hands was watched by this rather sexy gentleman! A kind of Mr Darcy moment!

 I know shocking a minister's wife using the word "sexy"! Will I be excommunicated?
Well you'll have to wait for part two for the rest of the weekend.