A Sunny Day at Belton House

It was set to be a wonderfully sunny day last Thursday so we decided to take a picnic to Belton House a National Trust property.

Belton is about a fifty minute drive from us, such a pretty drive through the Lincolnshire countryside. All along the road sides & in fields were bright red poppies in full bloom & so many pretty farms & cottages along the way.

~

This is part of the courtyard at Belton House where the old stables were.

~

Sitting down for our picnic on the green at the back of the house next to the Orangery & Italian garden's.

The girls were excited as this was the first outing for their ladybird chairs in a bag.

~

We had a guest for our picnic & such a gentle well behaved & mild mannered lady too.

~

No pecking, she just waited nicely.

I was a little worried when I saw her walking our way but she made our lunch so special.

The Orangery is in the background.

~

Saying good bye.

~

This is beautiful little garden near the church in the grounds.

~

This area with the roses and Sweet Pea's was my favourite garden.

~

Inside the Orangery.

~

Walking to the beautiful Italian garden, there were more ducks enjoying the cool water at the fountain.

~

The path leading to the gardens from the back of the house.

This is a very formal part of the gardens.

~

Daisy, Kitty & Mary on the back steps.

With it being a Thursday the grounds & house were quite quiet.

~

This is the front of the house.

They play cricket on the front lawn sometimes & there are deer running around but today they were under the trees in the distance.

~

On our way towards the lake.

There was some wonderful old tree's to enjoy.

~

Mary blowing bubbles.

~

An abundance of Buttercups.

~

The beautiful lake with geese, the lake of shining water came in to my mind on such a sunny day.

~

Back to the courtyard area of the house.

We just had time for a quick look around the house before travelling home to our animals.

~

One of the many beautiful bedrooms.

~

A gentle sitting room with such pretty fabric on the sofa & chairs.

~

The dining room with hunting picture's hung all over the wall's.

~

The study, the had old time music playing in here.

~

I hope you all enjoy seeing our visit to Belton House, we had such a special day & a well needed break.

~

At the gift shop I bought this lovely book with some birthday money, it was on special offer.

~

Thank you all for your kind caring comments on my last post.

Fondly Michelle 

~

Linked up with

The Art of Homemaking Mondays

Roses of Inspiration Link Up

Celebrations

May ended with celebrations for us at the cottage with our 25th wedding anniversary, some wonderful news & my birthday.

Thankfully we were over the worst of the illness that had affected myself & the twins for over two weeks. It is wonderful to finally get back to normal life & catch up with things.

The garden has not been touched for two weeks apart from watering so we are now catching up with weeding & general gardening.

June is bringing so many beautiful blooms to the garden & the fruit trees & bushes are laden with fruits.

~

Andy's parents sent us these beautiful flowers for our Anniversary.

~

A beautiful celebration for our 25th wedding Anniversary & my birthday.

Us with all our children & Bobby wanted to join in.

~

Myself with our four girls.

~

The family bought us a special cake & organised a family picnic.

Due to Mary still being a little under the weather we decided to have the picnic in the garden rather than go out.

~

Opening gifts.

~

We had such a special day celebrating with our family.

Amy  & Dan told us we were to become Grandparents, what a special gift they have given us our first Grandchild.

~

Our Viburnum tree in full bloom.

~

The gooseberry bushes are laden with berries.

I can't wait to use them in jam.

~

Pretty Lupins I added to the garden last year.

~

The borders at the church end of our cottage.

~

One of our potato patches.

~

Our old Walnut tree is starting to spread it leaves.

~

Morning sun in the kitchen.

~

Oatmeal raisin cookies, Andy & Sidney took over the baking with me being ill.

They made me a special birthday cake with little roses on it too & chocolate chip cookies.

~

Sweet Williams, another thing that makes May special.

~

Thank you dear readers for your comment, I do love to hear from you.

Fondly Michelle

~

Country Days in May

I always think May is the loveliest of all months.

Here at the cottage all those beautiful May flowers are in full bloom with all their perfume, the beautiful Lilac scents the garden.

We have many bushes of white & lilac.

Butterflies have gathered & this time of year are laying their eggs.

There is much to do outside, the sunflowers, marrow & bean seeds that the twins have planted are now popping their little heads out of the soil in the greenhouse.

Sweetcorn is ready to be planted & the tomatoes are growing well.

~

The cottage garden is an abundance of blue's at the moment.

Bluebells & sweet Forget me Nots.

~

A light fruit cake from a wartime leaflet.

This recipe used very little sugar.

~

Coconut Buns for Saturday tea.

~

We had a lovely few days when Andy's parents visited from Scotland.

I made a wartime dinner of potato & cheese pie.

This was found in a new wartime leaflet that I found a month ago.

We were given a huge bag of potatoes by the local farmer so this was an ideal recipe to try. lots of mash potato.

~

Mash some potatoes, mix grated cheese, salt & pepper in to it.

Then layer potato, slices of tomato, potato again then top with more grated cheese.

I did use more cheese than the recipe called for with it being a wartime recipe.

It was very tasty, Kitty who is not a great meat eater loved it so I will be making it again.

~

Planting cress .

~

They chose some antique tea cups to sow them in.

~

The girls cress in egg sandwiches for Saturday tea.

~

I received some lovely old magazine's from the 1930's & 1940's in the post, also a new knitting book.

The knitting book is full of vintage patterns & some useful information on using vintage patterns.

~

More rhubarb & more jam.

~

Another batch ready for the pantry.

~

Another tea cosy, this time I chose Spring colours from some left over wool.

~

A quick chocolate cake for tea.

~

An afternoon spent making pretty dresses.

They love cutting & glueing.

~

A little early morning visitor in the rhubarb patch.

The baby rabbits are so sweet but they do like the beetroot seedlings, so Andy has been making arches from chicken wire to protect them.

~

Danny turned fourteen on the 12th of May.

He chose a chocolate cake with butter icing & sweets on top.

We had a lovely evening celebrating with family.

~

Trying out different ways of using my basic bread dough.

I used cinnamon, sugar & butter to make a cinnamon swirl loaf, we toasted it for Sunday tea.

~

Freshly cut Lilac from the garden.

~

Wellington Cake.

This is a cake I have never baked before, it is an old 1950's recipe.

It was as light as a feather, I will make it many times as Mary loved it.

~

Recipe for Wellington Cake.

8 ozs self raising flour.

pinch of salt.

4 ozs margarine.

8 ozs sugar.

1/4 pint of milk.

2 eggs.

Cream the margarine & sugar together. Then gradually beat in the beaten eggs. Fold in the flour & salt & then add milk to give a soft dropping consistency.

Bake for 30 ~ 35 minutes in two lined 8 inch cake tins at 375 degrees F

Sandwich together when cooled with jam or other filling.

~

More experimenting with my basic bread dough.

This time I added sultana's, cinnamon & honey.

The girls do not like mixed peel so this recipe worked out well for them.

They made a lovely breakfast treat.

~

Learning to crochet.

~

I made a couple of dish cloths, I am hooked & find it so much quicker than knitting especially for things like dish cloths. I have bought the girls some crocheting hooks & they can't wait to get started on some more dish cloths.

~

Thank you my dear readers for all your lovely comments, I do love to hear from you.

Enjoy this beautiful Springtime day.

Fondly Michelle

~

I joined The Charm of Home Link Party