On Sunday, it was Father’s day so we took my Father-in-Law to Harvington Hall, a moated manor house with the largest surviving series of priest holes in the country. The weather was kind to us, the day was gloriously hot and sunny and a good time was had by all. When we arrived we had lunch before going a guided tour of the house. The tour isn’t compulsory but I would recommend it. Mr C and I had visited earlier in the year when, we also took a guided tour. Both tours were good but on this occasion we were taken round by a delightful young man who brought out points that were of particular interest to us.
As our guide, Phil Downing was showing us around he explained that he had spent twenty four hours in one of the priest holes and told us of some of his experiences. It was also fun to see the small children excited about exploring one of the priest holes in the property; one of them didn’t want to leave. You can watch an excellent short video of Phil giving a tour of the house on the video that follows.
After we had returned home, later in the day we prepared a father’s day meal which we ate on the patio in the warm evening air. When we had finished the meal, as we sat and chatted for a while over a glass of wine I felt a pin prick near to my ankle. I thought no more of it until a little while later I felt a rather more piercing prick on the other ankle and when I looked there was a tell tale tiny black fly and I noticed a few others flying around at leg height.
The next day I noticed that I had five or six bite marks around my ankles and one higher up on the back of my leg. Later in the day my ankles got rather hot and red and my feet swelled up a little causing one of my shoes to rub my foot near to my ankle. When I got home from work I noticed shoe rubbing had caused a small blister. I put my feet up and the redness turned to a pinky tinge leading me into a false sense of security.
When I woke up the next morning my feet and ankles had swelled up and were bright red and there were darker red, itchy patches around the area of the bites. Even more alarmingly the blister had grown to the size of a large marble. The patches were reminiscent of the previous occasion when small black flies found me tasty. On that occasion I identified the culprit as ‘black fly’ more commonly known in the UK as the ‘Blandford Fly’, this lead me to suspect that the unpleasant little blighters are breeding in next doors pond.
I had been trying not to have any extra time of work this week (other than two days already booked), already cancelling one appointment and getting Mr C to help me out with another but it seems that was not to be. I phoned and made an appointment in the minor injuries clinic at my local GP surgery. It was noted that my temperature was a slightly high and so was my pulse rate and I was prescribed with antihistamine and antibiotics. A little later in the day I felt slightly shivery so I must have had a slight fever along with everything else.
When I arrived at work everyone was quite shocked with what they saw and when Mr C came home from work he brought me some roses to cheer me up.
All that from pesky black flies?! WOW. I’m glad you attended to it right away, Cherry, because that’s not fun. Tell Mr. C he did a good job with the roses!
I have no idea why those pesky flies have taken a liking to me! The flowers were a nice surprise.
Sorry to hear about the bites – glad you got treatment so quickly and I do hope they ease soon.
Loved the youtube video of Harvington Hall – the guide is excellent and the priest holes just fascinating. Somewhere else to add to my list of my places to visit
The video is good isn’t it and the hall is well worth a visit.
I think that any experience is enhanced with a guide.
I agree with you