As Mr C and I were leaving the hotel after breakfast we passed the gentleman I had been chatting to the evening before . We exchanged pleasantries and wished each other well for for the remainder of our respective travels. After the conversation Mr C and I made our way to Bowood House, taking the scenic route due to faulty navigating

The house is home to the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne and has been open to the public since 1975.  Whilst developing the house and gardens they have tried to provide something of interest for all ages whilst maintaining its historical distinction. I certainly enjoyed the visit.

The house has many interesting exhibits, paintings and artifacts.  One of the ante-rooms to the library used to be a laboratory.  This was where Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas on 1st August 1774.  Subsequently the laboratory was used by Dr Jan Ingenhousz who discovered photosynthesis in plants and worked on inoculation against smallpox.

Of course I especially loved the gardens with their many styles and tiers.  At one end of the garden are some ornamental steps which originally had a statue of a river god above them.  This has been replaced by a striking female nude, which was commissioned by Lansdowne in 1978.

The house is surrounded by parkland which was designed by Capability Brown.  It was lovely to walk down to the lake where there was a lovely view of the Doric temple.  Tucked out of view just around the corner at the end of the lake is a water cascade and a hermits cave.  There was even an arboretum which made up for the rained off visit to Westonbirt.

After the nice relaxing visit to Bowood there was a bit of time to spare before dinner so a trip to see the white horse at Westbury seemed like a good idea.  That was until the slow trog through Devizes.  Firstly there was a lot of traffic and also there seemed to be some sort of police emergency going on with sirens all over the place.  I had to do emergency stops on two occasions to let speeding police vehicles get by.

Well the hill at Westbury was as cold as ever, the horse as big as ever, and the view as spectacular as ever if you ignore the cement factory which sort of spoils the landscape a bit.

In the evening we dined looking out over the market square watching ‘Johnny Hot Rod’ zooming around in his fiat.

8th June 2009

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out Whistlestop PhotoHunt.

Robert A. Heinlein

I couldn’t miss PhotoHunt even though you won’t be able to comment on the post due to a technical hitch with my blog.  Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

C. P. Snow

Bees descended from wasps and emerged alongside the first flowers.  They switched from dining on other insects to a diet of pollen and nectar instead.  There are 20,000 different species of bee alive today.  Some of these – especially honeybees, bumblebees and stingless bees – form highly social groups that offer a deep insight into how nature’s civilizations work.

Eusocial creatures divide up jobs between themselves.  They pass knowledge and learning on form one generation to another, care for their youngsters and even, in certain circumstances, sacrifice lives for the benefit of the group.  Such characteristics were for a long time thought to be unique to mankind when it first organized itself into tribes and eventually cities and states.  But, as any beekeeper will tell you that is not so.

Katherine Swift who wrote The Morville Hours is a beekeeper and there were many interesting snippets about bees in her book too. One of the things she mentions is that bees are now threatened by Varroa which is a parasitic mite endemic in most countries.  It arrived in the UK in the mid 1990s.  The mites attach themselves to the bees and weaken their bodies.  This is easy to treat in domesticated bees, but not in wild bees which if left untreated can lead to the extinction of whole colonies.

I say long live the bee.

The house is home to the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne and has been open to the public since 1975.  Whilst developing the house and gardens they have tried to provide something of interest for all ages whilst maintaining its historical distinction. I certainly enjoyed the visit.

The house has many interesting exhibits, paintings and artifacts.  One of the ante-rooms to the library used to be a laboratory.  This was where Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas on 1st August 1774.  Subsequently the laboratory was used by Dr Jan Ingenhousz who discovered photosynthesis in plants and worked on inoculation against smallpox.

Of course I especially loved the gardens with their many styles and tiers.  At one end of the garden are some ornamental steps which originally had a statue of a river god above them.  This has been replaced by a striking female nude, which was commissioned by Lansdowne in 1978.

The house is surrounded by parkland which was designed by Capability Brown.  It was lovely to walk down to the lake where there was a lovely view of the Doric temple.  Tucked out of view just around the corner at the end of the lake is a water cascade and a hermits cave.  There was even an arboretum which made up for the rained off visit to Westonbirt.

Then there was a stressful drive to Westbury, but more on that tomorrow!