It seems a lifetime ago since we took my Father in Law to Middleton Hall for Fathers Day last year. We had lunch in the courtyard coffee shop be exploring the hall and gardens.

The history of the hall spans over 1000 years:

Our history spans over 1,000 years so this means that we have a lot of stories to tell. Over the centuries the Hall has grown and changed as have the people that have called this place home. During your visit you will meet the commander of the Norman cavalry at the Battle of Hastings; a Medieval Lord who escaped a prison sentence; a Tudor explorer who died whilst trying to find a North-East passage to China; our two famous seventeenth-century naturalists; A Duchess renowned for her love of music and of course our team of volunteers who have spent the last 40 years restoring and caring for our Hall. The buildings themselves tell their own fascinating story, of construction styles from the Medieval through to the Georgian period and therefore changes in the methods and materials used.

Our eighteenth-century Walled Garden boasts original heated walls which are amongst the oldest of their kind date from the eighteenth-century and also an original bothy. The Georgian bed design is planted full of flowers loved by pollinators over the summer months. Within the walls is also our herb garden, dedicated to our two famous naturalists John Ray and Francis Willughby and our working Smithy. Our gardens also contain a heritage orchard, short lakeside walk through seasonal displays of snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells, and our West Lawn upon which you can while away the hours playing croquet.

Euripides

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.

View on YouTube

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.

On Sunday (yesterday) we took my in-laws out for lunch to Sugnall walled garden. It was a belated fathers day trip due to us traveling home from our holidays on fathers day.

We found that Sugnall walled garden was completely transformed since our previous visit. Everything was in full bloom and the summer marquee was in place. There had been a wedding and celebration in the garden the previous day and as we sat down the lady in charge of catering commented ’sorry about the mess there was a wedding here yesterday and I think they were having ‘to much’ fun…

Lunch was delicious; I chose beetroot and feta quiche which was served with salad from the walled garden. After lunch we took a leisurely stroll around the garden before heading homeward.

On our previous visit as we sat enjoying our afternoon drink we watched the moon rising in the sky. This evening after dinner we were treated to the crescent moon rising and falling in the distance behind our back garden.