We headed off to a local garden centre with lunch in mind. We enjoyed browsing around the garden centre but the lunch options did not tempt us. After paying our respects to Her Majesty we drove to Wightwick Manor only to find that the car park was closed because it was full.

We eventually found lunch in a garden centre at Gailey. I thought I would choose a healthy sandwich option until I saw the calorie content was more than I would consume for an evening meal. Instead I opted for a piece of ‘naughty cake’ which was half the calories of the sandwiches. When Mr C’s sandwich arrived I understood why, the bread was doorstep sized.

Next we visited Shugborough allowing me to complete my target for day 3 of my June walking challenge. On arrival we walked up to Hadrian’s arch, a place the Mr C had not been before. It was rather blustery on top and as we turned to descend the incline we noticed that we had set a trend and several other people were now ascending the incline.

Back at lower levels we visited the walled garden before walking to the house so that we could see the formal gardens. We will be back to explore some of our other favourite features of the estate when we have more time.

Later we dined out with family; all dressed in Red, White and Blue in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

After the weekend storms, bank holiday monday turned out bright and beautiful so we headed of to the Shugborough Estate. It was our first visit since the National Trust had taken over all of the estate after Staffordshire County Council surrendered the lease with the National Trust.

The context of the house and estate are being reinterpreted to highlight previous owners of the estate in their place in history. The late Lord Lichfield’s apartments are now fully open by timed ticket. We didn’t get to see these on this occasion, we weren’t offered them as we should have been when we arrived at the entrance to the estate. As the day was so beautiful and sunny we decided not to pursue the matter when we were informed of this as we entered the mansion.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the gate on the blue bridge barring access to the wider estate had been removed. This allowed us to follow an enjoyable walk that led to the red bridge and the Chinese Pavilion.

I invite you to join me at Vision & Verb for a little bit of Shugborough history and its famous connection with photography.