Great Chalfield Manor Garden

We are enjoying a few days of perfect early autumn weather. Oh, joy! 

Yesterday evening we visited Great Chalfield in Wiltshire and sauntered round the gardens of the medieval manor house in sunshine and lengthening shadows.

Music from a string quartet floated across the water.

The gardens are Arts and Crafts, with paths beside beautifully planted herbaceous borders. This viticella clematis, 'Mary Rose', has been flowering since June, the owner told me. It is on my must buy list!

There were excellent colour pairings

but the highlight for me were the 'rooms' created by groupings of massive yew trees 

with doorways cut and pathways through and vistas glimpsed beyond.

The trees are kept in pristine condition.
I love the way that this one has been cut to echo the architecture.

A window from the summer house looks onto the moat.

It was just the right time of day to visit the small parish church of All Saints

because the setting sun was shining straight through the window 

and lighting up the altar.

The church was filled with birdsong and looking up we could see a family of swallows, or swifts, flying among the roof beams.

My mother would have been delighted by the kneelers - she was a keen tapestry maker, working to my father's designs.

I had a lovely time!

An old map showing the position of the parish church and manor house, the moat and garden.
The property is now run by the National Trust.

To make you smile.

I went to the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath the other week to see an exhibition by Graham Dean of large watercolours featuring Olympic and paralympic athletes. The work was on show in the spacious main gallery. The room was silent, but not so the small display area next door. What was going on in there? It sounded like a lot of fun - and it was!

The space was full of people turning handles, swinging pendulums, smiling and laughing with delight, adults and children having an equally enjoyable time reacting to the automata created by Robert Race.

I didn't have my camera with me but returned yesterday, before the close of the exhibition

to record this magical make-over of found objects, driftwood, shells and rusty bits and pieces.

Some of the most simple pieces were also the funniest; by making the pendulum swing the cow's eyes moved from side to side. Quite ridiculous!

The little man balanced

and the marble rolled from side to side.

This beautiful piece, called 'Happy Valley', has counter-balanced birds that move gently in the current of air. In the valley bottom sit two small white rabbits.

Happy Valley.

I loved the boats with their steady paddling

or their rowing action on a sea swell.

The main exhibition can be glimpsed through the doorway,

 enormous watercolours on a patchwork of joined-together sheets of paper. Why is big so often thought of as better? 

These tiny 'moon priests' with their shell head-gear give me far more satisfaction.

I came home and in the evening photographed the moon through the apple trees

remembering Neil Armstrong.

Himself has made quite a number of moonlight carvings.

"Night punt, Oxford." Woodcarving by Peter Murphy.

Moonlight and water,

"Mattea Cabot's Dream." Woodcarving by Peter Murphy.

what a magical combination.

"Kerasia."