Coats on at Coughton!

After a pretty poor week for charity shop bargains, OH and I headed out for the day on Friday with picnic loaded in the car.  It was a cold and soggy day and we were intending to go back to Croome, but the thought of wandering around the grounds in the rain was too much so we decided on Coughton Court in nearby Warwickshire instead.  

When we arrived, almost everyone who was already there had chosen the hard standing car park. We went for the grassy side, as you can see, plenty of space and some great Vicar of Dibley puddles! 

There was also a pheasant casually strolling around, oblivious to us approaching

I do love Coughton, it is very grand and castle-like and has beautiful grounds.  As with a lot of Midlands stately homes, it has connections to the Gunpowder Plot and Royalty in some way.

Excuse the sometime rubbish photos here, I forgot to put new batteries in my camera so had to use my phone which also ran out of juice eventually!

 Love this view from the inner courtyard

 Towards the gardens

 Throckmorton family private quarters

The family silver 

Bishop's cape allegedly sewn by Catherine of Aragon

Chair made from the bed allegedly slept in by Richard III the night before the Battle of Bosworth in 1485

 The Throckmorton's secret church, masquerading as a grand hall.

Those sofas are very soft. Note the footwear, in bad weather overshoes have to be worn to protect the floors. Stylish, no?

We returned to the car for lunch and cake, and had to sit out a rather sudden downpour, which saw other picnicers dashing back to their vehicles, some holding half eaten sandwiches!  Oh the joy of an English summer!

After an hour we were safe to continue our exploration of Coughton's grounds.  The wild garlic has now gone over, still smells very strong though, and the signs warning us of the aggressive grey legged geese we heeded, until they saw the floating duck food we had and came over to chase us for it.

 The riverside walk was very lush after the rain

This little fellow was one of twins, very nosey and loved having his forehead scratched!

On Thursday I had a bit of a baking bonanza and made a coffee cake 

and a lemon drizzle loaf

At this time of year it is a bit of a battle to use up eggs that the girls produce, we aren't too good at eating them unless they are in cake!

I did manage to bake OK despite sustaining a sledgehammer injury earlier by dropping it onto my right hand whilst trying to wield it with my left!  Not sure how, as the darn thing is so heavy I can barely lift it with two hands.  What a trouper!

Also not sure why this is as bad as the bruise got!

My only bargain of the week was this free pair of ballet type flats from Shoezone, courtesy of a voucher given to me by a friend (thanks Kate!) for my birthday in January.

I managed to visit my first car boot sale in many years on Saturday morning and bought ... precisely nothing!  It was a small car boot sale, around 30 sellers, and there were some nice things, just nothing I needed. It will be held again in a fortnight and I might go back for a return visit.

On the house front, we have had good news this week in that the local authority are allowing us to convert the garage into part of the house, something you have to ask permission for round here and not helped by the fact that we are in green belt and just outside of the village zone.  Our architect is finalising drawings and submitting building regulation applications as we speak, just need the builder to be free soon for work to progress.