Autumn Cottage Diarist

Treasure Hunting - and Back Home again!

A little outing to one of my favourite places - and what I brought home with me!

 

 

I haven't Gone Away!

Just a week since I wrote my last ‘Month in the Country’ post and it has seemed strange everyday since to not be writing every day; but I enjoyed getting back into the blogging habit again, so hopefully you'll enjoy reading these updates on a more regular basis.

The autumn is well and truly with us, but at the moment we are enjoying some very pleasant autumn days - that is, apart from the one day we chose to make a family outing last week, to the Cotswold wildlife park, when we were treated to a heavy downpour from midday onwards; Sods law in all its glory! I still enjoyed myself with my camera - I rarely buy a souvenir of anything anywhere these days (not that it would be easy with most of the ‘attraction’ shops still closed due to social distancing), my souvenirs nowadays are collected purely through a camera lens .

Clouded Leopard

On Friday, a very happy return – to the Hungerford Antiques Arcade, which I last visited before lockdown. Fully masked up, of course, but not a high level of anxiety, as there were hardly any shoppers there. Only a short browse – but I found that both Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I wanted to come home with me!

I'm also starting out on a different sort of new adventure this week; my husband has finally retired after 45 years of hard work, creating innovative computer equipment which has resulted in the employment of hundreds of other people – I think he can be very proud of that. It came unexpectedly in the end,  though he was planning on departing in the next year or two, having already worked past the UK retirement age, and now I think he deserves to enjoy his leisure time (not too much though - I have a list of jobs ready and waiting for him!!) HIS adventure will be in deciding what to do with that leisure time and both our adventures will be in adapting to these new circumstances - interesting times lie ahead!

One thing with which we are blessed is the fact that we live in some beautiful countryside, so for even only a short car journey away there are many country parks and country walks that we will both enjoy together or separately. Indeed, we only have to step out of our front door to wander in Forestry Commission and private woodland. Yesterday morning we were able to take a walk around the Lake at Thatcham Discovery Centre on the other side of town, renovated gravel pits that are now home to a large variety of wildfowl.

Very popular with photographers - and mothers with small children who are able to introduce their little ones to wildlife up close, hopefully instilling a love of the natural world from very early days. Here are a few photographs from last week - aren't I lucky to enjoy my freedom to visit these places and the fitness to be able to do so?

In Love with Blue and White!

A little visit indoors today - taking a look at some of my Blue and White china collection

 

Rather a bargain!

Off to Haynes Salvage and builders supplies yard and second hand furniture Emporium this morning - ostensibly to buy horticultural grit (they have exactly the right size for my potting mixes) - but also, of course, to browse around the Hall of Delight - the huge barn in which they house their second hand furniture. I'm never able to resist a look, and this morning I did well: I found a rather beautiful nursing chair (Edwardian, I think) with a hand stitched Gros Point and Petit Point cover.

You're coming home with me!

I like to think of it as a labour of love completed by someone over 100 years ago, which I will now bring back to life again. The webbing is stretched under the seat, there is a crack in the back of the frame and the stitchery needs to be freshened up; all in all it will be a labour of love for meas well...a nice little project for me in the studio over the summer - and an absolute bargain at just ten UK pounds!

This stitchery - done with devotion - deserves to be honoured

Watch this space :-)

Oh Dear - This Could Get Serious!

What started out as a Not Very Good Day (Pile-drivers thumping in the plantation across the road, JCB digging up more trees/wiping out hedgerow in the other direction…and all very NOISY) has turned into rather a good one.

Loathe to drive all the way up into Oxfordshire to satisfy my craving for a good poke around in an antique shop (second hand furniture store/Aladdin's Cave of any description), I threw caution to the winds and visited a little place I had heard of in the next village.

The owner of this hidden away little storage unit and workshop regularly advertises her mix of up-cycled and original-condition second hand furniture and other interesting items on the local Facebay pages, so I have known about her for a year or two now. I have resisted the urge to visit (knowing my tendencies!) but today I caved in…and I am so glad that I did . Suzanna Stacey-Hughes is a very warm and friendly proprietor, who made me very welcome and bid me take a long look around. She has some really lovely up-cycled furniture (very professionally painted and decorated) and boxes/shelves and cupboards full of other enticing  items that very happily occupied my time.

I came home with a very happy 'haul of smalls' - antique maps, interesting ceramics and a lovely Victorian beaded stole/shawl/collarette - possibly an item of mourning dress. Prices were *exceptionally* reasonable!

Then - on returning home - what I think is the best bit of the whole foray; sitting down with a cuppa and a cloth to dust, clean and look very closely. My goodness, these maps are nice. I'm also very pleased with a Royal Copenhagen plate and a lovely Doulton Chelsea Flower Show commemorative plate (1999, but for One UK pound, even lovelier!)

Suzanna (no affiliation) is on Facebook, and inhabits Unit 7 at the Studland Industrial Estate, well signposted in Ball Hill, just outside Newbury. She is well worth a visit (Her partner, also on the same site, deals in Coins and Stamps).

An Enchantment of Cherubs!

My grandfather ('Grampy' Latham) was a master baker by training - but more than that, he specialised in both patisserie and confectionery. He must have made many, many wedding cakes over his working time; he certainly made my parents' cake. (Mam told me that Grampy had placed sugarpaste dog's heads around the cake (she and Dad met through their mutual love - and ownership - of Alsatians), but unfortunately this image is not clear enough to see them).

Jump, now, to one type of item I have picked up on occasion from charity shops and places like Hungerford Arcade ... these little biscuit porcelain figurines, of which I have a few. I've always liked the white, matte body material and, as I keep a look out for small items that will fit in here at the cottage, these have often found a home. One particular little favourite has been this little putto, but I have always wondered why he was made holding linked rings? (Which have, amazingly, survived intact on this one).

Then, on my last visit to the Arcade, all became clear. I discovered that it is no ordinary cherubic figurine, but a wedding cake topper (hence, the rings!) - as there, in the glass cabinet in the Junk Shop, was a whole Heavenly Host of them, all in different positions. Some would have been used for cake toppers, and some (with hands held high) clearly as support pillars to hold the various tiers of the cake one on top of the other. (Do click on these pictures, to see a larger image and the items in more detail - it's worth it)

Several still have their fixing spikes in the bottom - which is why they are still standing, at the moment, on rather a scruffy old upturned box. I'll cover this with black felt sometime soon - and, I think, give them a little glass case all of their own.

In case you want some inspiration if you are a wedding cake maker yourself - or just an enchanted browse of your own, here is a delightful blog post which shows just how these little charmers would have been used. Guess what I'll be looking out for now, to add to one more collection!

( By the way, friends...after trialling the 'Scanner Sunday' images for a few weeks, I don't think there was much interest...so I'm discontinuing the theme from now on)

 

Outside/Inside at Autumn Cottage!

Thank you for all the encouragement to make more little videos - here's another brief experiment from the cottage on a cold & windy November day.

 

 

Always Hunting Blue and White!

The ice-cream colours of the houses in Llandeilo

Our week in Wales was spent just outside the charming little town of Llandeilo - a place where a smile and more than a brief chat seems to be the order of the day. It's how I grew up - in a time and a place where people had time for each other and those 'few kind words' of which I am so fond can still brighten anyone's day. Even Llandeilo has changed from the first visits we made there just six years ago, though - there is a noticeable increase in little boutique shops, lovely cake and coffee (and luxury chocolate) shops, and interesting galleries.

But one thing that has not changed is the absolutely enormous Antiques Emporium at the bottom of the town. It is like a rabbit warren and just goes on…and on…and on. At its farthest reaches, I did, at one point, seriously wonder if I was lost, as room led onto courtyard, which led back into another container, down a corridor - into another room, and another…and another.

Just the sort of delicious mixture of items that I love to hunt through...

I ended up 'navigating by dresser' - using several of the beautiful Welsh dressers in the Centre and their contents to retrace my steps by looking at the order of the photographs I had taken. As you can see, they all seemed to have one thing in common - they were LOADED with all sorts of Blue & White china - and anyone reading this blog over the years will know just how much I love that.

Never 'out of place', Blue & White china (and textiles, and paint colours) never seems to date; there are pieces that will fit into any interior - and interiors decorated in those colours become 'instant classics' whose owners are - in my eyes - blessed with the most superior good taste! Perhaps - most of all, I love the fact that pieces of Blue & White can be picked up for pennies in thrift/charity shops, junk shops, antique shops, car boot/yard sales; everything will (pretty much) go with everything else, and always look wonderful. (Just my humble opinion - what's yours?)

So here's a taste of one or two  dressers and shelves and their treasures upon which to feast your eyes. (I was very restrained and only came out with two little items - which you can see at the bottom of this blog…).

Not only plates here - but also a striking collection of blue & white jugs (though I would never recommend hanging jugs or cups by their handles - it weakens them and then you have a disaster waiting to occur!)

A mixture of blues and whites - including a lovely slate-blue & white woven Welsh blanket

A very fine array of old Staffordshire and Spode plates on a beautiful antique Welsh dresser

If you would like to read more about Welsh dressers (and see a lot more blue and white china!) - Mark Allum has written an interesting blog about them here - while for a feast of whole rooms decorated in B&W - take a look in here

These were the two little Victorian fairings that I picked up at the Antiques Centre - tiny items, just a few inches high and one (the 'Sleepy Girl') opening to contain pins.

I'm sure I can find space for them both!

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Autumn Cottage Diarist: Autumn Restoration

Today's Catch!

Foggy evening - twilight in Highclere

A grey day in North Hampshire, but it has not been difficult to make the best of the day nevertheless. 

First of all, off to an enjoyable and very 'gossipy' lecture in Hungerford, on the American 'Dollar Princess' heiresses who married into (and some say rescued!) the British and European Aristocracies at the beginning of the 20th century. I attend these lectures with a close friend and we always take the opportunity to have lunch together afterwards.

After a lovely, mixed salad, I made my way home - but as I had not visited the Hungerford Arcade for a long time, I decided to make a detour and take a browse around. As always - there were little treasures to be found - this is what came home with me today.

First 'find' in the Alladin's Cave of 'The Junk Shop' (low priced bric-a-brac but the most fun shop to root around) was a Victorian china children's part tea-set (I collect these) - a bargain at £4.00 ...

Then - (also in the Junk Shop), a beaten up but oh, so pretty engraving of Babbacombe by the Victorian artist Henry G Walker - also £4.00

and - as always...one or two books (One felicitously being a biography of one of the said 'Dollar Princesses' - Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac).

With restoration and reading, these items should be enough to keep me busy for a day or two. Just the ticket for these grey and foggy - but also cosy and closeted - autumn days in the country!

 

 

Meandering the August Days Away

A planted trough in the late summer sunshine, Tetbury

There's a feeling in the air…the summer has imperceptibly turned into very early autumn…the last days of school holidays have arrived…leaves are beginning to turn and fall, the swallows were gathering on the wires last week as I drove to Hungerford. It's a good ending to August - the temperatures have risen again and it's a delight to be out and about in the golden light. But that delight is tempered by a feeling of 'making the best of things' - for it is certain that in the weeks to come, though there will (hopefully) be many more days of sunshine, there will also be increasingly long nights and chillier mornings…we turn towards the darker days of the year.

So it was in that spirit of enjoying each day fully that we set off last Thursday to visit one of our favourite parts of the countryside here in the UK - the hills and valleys, villages and towns, churches and market places of the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire. The Cotswolds became prosperous in medieval times as a result of the high quality of wool produced by sheep grazing on fine pasture land - a prosperity that financed the beautiful architecture of the towns and churches, which have hence become known as 'wool churches', filled with notable glass, wood carvings and elaborate tombs.

 
Charming alleyways, hidden corners - Tetbury

The towns and villages are also a pleasure to just wander around (one of my favourite activities), exploring narrow alleyways and tiny courtyards in search of all manner of interesting and unusual shops. Last week's little trail took us to the towns of Stroud, Tetbury, and in between (and fleetingly) Minchinhampton. (Don't those names roll deliciously round the tongue?!). We are very fond of Tetbury and seem to discover more intriguing shops and buildings each time we visit - but we had not made our way to Stroud before. We arrived in rain, but left - after an excellent Italian lunch (proper Italian, too, with Bocelli on the radio!) - in bright sunlight, to climb up a narrow road along the steep scarp slope to Minchinhampton.

Covered Arcade, The Shambles, Stroud

Plaque in the covered Arcade

A cheeky Squirrel, fossicking in the churchyard of St Laurence

High on the top of the hill with Minchinhampton Common (owned by the National Trust) spreading for 500 acres all round, we did, in fact, manage to take a right rather than a left and in so doing - missed the centre of the town completely!! No worries, as this led us down some lovely, peaceful lanes with striking views across the valley to remote farms on the other side - and everywhere…sheep, sheep and more sheep. (I love sheep - so this made me very happy!)

Sheep happy-scratching against a dry stone wall, outskirts of Minchinhampton

We arrived in Tetbury in time to spend a good couple of hours investigating a real variety of shops - some very 'High End' antiques - with their doors closed and discrete displays in back rooms into which only the very wealthy (or very naïve) were venturing, to a number of very enticing charity shops at the other end of the spectrum (though even the 'stuff' in the charity shops was definitely of some quality as befits discards from this affluent community).

Top Banana!

One of my own personal favourite places to browse was in the five floors of the 'Top Banana Antiques Emporium' - where numerous dealers offer items of a huge variety and in all price ranges. The owners have created a really welcoming atmosphere - I will certainly revisit next time I am there; more than enough in that one building to make a couple of hours in the town worthwhile if you are just passing through.

Many nooks and crannies, containing many treasures, over five floors

The lovely, friendly proprietors of Top Banana - with a little purchase that needed to come home with me!

We had parked at the other end of town, so were positively compelled to browse in a number of other shops on our way back to the car! To gasp at the prices in the Highgrove shop (The 'Prince Charles Premium' heavily applied!!), to partake of coffee and cake in one of the best coffee shops on the planet...

The wonderfully crazy, exhuberant Rainbow interior of the Blue Zucchini Brasserie in Tetbury

...and the serene back courtyard garden - a heavenly place to take tea

...raid the cheese shop next door and then be entranced by the beauty and interest of some of the Asian artefacts on display and for sale in Artique; this was a most intriguing shop/gallery with a wonderfully serene atmosphere and a very memorable welcome from the owner, George Bristow. Even though we bought nothing on this occasion, I am drawn back to re-visit - both because of his genuine warmth and willingness to share his knowledge of the items - and for an intense longing to acquire something from the interesting and unusual artefacts for sale there.

Beautiful Asian artefacts - Artique 

An obligatory (for church crawling me) visit to the church of St Mary, another encounter with and contemplation of the beautiful and enigmatic 'Mary' murals in the entrance -

'The Annunciation'

and home again, along the noisy, pressurised route of the M4 motorway - only a few miles on the map but a million miles in atmosphere from the enchanting Cotswold countryside.

We're already planning our next visit...

The Market Hall, Tetbury

 

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