Wednesday 31 October 2018

Mount Stewart - Flowers (Part 14)

During the Conversations Weekend 2018 at the National Trust Property of Mount Stewart, I photographed these beautiful flowers in the formal gardens.

They are Dahlia, Globe Artichoke and Water Lily






Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.

Tuesday 30 October 2018

WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY

These photographs of the Comb ducks were taken at Castle Espie, near Comber on October 2018.
They were first introduced into the WWT in 2013 and so far they have not bred.  in 2013, I wrote more about these wonderful ducks HERE and I also published a video on  the end of THIS POST if you are  interested in seeing that.

I am linking with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.





I hope you do not mind me linking material that I have previously published because I do not want to duplicate my work/posts.

Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.

Monday 29 October 2018

THROUGH MY LENS - Mount Stewart (Part 13)

During the Conversations Weekend 2018 at the National Trust Property of Mount Stewart, I photographed these beautiful flowers in the formal gardens and the Eucalyptus trees in the Lily Wood.
I am linking to THROUGH MY LENS.





Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.

Sunday 28 October 2018

SUNDAY THOUGHT

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.


Photographed at The Sky Garden.
London September 2018

Thanks you for your visit and comments.
Have a Blessed Sunday

Saturday 27 October 2018

SATURDAY CRITTERS

While I was down at my old caravan I went for a walk round Sketrick Island and met this Basset Hound.
I am linking with SATURDAY CRITTERS






Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.

Friday 26 October 2018

THE WEEKEND ROUNDUP and WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

Time for Weekend Reflections and The Weekend Roundup Today’s letter is Q and Quantity. I start with my REFLECTION image this week.  Then we have QUARR Abbey, QUARRHURST House and A sign for QUAIL eggs  









It is QUITE a tight fit for my granddaughter Anna to fit inside this box. Below there are a large QUANTITY of Pumpkins in this box and bales in this field.



Thank you for visiting and also for any comments you leave.

Thursday 25 October 2018

GOOD FENCES

This photograph was taken at the WWT at Castle Espie near Comber.N.I.
I am linking with GOOD FENCES.


Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Dr Neil Watt's Talk (Part 2)

To understand this post you need to read and look at Monday’s post HERE.  This is Dr Neill Watt with Lady Rose who is the granddaughter of Lady Edith.  She and her husband Mr Lauritzen still live in part of the Mount Stewart house and she has been a tremendous help not only to Neill but to everyone who is trying to bring the house back to the way it was when Lady Edith lived here and as Lady Rose remembers it as she has many happy memories living here with her grandmother.  You might like to read Lady Rose’s memories of how it was then HERE



Neil explained that we are so fortunate to have some very precious items which have been lent to us in the collections like the Marble bust of Helen of Troy by Antonio Canova and the desk on which the Final Act of the Congress on 9 June 1815, and the Treaty of Paris on 20 November 1815, were signed. The desk came into the possession of Lord Castlereagh who was the 2nd Marquess of Mount Stewart.


In Lady Edith’s day she organised various events which she opened to the public and still today Mount Stewart have wonderful Jazz afternoon and recently there waa the third year of the Conversations event and many more happenings.




Of course everyone likes to dress up and Lady Edith was no exception and still today Mount Stewart has Murder Mystery evenings where everyone is in costume.


In 2015 Mount Stewart acquired the remainder of the demesne which now amounts to nearly 1,000 acres.  The Rangers and volunteers are hard at work, working on the WILD side of things.  They have made a wonderful natural children's playground based on the magical characters from a book called The Magic Inkpot written by Lady Edith.   




They are opening up paths to the public that  the Stewart family would have used and next year they will have completed another 11 miles of walks to explore through the beautiful forests and countryside of the estate.



During the next 5 years there will be great changes to where the reception area and restaurant etc will be and this is due to over the past number of years the footfall has increased dramatically and new plans are underway to address this matter.  This is an aerial view of the extensive farm buildings where the new areas will be and below is an artist impression of what it could be like.



Finally I leave you with Lady Edith and her beloved dogs and Neil’s last slide.  
A wonderful talk about a magnificent house.  Many thanks Neil.


I hoped you enjoyed seeing this 2 part series as Neil took us through some of the history and updates on the Mount Stewart Property, near Newtownards.

Many thanks for visiting and also for your comments.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY

 These Greylag Geese will soon be leaving Ward Park where they come to live every summer. 
I am linking with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.







Many thanks for visiting and also the comments you leave.

Monday 22 October 2018

THROUGH MY LENS - Dr Neil Watt's Talk (Part 1)

Dr Neil Watt is the House and Collections Manager at the National Trust Property of Mount Stewart. He was the leading guest speaker at the 16th Annual Historic Houses Conference in the UK and he kindly agreed to do the same presentation to staff and volunteers recently at Mount Stewart House.  All his slides were Black and white and I photographed them off the screen so they are not great.   However. as he had some lovely old photos when Lady Edith lived in the house, I thought I would show you them.  He firstly took us back to how the area looked in 1790 and brought us through the life of the house especially when the National Trust had bought the gardens in 1957 and later the house in 1977 and showed us the many changes that it had undergone until the present day.
Part 2, the final post will be published on Wednesday.






Lady Marie who was the youngest daughter of Lady Edith was born at Mount Stewart and lived most of her days there.





Lady Edith was a wonderful horse woman and rode with her daughter Lady Marie every morning. Also she and her husband Charles flew quite a bit.



 When the Trust took over the house they discovered quite a bit of damage  to the structure of the building.




Lady Marie had the beautiful stone floor covered as it was too hard to keep clean and replaced it with the black and white vinyl covering.


However a few years ago it was decided to restore the house and floor to the way it would have been in Lady Edith’s time.


I leave you today with Lady Edith and her beloved Pekingese dogs.
I hope you pop in on Wednesday to see the rest of the slides from Neil's talk.
I am linking this post with THROUGH MY LENS.
Many thanks for visiting and also for leaving comments.