This morning I taught the Toys workshop at Burton Agnes Primary School - lovely children, beautifully behaved.
This left me with a free afternoon at one of my favourite places though I find it is almost two years since I was last there. http://swallowedwhole.blog.co.uk/2007/08/11/burton_agnes~2790743/
As soon as I saw this time-tabled I asked Joe if he would like to come with me and he jumped at the opportunity even though it meant a morning either sitting in the car listening to the radio or mooching around a very small village.
As soon as the toys were packed back in the car we went to the hall where we made our way straight to the cafe and had some truly excellent baguettes - one ham and one turkey, although we each ate half of each, with the meat cut thick - and home-grown side salads.
It was lovely just for once looking round the house slowly at a properly adult pace. Because of the games garden this has almost always been a place to take hoards of children so, even when a proportion of the little ones stayed in the garden with half the adults while the other half went round the house, there has always been a bit of a speed element involved which is a great shame as Burton Agnes is filled with great art.
The largest part of the collection is the post-impressionists collected in the last century when they were still new, but it is a still growing collection and there were several pieces I had not seen before. Joe is less impressed by modern art, and, though willing to try my sit and let it grow on you approach, still doesn't get it. We enjoyed a brief conversation with the artist in residence (I think she was called Julie Thompson) whose sea- and sky-scapes are very easy on the eye: nothing difficult for Joe to try to understand, but the sort of paintings you could comfortably live with in a small room.
The garden was, as always, beautiful. Just look at all these aquilegias . . .
. . . and the source of part of our lunch
The ice-cream, tea and cakes with which we finished the afternoon were also very good.
