Welcome to a new series, Travel Tuesday, wherein I share photos from our outings. Most will be daytrips (since that’s what we do the most – we do like our comforts of home); some will be longer. Some will be multi-part. I hope to post this at least most Tuesdays.
For this first one, I’ve decided to share the photos from my trip to Denman in April & May last year. These are mainly of the grounds, because I did manage to look around a bit in the mornings before class started, but otherwise, as you’ll recall from my year in review post, I generally looked like this:
There was a long train trip, but it was pretty boring countryside, to be honest, and none of the few photos I took came out, so just imagine 3 hours’ worth of fields to start with. Oh yes, the one interesting thing was that there were less dry stone walls and more hedges. Right, so three hours’ worth of hedged fields. And then…
(Remember to click on any photo to start the slideshow.)
-
- Eeyore is my reading buddy. On the train trip down, we caught up on newspapers – they’re lightweight and not bulky, a consideration when you’re packing your sewing machine & notions in addition to the usual things for a week!
-
- While waiting at the Oxford train station for my taxi, I was surprised to see buses with doors towards the rear as well as up front by the driver. I wonder how they keep people from jumping on and not paying?
-
- Yes, you can tell it’s a college town.
-
- This is the view from the front of Oxford train station – that building roof is very curious.
-
- I got the barest glimpse of Oxford as the taxi took us to Denman from the train station.
-
- Denman’s in Oxfordshire, so we left Oxford and went into the countryside. It was a nice drive.
-
- Every guest room at Denman is taken care of by a different county federation, so they’re all unique. They’re all required to have certain things, though, including a sewing kit. This was the one in the room I was in – I’d never seen this sort of thing before, and found it very clever.
-
- Once I dropped off my stuff, I took a walk around the grounds with my camera.
-
- This is the main house at Denman: what would be the stately home if it were still in private ownership. In it is the front desk, several meeting rooms, the dining room, the bar, the offices for the employees, and some guest rooms. The teaching happens in another building which I never got a picture of, and most of the guest rooms are in still other little buildings. I’d been warned, thankfully, to be prepared to go inside and outside – thankfully it was a joy because the weather was glorious the whole week.
-
- This was my view most of the time while walking between the main house and my room.
-
- This mirror’s in the drawing room of the main house. According to a sign there: “The ball hanging from the eagle’s beak has some interesting theories attached to it. One is that years ago, people covered mirrors with cloths during thunderstorms in case the lightning struck the mirror. The ball was supposed to deflect the lightning strike, thus there was no need to cover the mirror. Another theory is that the chain and ball provide a plumb line to hang the mirror correctly. Another theory is that it is simply a decorative feature!” I am curious if there are any other theories – or better yet knowledge – about why this chain and ball might be on this mirror.
-
- I love chandeliers.
-
- This is that same main lawn and fountain again, from the other end, and a bit later in the day.
-
- On my second morning there, I made time to explore the grounds some more. I found this beautifully scenic pond at one end of the property.
-
- It was spring, so the daffodils were having their day.
-
- A path went the entire way around the pond.
-
- On my third morning, I made time to explore the other end of the grounds I hadn’t yet seen. I like this tree.
-
- I am amused at the way they made the path go around the plant pot.
-
- I love the idea of this little nook to sit in in the summer, when those vines are all in leaf/bloom.
-
- I was surprised to see that Denman’s bordered by houses – the way people talk about Denman, I thought it was in the middle of open countryside.
-
- The main house again.
-
- Tulips were in bloom everywhere I turned, complete with labels telling us the variety of tulip. I had no idea there were so many varieties!
-
- I quite like this tree, too.
My favorite pair of photos out of those are these two:
 |
 |
What a difference the angle makes!
And then it was home sweet home. 🙂
I Love your pictures! Must as if I was there. So are you taking sewing classes there? AND, do you have a wheeley to tote your machine around? So tell me, what you are learning and making. I’m all ears.
Thanks!
I don’t have a wheely to tote my machine around – that sounds nice! We had a bag it fit in for that trip, but it was just soft sides, so I was always worried about it.
I took two 2-night courses there this past spring, 29 April to 3 May. The first course was Sewing Machine Magic 1, in which we did a bunch of samples of different techniques, basically getting to grips with our machines and various other ideas about sewing. She taught us about: thread, tension, cleaning our machines, gathering, shirring, buttonholes, bias binding, piping, pleated edgings, elastic, attaching lace, blind hemming, using twin needles, putting in a zipper, appliqué, tucks and waves, attaching different sorts of fabrics, covered rouleau, and quilting. She gave us a whole bunch of small tips and tricks as we went along, too. It was brilliant.
The second course was altering clothes – we brought things we wanted to alter, and May showed us how to do it. Both courses are invaluable. I used a lot of the skills from the first course in making that banner, and being able to alter clothing is exceedingly useful when you don’t have an off-the-rack body shape!
There’s another half she does, Sewing Machine Magic 2, with a whole different set of techniques, and several other courses as well, all of which I would’ve liked to take, if only the people at Denman hadn’t treated me so poorly and lied to me multiple times while I was there. Since they did, I’ll never bother wasting my time or money there again. Thankfully May does courses elsewhere, so once I get that whole UK driving thing situated, I hope to be able to attend some of those. In the mean time, I need to keep using the skills and confidence I’ve already gained!
SJ, what great pictures! I’d love to see that area in person next time we visit. The last tree that you liked reminds me of live oak trees we have here. Good thing you had Eeyore to keep you company on the way there and back. Why don’t they do the stone walls and hedges in that area?
Thanks, Dad!
You’re right, that tree does look like ones I’ve seen there; no wonder I liked it. 🙂
They don’t seem to do dry stone walls down there; they seem to do hedges and fencese instead. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it has to do with available local materials. The Peak District is stone, so we have plenty of it to use up here. I suppose they don’t down there.
Maybe by the time you visit again I’ll have that whole UK car thing sorted out, and will be a bit better-traveled so I’ll know where to take you!