Author Archives: miladysboudoir

BeWILDerwood for the Bewildered

Welcome

“BeWILDerwood is a wild and imaginative adventure park with magical tree houses and a hint of intriguing characters, bringing a curious difference to the Norfolk Broads. The setting for the book, ‘A Boggle at BeWILDerwood’ by local children’s author Tom Blofeld, is a wonderful, mystical land of brave, adventurous creatures who you may never see anywhere else in our world. Parents are encouraged to play alongside their children, which makes for a fabulous and brilliantly exciting day out for the whole family!”

Entrance

If only Bewilderwood had existed when I was 7 years old and living in Norfolk. I wouldn’t have been that bothered about the stories but I would have loved making up my own adventures to fit in with the setting. Ever since I first heard about it a few years ago I’ve been intrigued to visit. Today my wish came true and I accompanied two other adults and five children – all my great nieces and great nephews – to an adventure park with a difference.

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Mattishall : The Geographical Centre of Norfolk.

This week I’m visiting family in Norfolk but I decided to book my own place for the week and now find myself in the geographical centre of the county staying in Mattishall.

Mostly I’ve been driving into Norwich to visit family and take my mother out for ‘days’. But today I stayed around Mattishall and took two walks around the village and local lanes. The first on my own and later with my schoolfriend and her husband, daughter and Phoebe their spaniel.

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Heywood Gardens : Formal and Romantic

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Just before my Ireland trip I read the book “Gardens of a Golden Afternoon : The Story of a Partnership, Edwin Lutyens & Gertrude Jekyll; by Jane Brown.  Amongst all the house and garden descriptions od collaborations was one combination in Ireland which I knew to be very near my route through Co. Laois. The house no longer exists but Heywood Gardens survived and at the time of Jane writing was under the care of the Salesian Fathers’ Missionary College. Today the Office Public Works maintains the gardens which are now in the grounds of a school.

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Footloose in the Scottish Borders

When it came to deciding last autumn which of the ATG programme of Footloose independent walks to choose for this summer’s expedition we found that we are running out of level 2/3 walks in places that we thought would be interesting. We also considered a return to Northumberland where we spent 4 self-catering holidays (before taking up this hotel-to-hotel walking lark) and where there is still so much to see and do. In the end I came up with the idea that we should do the 5 Day Scottish Borders Walk and follow this with a 3 night recovery period in a cottage in Northumberland. So this was what we did the last week in June. Our cottage was right on the Border just outside Cornhill-on-Tweed.

Lightpipe

Lightpipe Cottage near Cornhill-on-Tweed

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The Company of Trees : Tullynally Castle Arboretum

Earlier this year I read and enjoyed Thomas Pakenham’s ‘The Company of Trees’. Thomas Pakenham wrote the book as a form of diary for the year 2013 mainly about his interest in conserving trees on his estate at Tullynally Castle in Ireland and collecting seeds for further propagation from distant areas in in the world. During that year he travelled to Tibet and China and the Andes. He peppered the diary with other information about the gardens/arboretum at Tullynally and much more personal information besides. In this was it differed from his previous tree books – Meetings with Remarkable Trees; Remarkable Trees of the World; In search of Remarkable Trees; The Remarkable Baobab.

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Elizabeth Bowen and The Shelbourne Hotel

Shelbourne book

Last September when I met up with my online book group friend sherry in Marion, Massachusetts she presented me with a copy of Elizabeth Bowen‘s ‘The Shelbourne Hotel : an enchanting account […] of the hotel that for more than a century has been at the heart of Irish life’. Tucked inside the book was this postcard (no date, but probably early 20th century) :

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Ancient Ireland [9] : Newgrange and The Hill of Tara

Last year on my final day in southern Ireland I travelled up to County Fermanagh in the north via Bru na Boinne or Newgrange the designated UNESCO World Heritage Site in Co. Meath. I approached the site from the west and toddled a long a very quiet road, turned into the car park and was stunned to find it full of cars and coaches. Apparently from the other direction traffic comes directly from the M1 Dublin-Belfast motorway.

Newgrange

Newgrange

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Ancient Ireland [8] : Clonmacnoise

The ancient ecclesiastical site of Clonmacnoise, located south of a beautiful bend in the River Shannon in Co. Offaly, is one of the most popular in Ireland. Consequently, a visit on Sunday afternoon proved fairly busy and we only just managed to find a parking space. However, 4pm was a good time to arrive as the crowds were beginning to leave.

River Shannon

River Shannon Below Clonmacnoise

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