So we headed off to an even smaller village than ourselves called Brinton just south of Holt. The village was used to film the TV series Dangerfield with Nigel Havers and has a very 'Miss Marple' look about it. The Manor House opens its grounds for common folk like us to view the drifts of snowdrops in and around their woodland. The farm yard is used as a car park and then we strolled across the road where we were welcomed at the rusty old garden gate by the owners of the manor themselves. They explained the route to take around the garden and then off we went down to the lake and around the woods.
The woods were beautiful in the bright sunshine and in places there were carpets of white snowdrops. The place was only open from 1pm to 4pm and ever so busy with people coming to see the show of these pretty delicate little flowers. We spent about an hour there and when we got back to the village we headed for the Church because they were serving tea & cakes.
I loved the way that so many people in the village were doing their bit to make this event work and the monies were going to charity. I think that the world must be held together by the work all these little communities in the back water of beyond. They make no fuss, do not shout to the world of how much they have raised but just get on with it in a very understated way. I think the expression is 'The salt of the earth' and we should all be proud of such folk. In the Church there were 4 or 5 people serving tea and home-made cakes. The Church was pretty full and there was something quintessentially British about the whole affair, a church full of people having tea and cakes and all of whom have only one thing in common, Snowdrops. There were no tables just pews and so we all faced the Lordly Cross on the alter whilst we munched on our chocolate cake, or Lemon Drizzle or Ginger or sponge or whatever we had chosen from their large selection, which I assume 'members of the committee' had been making over the preceding days. As I say it made me feel very 'British'.
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| THE HARDEST STRUGGLE OF ALL IS TO BE SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE AVERAGE MAN IS. Charles M. Schwab |
This is my version of the motivational posters found in many offices and workplaces around the country and I plan to put it up on the wall of The Old Bakery so that my 'Staff' (Alison and Claire) will feel motivated to make our B&B that unique experience that offers a 'different' fresh approach. I say my staff, but I think they may wish to challenge that so I will say the Team to try to appease them!
Today I have been creating a new border in the garden, although it is actually outside of the garden on a 7 metre slip of land by the road....
As you can see it is pretty boring at the moment and whilst I really don't know where I think I'll find the time to do this I aim to turn it into a Cottage Garden. Today I stripped off the weed ridden turfs, dug the plot over and then shifted half a tonne of my best compost into it. As I struggled on I kept coming upon a poor Ladybird here and there that I was obviously making homeless so I went out of my way to introduce them to some of their own kind that had already made a home for themselves on the stone ornament that you see in my poster above. It started off with just 15 Ladybirds and by the time I had finished there were very nearly a village of them. I didn't huddle them together, they did that themselves but I felt I was doing a good job of match making!
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Finally I must share a description of another B&Bs bedroom that I came across tonight......
I just can't compete with that level of service!
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