Christmas | View from my attic

My Christmas was very busy this year, full of all the things I love; work, sweet things, crafts, family, friends and glitter! Here are a few highlights from my festive season! This year we spent even longer getting Hardwick Hall … Continue reading →

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everybody had a lovely December, I was so busy with work and friends and family that I feel like I need another Christmas break to recover!

I had a lovely day out to near by Haddon Hall which was decorated for Christmas, and it was beautiful! The hall dates back to the 11th century and is currently owned and occupied by the Manners family, lucky people!

Haddon Hall

I had never been to Haddon before, and I really look forward to visiting again. The decorations were lovely and there were real fires throughout (very jealous).

Fire!

The decorations were mostly traditional greenery that fits with the interior decor of the hall. It looked really nice, still managing to stand out in the rooms and make our visit feel very festive.

The Main Hall

I especially loved the Peacock themed decorations in the Long Gallery! It is the sort of room that makes people go ‘Wow’ when they see it, myself included.

The Long Gallery

Peacock Tree

The Long Gallery was themed with Peacocks because it features on the Manners family coat of arms. They are beautiful birds anyway, and I am especially fond of them now as they remind me of my time at Powis.

A peacock carved into the wood of the Long Gallery

Another tree I really liked was the on where visitors were invited to write their Christmas wishes on tags and hang them on the tree. It had a really good effect and I thought it looked very classical against the tapestry backdrop.

The wishes tree

It was an amazingly beautiful day, really sunny (yet still freezing!) and that just added to the beauty of Haddon’s lovely grounds. The rooms were light and the sun made some really interesting effects where it was streaming in through the windows.

Sunshine!

Sunshine on the dining room table

I was also really taken with the interesting windows at Haddon. They are all wibbly (technical term) and reflected the light so delightfully.

Haddon’s windows

The Chapel was especially atmospheric, decorated with greenery, music playing, candles burning and full of smoke from the incense burning. We spend a lot of time in there, absorbing the atmosphere and admiring the paintings on the walls.

The Chapel

In the courtyard at Haddon Hall

Across the courtyard from the main hall is a little museum displaying objects found in the hall. It has a really interesting, eclectic collection, with pretty pieces of glass, nice keys and even a piece of Hardwick matting!

I would really recommend a visit to Haddon, it is a stunning property with real charm, especially on a nice sunny day when you can fully appreciate not only the beautiful interiors and manicured garden but also the building itself within its amazing location.

Last bit of blabbering about my European adventure! For the main part of our holiday were staying in Langenau, an odd little town on the edge of Bavaria. One day we went for a stroll around and it just seems … Continue reading →

Hello followers old and new, Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a lovely festive season, mine was filled with rest, relaxation and tons of food – perfect! Since I have had two whole weeks off from … Continue reading →

I love Christmas, the atmosphere, the food, the music, the sparkles! So I have been really looking forward to decorating Hardwick for our Christmas opening. I loved transforming Powis Castle for the Fairy Tale Takeover last year, it was a lot of work but such a fun process and well worth the effort! This year has been quite different, it has felt like a much bigger project and with someone else planning it; it has been nice to discover what is happening.

Baubles ready to go!

Candles in the Entrance Hall

The National Trust Christmas theme this year is a traditional Christmas. This is a little tricky at Hardwick as Chatsworth was where the family spent the festive season, using Hardwick Hall as their hunting lodge. Duchess Evelyn spent some time with her family at the Hall, and her children would put on plays for the rest of the family. This is one of the stories we will be telling while we are open this December.

Presents for Evelyn’s children

The team at Hardwick were determined that this Christmas was going to be bigger and better than ever! This meant bigger trees, and they are HUGE! I spent all week spelling of pine, clothes full of needles and hands covered in sap. The trees were difficult to shift and lift but looks so impressive now they are in place and decorated!

I have had a real departure from how I spent Christmas last year, when as a Student I got three weeks off. This year I was working Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Every and Day. So I was very lucky that my family agreed to come and spent Christmas with me at Powis, and my friends also agreed to come down for New Year! I am so lucky to have family and friends that are willing to work around my work! We had a lovely lazy Christmas Day, involving too much eating and a nice stroll around the Gardens and Estate after lunch!

Me and Jake with the Gingerbread man in the garden

Our family took a mini-break to Cardiff in between Christmas and New Year and once again I’ve had a bit of a Busman’s holiday! That phrase always seemed to have negative connotations to me before I started working in the Heritage industry. It can be seen to be boring spending your free time doing what you do daily anyway, however a day out to me has often meant visiting a historic property, and I love discovering new places!! Holidays have until very recently always been to location with plenty of heritage sites and museums to visit during out trip, so why would that change now I was working in the industry.

I guess it just shows how lucky I am to work in this industry, and working for the Trust has made me ever more eager to visit other sites! It has increase my bucket list no end and I now see every visit as an opportunity not just to see somewhere beautiful and learn it’s history, but also to look at how other properties and companies do the same thing we do. I find myself looking just as much at the ‘do not touch’ signs, cleanliness of the place, interpretation and environmental monitoring as I do the beautiful textiles, gorgeous rooms and fine furniture and grand gardens that have always held my interest! Some of the things on my agenda for that trip was to re-visit Cardiff Castle and visit St Fagans, which I had heard so many good things about! It would not really occurred to me to go on holiday somewhere and not have at least one historic item on the agenda!

The Tower

I was really excited about going to Cardiff Castle, the interiors were designed by the same man who did my favourite castle Castle Coch, and we had been privileged enough to camp in the grounds of the castle many years ago when our re-enactment group did a show with the Cardiff Garrison. Walking back in I couldn’t believe how lucky we had been to stay there those few years ago!!

Cardiff Castle

One element I did not expect but really enjoyed was the bomb shelter built under the enclosing wall of the castle. You entered through a door on the path up to the wall walk and simply walked down a mostly unfurnished tunnel. However it was the sound effects that made the experience for me, there were the noises of sirens and bombs dropping, and the anti-aircraft guns going. Over the top of this the wireless was also playing ‘We’ll Meet Again’ and Chamberlain’s Speech announcing the nation was at war. There were some metal bunk beds lining the tunnel and two areas cut into the side, on an Air Raid Wardens post and the other a canteen. There were stocked full of props like can and portable stoves and plates, but other than that the tunnel was bare! It was a very atmospheric experience and made shivers run down my spine!

The Wall Walk above the tunnel

The Keep at Cardiff Castle

Then we went up the Keep in the centre, me and Jake went right to the top and you could just about see Castle Coch off in the distance, which made me smile. However seeing the view of the castle from the keep did make me sad, and cause some debate between me and my aunt. Looking out from the Keep you can see the beautifully decorated tower of the main castle, and right behind that, a big pile of metal sticks that make up the Millennium Stadium. Now my aunt is a huge rugby fan and has been to see games at the stadium several time so she was not very pleased with what I had to say about the structure 😛 Fair enough they want somewhere to play, but did they have to build it right behind the castle? I felt it was spoiling every photo I took of this amazing historic property, it clashed so badly, and I’m afraid I don’t see any beauty in the painted metal stadium, especially not when compared to the castle! But I guess that’s just my opinion.

The Castle, and the Stadium behind

The interior of the main castle was just as I remembered it, absolutely stunning! The rooms were so richly decorated it really takes your breath away! It is a fabulous show of wealth and craftsmanship! It is so over the top when you think that this was also someone’s home, but amazing none the less! But as they say a picture speaks a thousand words so here are a few I took in the castle.

The ceiling of the Great Hall

The ceiling of the Arab Room

Detail of the Arab Room

St Fagans is an open air museum just outside Cardiff, I have been to a couple of different open air museums, and have a special spot for them in my heart so was looking forwards to this, especially since it had received high praise from everyone at work. In true Welsh style it was drizzling most of the day and the buildings were well spread out around the grounds, so we got our exercise! The buildings, like most open air museums, had been collected from around Wales so that they could be preserved. They ranged from Iron Age Round houses to a row of terraced houses which were particularly interesting. My favourite building was the Tudor Merchants House.

The Toll House in St Fagans

Another part that I thought was fab was the street of terraced houses, each house being decorated differently, with the first being from the 1850’s and the last being the 1980’s (and looking worryingly like the kitchen here at Park House). This was a great way to show the progression of technology and fashion, and lifestyle changes, over the period. It got me thinking especially about how different my Grandma’s childhood was to my own and then again mine and my mother’s, and how much things have changed within my own life! I can’t wait to see what the future is like and to shock my own children with tales of record players, tapes and a time before mobile phones! All the terraced houses had period Christmas dec’s up as well which was a really nice touch.

Picture from: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/historic-buildings/

The Terraced Cottages

Near the terraces were several shops, one actually selling chocolate and pick and mix sweets out a big glass jars! The shop next to it was a faux shop, and the man behind the counter was explaining the changes in currency to some other visitors. The shop was very nice, and gave me some good ideas on how to make the old kitchen cupboards look as if there stocked full quite easily, and cheaply! See what I mean, always gathering ideas, I couldn’t stop if I tried!

One of our volunteers told me I must keep an eye out for the church which has fairly recently been moved to St Fagans (St Telio’s Church). Whilst moving and re-building the church its old wall paintings were re-discovered and the church has now been presented with the wall paintings restored. They certainly made an impact when you entered the church! However I can’t say they were my cup of tea. The paintings in this church depicted Jesus on the cross surrounded by every-kind of sharp weapon you could imagine from the period, another depicting a man poking his own eye out, and several of knights fighting to the death. These were not so much your standard praise be to God images but one that were designed – literally – to put the fear of God into you! And I can imagine they were fairly effective!! I was glad to have seen it but I still think I prefer the more decorative style of church painting!

Picture from: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/blog/?month=2008-12&cat=424

St Telio’s Church

Unfortunately the exhibition on Welsh costume had been taken down when we got there so we couldn’t see that which I had been looking forward to, but the rest of the visit was good fun and made us all think and discuss, which is always a good thing for a museum to do!

All in all it was a lovely little break; and I will tell you about the other half of our trip soon. I hope everyone else had a lovely festive season and is having a good 2013 so far!

Brrr it’s chilly here at Powis, but oh my! does the cold weather allow for some beautiful scenery! The gardens look so different to how they did this summer but they are still enchanting! Every morning I’m torn between lingering to admire the view and getting into the warm as fast as possible. The other day I took my time and a couple of photos and this morning Ben nearly froze his fingers off taking some brilliant shots!

If this is what the gardens look like after a few frosty days then I can’t wait to see what it looks like after snow! Meanwhile inside we have been working very hard as always! We are right in the middle of the winter clean which is really exciting, I’m learning loads of new skills and working with items I have never worked on before! I have been moving the scaffolding about so often It’s even entered into my dreams!! and the other day I went to the top of the scaffold in the Library! Something I have wanted to do since I started here so I can tick that off my bucket list! We are also starting to gear up for our new year offer, I am looking forward to it as we are only open weekends so it will be a very different experience!

The last couple of weeks have also been a bit of a social whirl, I have officially been to my first work’s Christmas do, which was really nice. The whole property has not been out together since I’ve been here and it was a great laugh! However I think the restaurant will hesitate before giving such large parties rocket balloons and party poppers again! It was a bit of mess when we had finished our meal! Then at the end of last week I went home for a bit, which was much-needed. I had a nice break catching up with old friends and getting to know the new area my mum has moved to. If you want to know more about what we got up to here’s a link to my mum’s blog with some pretty photos of our walk, that turned into a bit more of an ice skate really!

We also went to visit Harewood House, which was really lovely! I was so envious of their kitchens as they have loads of copper-ware and fake meats and pies! I would love for Powis to have similar things but we just haven’t got the budget unfortunately. Hopefully these things can be added in the future. This picture is from their website.

Then this week I have been out every night so far! Monday was the volunteers Christmas meal, which the staff served at and then when the Volunteers had gone home we had a meal too. It was so nice to get all the volunteers together and the atmosphere was very festive. It was an epic task for Charlie and the Kitchen staff to undertake but they handled it brilliantly and the food was delish! I have good fun serving as well, I’ve never really done much like that before, save two weeks work experience at a Silver Service restaurant, so I was a little nervous I would spill something or drop a plate! However our vols are lovely and were really friendly and helpful, and aside from occasional mickey taking very forgiving of my in-expertise! Everyone had a lovely time and a good laugh, and it was very rewarding to sit down with everyone who had been serving at the end and have our meal (and we got all the spare food too!).

Tuesday was the Christmas party at the local knitting group I got to in Welshpool, most of the ladies there volunteer at the castle, and we had a huge buffet and Secret Santa, and again a really good giggle. Yesterday Me and my housemates went round to Emma’s for tea and we watched Nativity. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it, as it made me feel so Christmassey! The kids were so cute and I love Martin Freeman anyway! I’m hoping to catch the sequel which is in the Cinemas this Christmas (starring David Tennant!) Tonight I am out again at the House Staff Christmas meal at the Greek restaurant in town, which promises to be really good fun. We’re doing Secret Santa as well and I can’t wait to see the reaction of the person who is going to receive mine! Then I get a night in on Friday and Saturday I’m out again helping with the Carol Concert were hosting in the Ballroom, and we get to sing along!!

Wishing you all the festive cheer that seems to be in abundance here at Powis!! And I shall try my very best to update you more often on my tooings and frooing. Keep warm!!

A couple of months ago I was given the fantastic opportunity of some paid work here at the castle, doing marketing, advertising and looking after the social media pages for the castle. This is such a brilliant opportunity for me to learn another important area of running a trust property, and of course the money doesn’t hurt, just in time for Christmas shopping!

Our Christmas theme

It has been quite a challenge as the work is not like anything I have done before, but I have really started to enjoy the work, the more so the more I get to grips with it. This new aspect of my work here at Powis involves looking after the facebook and twitter, which I was already pretty au fait with, creating posters, flyers and leaflets and distributing them, writing press releases and communicating with local press and companies that we could work with to advertise what is happening here. It is also going to be part of my role to maintain the Powis Castle web-page, so my next task will be to learn how to use what we call ‘nurture’, the National Trust web design software.

Santa is coming to Powis Castle

Making posters is good fun now I have wrapped my head around the software. There is an online system that we use which has templates for everything from posters and leaflets to adverts in all sizes and shapes. There is a picture library specific to each property on the program, and it links directly to National Trust Images which is very useful. The most challenging part is coming up with the text! Although it is sometimes frustrating that we are somewhat limited, in order to ensure a uniform look through out the Trust, the system is quick and easy to use. This is great because we have so many events coming up at the moment I seem to have been making hundreds of posters.

Powis Castle Lunch Club

I did my first poster mail-out the other day and co-wrote a press release which has been sent to all the local newspapers. It is all very exciting and very grown up too!! I have put links to some of the posters I have made throughout the text, do have a look and if it catches your fancy the castle is open everyday for the rest of the year, except Christmas day, I’m not sure how I’d feel about working that one! And if I haven’t mentioned it already the castle is looking fabulous thanks to our Fairy Tale takeover!

As I have been hinting at for a little while we have quite a magical theme happening her at Powis Castle this Christmas! We are having some very special guests to come and stay with us during the festive season, straight out of the pages of your favourite book of Fairy Tales!

This little lady got more than she bargained for when having a snack in our kitchens!

Tea anyone?

Uh oh someone has eaten all the sweets!

Who has lost their shoe on our Grand Staircase?

This cute little kitty is fiercer than he looks!

It has been absolutely mad these past couple of weeks getting everything ready for Christmas, with a tight budget and not enough time, but I am so pleased with our results! The castle looks so amazing, very magical. Even though it has been hard work I have really enjoyed decorating the castle for Christmas, doing the State Dining Room yesterday made me think I’d really enjoy a career as a set dresser (I’ll add it to my many possible career options). And the finished result is so worth it all, I’m so proud of the team for all the hard work that has been put in! I cannot wait to see the visitors reactions to the theme! It really looks stunning, I get so excited every time I walk into a room and see it all dresses up.

A little peak of what I was doing in the State Dining Room

I promise more photos in a couple of weeks, so if you’re really eager to see the magic, come on down to Powis Castle! Also I realized that on my post about my Hot Air Balloon ride I promised more photos, well there is a selection of photos from the event on the Powis Castle and Gardens Facebook page. Here is a link to the album: https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.420764757971104.88681.137042753009974&type=3