Went to the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre to see their mammoth, then to the Museum of the Gorge. Both pretty good. I think the Shropshire Hills one was probably a bit more interesting. It had a fair bit on the geology and earlier history of the area. And, of course, a mammoth!
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Today we visited Boscobel House and the Royal Oak (yes, the one Charles II hid in from the Parliamentarian troops, although what’s there now is actually a descendent of the original tree. You can even buy your own Royal Oak sapling! Ah, the initiative of English Heritage 
) and then went on to Moseley Old Hall in Staffordshire, which is where he went after leaving Boscobel. Both were totally fascinating. And wonderful to see proper priest’s holes!
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We spent the afternoon at Blist’s Hill Victorian Town which is one of those recreation-village type things, but this one was way way better than any other I’ve been to. Whereas Old Sydney Town was basically populated with random people in costumes, this one actually has real live craftspeople, and the town makes a sideline living out of making bricks and rooftiles and rocking horses and so on. Many of the things for sale – from hot cross buns, to postcards and little plaster plaques, are made onsite using Victorian methods. The printer not only prints postcards, but also bags for the other shops, money envelopes for the bank and handbills to go in the shop windows. The draper’s sells bonnets which are sewn by the woman running the shop. The whole thing was fascinating and very well done. AND there was egg dancing Altogether a tip-top day out.
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around Market Drayton and the Shropshire Canal (which is actually in Staffordshire). Absolutely gorgeous day, and we finished it off with buying gingerbread (a local speciality) from a baker in Market Drayton to have with our afternoon coffee.
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Djeli took me over the Severn to The Boat pub for their Irish music night – every Thursday all sorts of people turn up with their instruments and just play folk music. Deeply, deeply awesome. Last night we had 3 fiddles, 2 banjos, 2 mandolins, a guitar, 2 sets of uilleann pipes, 4 assorted accordions, ranging from a tiny squeezebox through to a full piano accordion, a bodhran and even a pair of bones (played like the spoons). We were given a lesson in bone-playing, and Djeli picked it up quite well but obviously I’m too much of a control freak.
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A very fine house run by the National Trust, near Shrewsbury. As usual, all very well done by the Trust, but it brought to the fore even more than usual the difficulty with “restoring” a house that has seen numerous styles and renovations – which one do you pick to restore to??!
Unfortunately no photos allowed of the inside of the house, so there’s only a couple of the grounds, which I’ll post here once they’ve been through Photoshop…
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At the “Last Debutantes” exhibition at Kensington Palace. Very interesting! Some great 1950s clothes. Also had a lovely walk through Holland Park on the way home.
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I’ve realised that my basic business skills need some love, and that if I’m to really push forward with my composition then I need to sort myself out in a number of different ways – being confident with business concepts and planning being one of them. So I’ve started working through the free Open Learning courses being offered at Creative Choices, starting small with “Maximising your potential” which is all about management styles, career planning and managing priorities and so on. Planning on gradually working up to the accounting bits…
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Went to S.M.A.K. (contemporary art gallery) and then the normal art gallery in Ghent. I wasn’t that taken with anything much in S.M.A.K. but it was marvellous to see a gallery devoted entirely to the work of living artists, and there was a very nice wonky stool made by some Italian chap which I rather liked. The other art gallery was fabulous, especially the modern section – mostly Belgian artists I’d never heard of, but some beautiful pieces there.
Had frites for lunch, then boarded a train back to Brussels and went and wandered around the Grand Place for a bit, visited the Manneken Pis to see what he was wearing (nothing at all, but apparently earlier in the month he’d been dressed as a dentist) and then went and indulged in a hearty and not too expensive spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Yum! More knitting when I got back to the youth hostel.
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A nice relaxing early afternoon before catching my train. Bought an absolutely delicious chicken & asparagus pie for the trip home too, with absolutely the best mushy peas I have ever had. YUM. I may just be a mushy-pea convert after that.
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