Glorious Weekend Weather

We're still relaxing at home and getting some yard work done. The weather has been sunny and cool, absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday, we needed to do some shopping in Henley, so we had lunch just outside town at the Flower Pot pub. This was our second time there and we enjoyed it very much. We followed lunch with a walk of about 100 yards to the banks of the Thames which, after the recent rains, is overflowing it's banks.

















On Sunday, we visited Nuffield Place. This is the home of William Morris, Lord Nuffield, who was the founder of several automobile manufacturing companies, including Morris Motors (Morris Mini and Minor) and Morris Garages (MG). The house was built in 1914 and purchased by Morris in 1933.
We have seen quite a few estates and gardens in our travels, but this was definitely the most personal and therefore the most affecting. The couple did not have any children so the house and its contents passed intact directly to Nuffield College, to be preserved for posterity. Virtually everything in it is original, from furnishings (1930's vintage), tableware and linens; to artwork, family photographs (some featuring royalty) & personal items (which include everything from Lady Nuffield's sewing box to the couple's coronation robes for the crowning of George VI). In most of the estates we have visited the gardens were the most impressive; here it was the house. While not nearly as large and grand as some, it was certainly the most evocative of its times and lifestyle. So much more fun to get your English history like this than opening a boring textbook!

For dinner, we went to the Five Horseshoes pub in Maidens Grove which entailed driving some more single track roads. Some of the best pubs are in the middle of nowhere. Dinner was good and the rural setting was very peaceful; the great weather allowed us to sit outside with a view of fields, sky, sheep and cows as far as we could see. The light lasts until nearly 10 at this latitude so the views last right through dessert and coffee and all the way home.