Hampton Court....

Henry VIII's majestic palace....

just a little entrance gate .....

not a very good picture but real mistletoe with berries.... (and yes, I insisted on a kiss!)

very hard to capture the scale of this place....

... and the gardens while standing at the same spot....

lots of space to go for royal strolls....

the stair case at the entrance.... those wall paintings seem 3 dimensional...

... and lots of ceiling painting too....

enormous tapestries against the walls..... 

behaviour of utmost importance!!!

enormous works of art..... 

I did get a crick neck looking up at the works....

there was lots else devoted to Henry and his many wives - very interesting.  The art and tapestries, silk covered walls etc was amazing too....

So much to take in.  Both Hubz and I do enjoy the Historical places - it's the type of place you could visit often and still see something new....

That was on our last day of our trip .... so I will be back to normal stitching posts.

Of course the main enjoyment of our holiday was with our lovely family..... very very special and just doesn't happen often enough...

Righto, Gotto Go.... creating to do!!!

Poppies at the seaside....

We passed by Stonehedge..... it was Summer Solstice and there was so many people waiting to go in..... 

A great view from the road side though.....

Off to Southend .... more beach houses but I didnt get a price on these ones!!

It is just on the estuary of the River Thames.... and must have seen lots of action over it's time...

Some may remember the wonderful poppy display at the Tower of London a couple of years ago.....  some of the poppies are touring around and while we were there they were at Southend

right at the end of the pier - you can see the poppies all the way up....

very clever feature...

It was called The Wave..... and is now dismantled from there and moved.

Lucky to have seen it....

Nice icecreams at the little cafe there too!!  

Righto, Gotto Go..... 

Beautiful Devon....

Hubz and I drove off to Devon, in the south of England.....

Oh my gosh what a beautiful area ...

Not the right place but I could imagine Heathcliffe and Katherine here.....

We stayed a couple of nights with a relative - she lives above the workshop at a huge Manor house and this is part of her lovely garden....

and we went for a lovely drive around the moors....

Up at the top was bits left of an old airfield used during WW11

 This pretty village was the setting for part of the film War Horse - I believe it was used as the little French village in the film...

up at the top the trees are a bit stunted and their trunks get all knobbly and interesting...

this lovely old bridge over the river was in such a lovely spot....

beautiful everywhere we went...

here is the tidal river and on the left is Devon and the right Cornwall...... Poldark country...... 

and one of the best things around this area is the Clotted Cream..... oh my gosh...

Needless to say my clothes all shrunk in that English water.....

Norwich Castle....

This was built over 900 years ago as a Royal Palace.....

It now serves as a museum..... one floor is dedication to life back in the day....  this would have been a dining hall

Inside the museum area are a number of amazing pieces...

this lovely old dresser....

we had just seen work like this on Antiques Road Show... the marketry is with semi precious stones...

... lots of beautiful pieces of art....

.. a big teapot display ....

I had to take a picture of this rather grotesque one....

A dolls house exhibition was on - they had about a dozen old dollshouses - rather fun...

there was a lovely display of old handwork....

late 17th century Italian lace

detail of a bed curtain tie 17th century

C 1880

c 1870 - 1900 (shelf drape)

... and accesories...

1860's chatelain

part of a ladies bodice c1600 - 1615

Bum nut - from a palm tree in the Seychelles - largest seed pod in the world....

After all that we needed a cup of tea.... they had produced tea sets in the style from one of the sets in the display....

I had a giggle about this....

This was one of the lovely museums I have been to - in a landmark location and we ran out of time...

Righto, Gotto Go....  time for a cuppa