A visit from Marsha

Molly’s aunt Marsha and her friends came to visit this afternoon. She is in the country for work and is our first visitor. We went to Calke Abbey, one of the historic homes managed by the Britain’s National Trust organization.

The house is pretty incredible. It fell into decline around the beginning of the 19th century and has been preserved basically as the National Trust received it. So the wallpaper is peeling in many places and it’s in need of a lot of love, though they’ve decided to maintain it as an example of an estate in decay.

There is an amazing collection of stuffed animals (not the kind the kids carry around everywhere), rocks and minerals, shells, fossils, and other natural history curiosities. I’m inspired to try making some cases for our own rock collection. I’ve been meaning to try to find a box with lots of little drawers in it, but maybe it would be easier and nicer to make display cases?

The house has an interesting setup: the kitchen is in the basement and a little elevator brings food to the butler’s pantry where they have a fireplace that heats water that to a warming oven where the food is kept until it is ready to be served. There were rows of bells with little labels so the servants could tell which room was ringing for service. And the dollhouse in the school room did not have a kitchen in it since the children of the house would not be expected to set foot in the kitchen. What a different world; We essentially live in our kitchen. I wouldn’t mind having a library like that though; something about walls with books up to the ceiling really does it for me. I don’t know if I would want to sleep with animal heads looking down at me at night, though.

The grounds around Calke Abbey are amazing! The kids and I had previously walked around on some of the trails here with another home ed family. Walking across the gently rolling hills, you are likely to encounter sheep, deer, and blackberries. Many of the roads and trails are lined with beautiful, big, old trees which gives it a stately feel. We scrumped some conkers¹ here before.