Wednesday July 27th YES!!!!!

The walled garden at Gunby Hall

 

 

Arrived home this afternoon from our day out to find an email from Steve, the Compliance Papers have finally arrived back. These are what we have been waiting on for more than two weeks so a real relief. Steve put them back in an envelope with the other necessary documents and sent them off by courier to DVLA to get it registered. This doesn’t take very long, so we are nearly there. Just a case of getting the registration plates made when the certificate is returned and this is done while you wait….and then we can activate our insurance and we will be on the road. Europe here we come. Can’t thank Steve and Kathy enough for dealing with all this, it has been a real nightmare but the end is in sight.

I took some photos of the interior of Ruakiwi II this morning to share, as you can imagine we are so pleased with her, and although a 2007 model, she is in such great order. So looking forward to finally living in her.

We woke to rain, but it cleared mid morning so headed to Gunby Hall and estate, a 5 minute drive away. It is a country house, built in 1700, and was the home of the Massingberd family until the National Trust took it over in 1944. Quite an interesting story about the transfer as was told to us by one of the volunteers. During the war, new airfields were required in the area as this was where they bombers left from to fight in Europe and the Gunby Estate was needed.  But it meant cutting down large numbers of the trees as well as demolishing the house, so the family donated it to the National Trust and then it couldn’t be taken for war use.

We wandered through the huge walled gardens, abundant with so many different summer annuals and perennials and roses as well as vegetable gardens and orchards. The perfume from all the flowers just wonderful, and everything kept so neat and tidy. I could have spent hours! After a walk along the path to the old St Peter’s church in the grounds and lunch and coffee from the tea room we then toured the three storied hall, very much a country home. I was fascinated by the kitchen area in the basement and all the old dishes and cooking equipment.

The several thousand acres of land surrounding the hall are tenanted by three farmers. Near the carpark was a large herd of Lincoln Red cattle, looking very similar the Red Devons we used to run on the farm.

Drove home in a round about way via the village of Alenby, Jilly (the GPS) taking us via some very small country lanes. Harvesting is in full swing and there are lots of tractors on the roads.

Ian has been “fettling” (a UK term for fixing) this afternoon. The driver’s and passenger’s seats have been bugging him as they are very very stiff to turn around, so he took the driver’s seat out and found that it has been grinding with no lubrication for some time, so a bit of TLC and it is back on working a treat. My seat’s turn next!

Yesterday afternoon neighbour Alan popped over with some information from his TV man regarding our satellite reception. We have a proper satellite disc that automatically searches and locks onto the correct satellite, but what we didn’t understand was that different countries run off different satellites, so once we found the English one, thanks to Alan’s friend we had a number of channels to choose from. It will be so good to keep up with current affairs on the road.

The painters were working on the windows...the front view wasn't the best with the cherry picker taking "front stage"!

Playing with my camera using double exposures

A pretty impressive loo, love the sign, shown below.

Ian busy "fettling"!