Postcards from K: Postcard from Moseley Old Hall

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Postcard from Moseley Old Hall

Complicated and labour-intensive gardening does not appeal to me. Here's what does: weathered brick enclosing a walled orchard, a lavender-lined path busy with bees, tea, and cake. This path led to a cafe serving delicious scones. Almost perfect. The quite large drawback is the M54 - makes it easy to get there but provides a constant soundtrack of tyre on tarmac.

Moseley Old Hall makes a big deal out of the fact Charles II hid there for two nights. They obviously hadn't got the cafe sorted back then or I'm sure he'd have stayed longer.

The property used to be a farm so the orchard is in keeping and the stables and other buildings have been put into service with shop, exhibition space etc. But they've done some gardening in what would have been the farm yard. Complicated, labour-intensive knot gardening. Those seventeenth century folk had no idea how to relax.

5 comments:

Timberati said...: Other than the constant whine of tires on pavement, it sounds quite delightful.

I don't know my English history as well as I might (I did watch Simon Schama a bit--but I don't recollect Charles II), why did Charles II need to hide?; July 16, 2012 at 2:03 AM
Lexi said...: I'm okay with knot gardens, as long as I'm not the one maintaining them. But the lavender and brick wall garden is lovely...

And it's sunny! Where was the rain that day?; July 16, 2012 at 9:04 AM
Katharine D'Souza said...: Hi Norm - am sure your knowledge of British history exceeds what I know of the US. The following will show that I have only a tenuous grasp on British history too! Charles II had to go on the run after the Civil War until we realised that Cromwell's ideas were nuts and had the monarchy restored but kept the elected parliament. My favourite bit from that period is that Charles's wife Catherine of Braganza turned up from Portugal, asked for a cup of tea and a national trend was set. Sensible woman.

Hi Lexi - I know! The rain is back today but there was about 2.5 minutes of sunshine on Saturday. I made the most of it.

K; July 16, 2012 at 10:43 AM
Timberati said...: Ah, yes. I forgot about Cromwell. Bit of a nutter, wasn't he?

I like the new ReCapctha system much better than its previous design. Their old system used such distorted letters I end up having to enter the letters 4 o 5 times. This one--only twice. What an improvement.; July 17, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Katharine D'Souza said...: Oh, I am sorry, Norm. I guess because I'm always signed in to my Google account it doesn't show me things as the rest of you see them. I can't remember turning the ReCaptcha on - perhaps it's a standard Blogger setting? Glad that at least there's been an improvement.
K; July 18, 2012 at 12:43 PM