Yesterday I had a lovely day at Grey’s Court celebrating my birthday. Grey’s is a gorgeous little manor house with the best tea rooms I have ever come across. The cake was awesome.
Some historic houses, like my lovely Ashdown, are predominantly from one historical period but Grey’s Court is the most wonderful mixture of everything, from the medieval Great Tower to the Tudor rooms with their Georgian alterations. It’s also a really “homely” stately home and definitely the sort of place I could imagine living in! I loved the Cromwellian stables, dating from the time that Roundhead troops were stationed at Greys during the Civil War and the Dower House which was also know as the Bachelors’ Hall at one point in its history and has the carving over the door: “”Melius nil coelibe vita”, ”Nothing is better than the celibate life”!
Whilst I was there I picked up a couple gifts to give away, a little notepad (always useful!) and a box of beautiful blue and white patterned cards (assuming anyone sends cards rather than emails these days!) I’d like to give them away to one commenter on the blog to celebrate my birthday and to thank everyone for coming here to chat to me! So if you would like to enter the drawing just tell me whether you still write letters and cards in these electronic times!
Whilst I am on the subject of contests, don’t miss my website contest this month if you would like to treat yourself to a gorgeous bouquet of summer flowers!
Thank you for giving me an idea for an outing! I still send cards if I’ve something special to say, it’s much more personal than an email.
Glad to have been of service, Lorraine! I hope you enjoy the outing. Love your blog site, btw!
Nicola,
I love your books!Please enter me in the drawing!
Linda Cacaci
Thank you so much, Linda!
What a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday. It sounds like a wonderful day. Especially the tea!
I do still write letters and cards. My family sends cards for any occasion, even the most minor holidays our there. It’s just our own special way of remembering each other.
I hope the special birthday carries over for many days to come!
Thank you Stephanie. It really was a lovely day. I think I’m very lucky to be able to visit places like that – and they really have perfected the art of the delicious afternoon tea!
I love to read your books! Happy Birthday! Great giveaway. I like to use cards to send notes to my special people!
Thank you so much Lynne! Absolutely, special people deserve nice cards!
Happy Belatedly Birthday! It sounds lovely!
I write cards, especially thank you cards to friends and my kids’ teachers. I collect my birthday cards still, as well (sigh). It must be a strong association from childhood of how I felt when I got a card just for me with a beautiful picture on it -happy.
Greys sounds amazing!
Can’t wait to read “Forbidden”!
Thank you, Tai! How interesting that you feel such a strong link with the cards you got as a child. I think stuff like that can be very powerful. I love pretty cards!
Happy belated birthday Nicola. Glad you had a great day doing what you love best – absorbing history! I love stationary – so anything involving paper is my thing. Caroline x
Hi Caroline! Are you one of those people who loves visiting stationery shops? Some people don’t understand it but I have to confess I love that too!
Happy Birthday!
Yep I still write letters. My parents live in a logging camp on Prince of Wales Island and they have no internet connections. They get it off and on…so you cannot count on it working, so my parents dont pay the monthly fee to have it. I cannot blame them.
Thanks for the contest.
Melissa
Hi Melissa! Wow, it’s amazing to find people with no internet connection these days. I think we all assume it must be everywhere – until we realise that not everyone is online. I love that there are still people and places connected by good old-fashioned writing!
Yeah my parents are a little outdated as I say. They finally got electicity to their little logging town in 2006. Their Phone system went in a year later and even that is touch and go. I finally broke down and got my mom and dad a TracPhone (prepaid cell phone) becasue they drive about 2 hours to get to the nearest grocrey store and it is miles of endless roads that sometimes no one goes down for hours. I am just worried if something happened. I had to get a plain cell phone and they are still learning how to use it. When we go over to visit it is like camping for us.
Wishing you a belated Happy birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
It looks like you had a lovely time celebrating your birthday.
I am really big on sending a thank you card. I know I love getting regular mail so I figure most other people like it too.
I still like the old fashioned way of snail mail.
Hi Gigi! I still love getting old-fashioned mail too. I think there’s something special about it. It’s lovely to know people still enjoy sending cards.
Happy birthday! While I do like good houses which are very much of one period, I love ones which have evolved slowly over several generations without being frozen at one point. As long as they stopped changing about 100 years ago…
I write cards to my nieces, especially to the ones who are just learning to read and write and love getting post. I hope I’m not too late for your drawing!
Hi HJ, yes, houses that have evolved are fascinating, aren’t they. Very funny you prefer them to stop evolving a century ago, though. I know what you mean – no modern stuff for me either!