Developing a Severe Case of Bathroom Envy at Castle Howard

Be prepared for a serious case of bathroom envy when you see these beautiful bathrooms at Castle Howard.

I must say I do like a nice bathroom. I’m not remotely a bath person – it’s showers all the way – but I really think there must be another me existing in a parallel universe who loves a good bath. How else can I explain the dreamy lust for luxury I get when I see a gorgeous picture of a bathroom. Especially if it’s got a full-drawn bath full of foamy bubbles. I imagine myself sinking into it, my book propped up alongside a candle and a glass of wine on one of those wooden rack things that stretch across the bath, relaxed and ready to soak and chill for an hour or two …

… then I remember I get bored in a bath after about a minute, the bubbles get in my eyes and up my nose, my book gets soggy, the candle goes out with the first splash and I’m not a particular fan of wine. Plus I’m very aware that I’m sitting in what is basically a big bowl of my own dirty water.

So the parallel universe theory is the only one that makes sense.

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Exploring Castle Howard – Yorkshire’s fabulous historic home

From sculptors to suffragists, from boat rides to Brideshead Revisited, and from Pellegrini murals to pizza, Castle Howard has a bit of everything to make it a fabulous day out.

Whilst in Dorset at Easter a friend and I took out Historic Houses membership. Sitting that evening in our Premier Inn room we excitedly researched what other interesting places were covered by our membership. The big one that stood out was Castle Howard. It’s a bit of a great old English houses bucket list item. It’s somewhere neither of us had been, though we both wanted to visit. And it’s expensive.

And so we planned a trip to North Yorkshire. We looked at dates and timings and booked a Premier Inn in nearby Pickering for the Saturday evening. Fast forward a couple of months and it was almost time for our trip. I was doing some last minute checking and discovered … that although Castle Howard is part of the Historic Houses scheme, members still have to pay to visit. Eek!

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Christmas at Chatsworth – a Photo Essay

Christmas trees, sugar plum fairies, toy soldiers, ballerinas … it’s Christmas at Chatsworth.

I’ve walked along the River Derwent and through the Chatsworth estate many a time, but I’ve only actually visited the house once before. And that was a very long time ago.

Chatsworth
The house from the side

The house is beautiful at any time of year, but I imagined it would be absolutely gorgeous decorated for Christmas and as my brother and nieces are visiting I thought it would be nice to take a trip to see the house in all its festive glory. Continue reading “Christmas at Chatsworth – a Photo Essay”