While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not stop.
Acts 1: 7
This post is a contrast in seasons of two visits, the first during the very hot dry spell we had in summer and now this one in January with frost and ice staying on the ground for a good few days. In my summer post we looked around the house, this time we chose to enjoy the grounds more.
No ice wanted here.
Cobbles with some moss but patterns clear to see.
petals curled and burning
from the frost, near the main house window.
In 1514 the King granted Lettice and Robert the estate of Greys Court for the term of both their lives. All that was needed in return was an annual quitrent ( a symbolic payment ) of a single red rose to be presented to the king at Court every Midsummer’s Day.
I can almost hear you ask : ” So who were they to deserve this?” You can be sure the story has marriages, deaths and intrigue. Lettice in the end lives till 91, a great old age at that time.
Spring is on its way.
Here is a quote from an American writer, Paula Mc Lain born in 1965. She wrote a memoir about growing up in the Foster system and amongst other novels she also wrote ” A ticket to ride.”
” Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian word that meant walled garden . I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness. You couldn’t have real freedom unless you knew where the walls were and tended to them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them.”
Paula McLain
Thank you for looking at this post.
Sandy 🙂
I love that paradise means walled garden! This one at Greys Court is so beautiful.
Such an amazing site I could visit. Thanks so much. Anita
So pleased I could share it with you.
What a remarkably interesting place. Thank you for the tour and the contrasts.
My pleasure. So glad to share.