The truth of the matter was that it was so very hot yesterday and today that I didn't want to sit in the sun the whole day.
So David devised a route to show me all the lovely places he had cycled through this week on his dawn rides and they were lovely.
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| Out on the razzle. |
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| A gated lane, a most secluded valley and tiny lake surrounded by flowers. |
Now I am going to be controversial, so going back two days when at Waddesham I wasn't exactly horrified at the building of a French chateau in Buckinghamshire well over a hundred years ago.... but here we are in the twenty first century and I don't think we should be building fakes or imitation buildings.
It began here when I popped out the car to open the gate, now you all know I love gates.. those old fashioned ones, made by skilled blacksmiths and hammered into wonderful curves.... This gate was plastic coated and probably made in China.
This new manor house or farm house or executive home, has a stone roof, or lookalike stone roof, concrete lintels an open stone porch. But shouldn't we be building modern contemporary looking forwards in design and invention not backwards but not fake?
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| Oh and this gate is plastic coated too. I wouldn't be surprised if the lawn was plastic. |
I would be delighted to hear other views different to my own on this subject.
Moving on, this delightful former chapel has footings form the C12th, The Twelfth Century no less, no other former chapel in the world like it, its priceless to me. At one end its joined to what is now a cottage, now that is unusual.
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| Dear little cottage and a C13th archway. |
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| What a peaceful final resting place. |
Now we went onto a village called Deddington, it's really near Aynho, we had a walk around and I saw a few more crackers.
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| Unspoilt ancient house with wonderful door. |
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| Ancient house but I do have issues with the roof and the front porch. |
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| Stone built house but look at the wall to see how it's changed over the centuries. |
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| Oh my what a stunner, I would guess at Queen Anne, but look at the colour of cleaned stone. |
Supper was low key after yesterday, poached eggs on toast with roasted tomatoes and avocados.
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI rather like the architecture that gives the nod to yesteryear, esp when done in materials that are as close as possible to the original ones. And they seem so much more in keeping with your beautiful countryside and villages.
As you know, in NZ there is a huge range of building styles, and given our short history of European-based architecture and the natural resources available to build, much of our housing stock was built from wood. One thing I DO like about NZ homes is that there are very few streets where all the houses look the same.
But I am not a fan of the zany architecture that pops up - I like traditional look. And the house we lived in in Wellington for 34 years is testament to that. Built in 1919 it looks very English. (I'll find a photo and send it to you.)
And one other thing that occurs to me - I think those traditional looking houses may be cheaper to build than the zany ones with multiple rooflines and different height walls.
Cheers, Marilyn
Thank you Marilyn for that. I understand that what we all consider attractive must be linked into our upbringing, memories and familiarity. I too like the three bedroom semi's of the early C20th but I don't think we should be building copies today. So when I'm Prime Minister I'll ban that.
DeleteLisa x
Hi Liisa,
ReplyDeleteI don't like 'pretend' anything! I like a house to look like a house. I certainly don't like the steel and glass 'houses' that people are going for these days.
Great blog btw.
xx
I think I agree with you Carol, I stayed in a big glass and steel place in Devon a few weeks ago and LOVED it. I have visited another as a home but the windows were in need of a cleaner and one with a high ladder, I could only think of the drawbacks and not the "Beauty". Its a good thing to have the variety that we do in this country, even if as a population we are timid of some of the new.
DeleteLike I've said to Marilyn, when I'm Prime Minister......
Lisa xx
I look forward to your being PM, Lisa. I do hope though that you would refuse to meet with the current POTUS, otherwise I'd be campaigning against you.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you want to be PM here in NZ, you'd need to be at least 8.5 months pregnant now ...
Cheers, M