Branching Out - Stowe - Temples, Tales, Parks and Gardens

Our Stowe Branching Out walk was guided by the awesome Storyteller and long time friend of back To Books - Philippa Tipper

Philippa Tipper: "People have conversations that make connections that create communities.
And we don't just belong to one community. We each participate in a variety of communities -- and have many stories that can be shared across those communities.
Stories are powerful. They can empower, embitter, enlighten and inform. They can build fear, break down barriers and can tell of shared experiences to shine a light into the future. They can connect us with different ways of being, of seeing things from a fresh perspective.
Some people travel the world for inspiration, it's good to look further a field, not get bogged down in the mire of petty local politics, to see that there is more out there in the world than your disputatious neighbour.
However, the wider world is not always a thousand miles away. We live in an extraordinary web of cultural life right here, right now. But you have to be prepared to step out of your door, or move off your chair, and have conversations with people that you had never before considered to be part of your community. 
It's all about listening, hearing, sharing. Let me tell you a story."

Sharing Our Communities' Stories - Philippa Tipper at TEDxMiltonKeynes

Link to the history of Stowe Landscape Gardens

Stowe House

Philippa created a walk punctuated by stories that resonated with stopping points

About The Hermitage

About The Temple of Venus

About The Pebble Alcove

About The Palladian Bridge

About The Saxon Deities

Images of The Saxon Deities

Our walk was about 3.5 miles

We had a picnic at The Temple of Venus

We also filled the alcoves, became statues

Carolyn led a Listening Mindfulness Meditation

Carole invited the group to create a paper shell 

intervention of wishes at The Pebble Alcove

Poems about gardens

Gardening terms

More images here

It was a day of wonder, relaxation and surprise!

Many thanks to Phillipa and to the National Trust at Stowe for making our day so memorable.

Celebrating Our Senses - Walk 2 - Stop

The second in a series of Mindfulness and Wellbeing walks took us to Lyvden New Bield an unfinished Elizabethan summer house in the east of Northamptonshire, England, owned by the National Trust.

Before the walk artist Carole Miles 

designed windsocks printed with 

figures to represent each participant.

In the garden participants drew or stamped

on their windsock to personalise it.

We walked to the ruin built by Sir Thomas Tresham

There was very little wind.

We had to stop, ten move in order to catch the wind,

We walked up the first spiral landmark

Carolyn led a mindfulness meditation- Stop

We closed our eyes and caught our breath.

 

Shared a picnic including jam made from 

the blackberries we foraged during the 

Rushden walk. We made notes 

in our walk notebooks

We walked to the second spiral

Hung up our windsocks

We walked to the orchard, admired 

the apples and damsons.

Shared quiet conversations.

Felt peaceful

You can see the complete photo set here

Walk distance 2 miles.

Many thanks to Sharon Taylor and The National Trust for helping the group to visit and for making our time at the property so special.

Part of a series of Mindfulness and Wellbeing "Celebrating Our Senses" walks made possible with a Grant awarded from Margaret Giffen Community Fund and Northamptonshire Community Foundation and with support from NStep.

May Book Talk

Opinions were divided about The Pleasure of English Food - Alan Davidson - Meriel felt it was more of a list of foods rather than an engaging bedtime read (like many, she loves a good book to unwind with at the end of busy day). As a vegetarian, the meat heavy cuisine was hard to read about, however she did enjoy finding out more about some of the pioneers of food writing ie Mrs Beeton, who she knew very little about other than having heard her name.

To complement the contents of the book, our picnic contained a tiny taste of some traditional treats like pork pie, eccles cake, treacle tart, apricot frangipani, Bakewell tart, apples, sponge cake and salad.

Meriel thought Some Country Houses and Their Owners - James Lees-Milne was a far more interesting bedtime read as the book is based on the gossipy yet engaging diaries of James Lees-Milne who described his encounters with the owners of country houses just as their world of privilege and entitlement seemed to be ending forever. The book gives an insiders view of eccentric lords, oil millionaires and raffish socialists, all made as Lees-Milne travelled over England saving properties for the National Trust. It also describes the damage and rough treatment such houses received at the hands of  soldiers billeted in them during the war and how painful it was for people to contemplate losing their ancestral homes. Many buildings were lost after the war as owners could no longer afford their upkeep. It shows the National Trust and James lees-Milnne's attempts to persuade people to give their properties over to the care of the Trust instead of letting them fall into ruin and decay.