mybigadventures.com

The last month or so has been really busy with the usual revision sessions, coursework marking and general stress that tend to come with May as a teacher. Fortunately it's about that time that things start to calm down, so today we headed out for the day to Waddesdon Manor, which is a National Trust property in Aylesbury. We hadn't realised until we arrived, but Waddesdon was having a Feast festival this weekend featuring a range of food outlets, craft events and entertainers. The weather was glorious with blue skies and sunshine and there were plenty of people about enjoying the festivities. Arriving shortly after opening we managed to get tickets for the house, although they do recommend booking in advance which a lot of people seemed to have done. The house was previously owned by the Rothschild family before being gifted to the National Trust, it remains under management by the Rothschild foundation however and there is a supplement of £4.50 (£5 gift aid) for National Trust members. The house is contains an extensive collection of fine furniture and decorative arts. It is set over three floor and there is a huge amount to see, including an impresive ornate clockwork Elephant automaton. 

The front gardens looked fantastic setup for the feast with long tables running down the middle of the garden and a large number of food, drink and craft stalls lined the sides. There was bunting, flowers and performers dotted through the spaces and lots of room for lounging on the grass. We tried food from a few places including a pizza that took 90 seconds to cook (superb!), a duck wrap and some triple cooked fries. The food we had was amazing but there were so many other places I would have loved to try. We watched some of acrobats performing using huge jenga blocks and even spotted the red arrows and a couple of other RAF planes fly by on the way to an airshow we assumed! I was very excited when I saw the red arrows, I don' think I've seen them since I was a kid but sadly they were abit too quick for me to get a picture.

Headed home late afternoon after a pretty long day out. Dani dropped by one of the stalls on the way out and picked up a fancy new jug/varse which is now sitting on the table holding some flowers she received from one of her year 11 students yesterday. We had a fantastic day and highly recommend the place for a visit - aparently they have a similar market layout at Christmas so one to bear in mind for the winter too! Enjoy the photos.