An English Mouse.

Meet Minnie, she lives below stairs at Downton Abbey. As a ladies maid she loves all the finery that her mistress wears so, on Sunday, her day off, she dresses in her own best outfit to go to the village church.

She hopes to see her young man, the blacksmiths son, and spend the afternoon sitting by the river with a picnic.

I've made this young lady especially for Patti, I hope she is as you hoped.

She is the first of my English Mice and I've loved making her and telling you a bit about her life.

Look out for more and meanwhile pop over to The English Romantic to see the progress on
Ediths House.

Have a great week.
xox Angela.

A new life for a piano.

I paid a visit to my brother who is working restoring a grand piano for Dartington Hall.

He is a true master craftsman who can totally transform both the case and the sound of these beautiful instruments.

This piano was completely covered in black paint. He has taken the whole action out and stripped back the wood to reveal this glorious veneer.

The metalwork get a new layer of gold paint and each string is painstakingly replaced.

This is the felt being woven through to stop any unwanted sound.

I'm going to follow the progress of this piano and I'll be showing you more in later posts.

The workshop is part of the beautiful Dartington Estate.

It is my favourite place for winter walks.

As I went into the garden there was the beautiful scent of Myrtle, famous for being part of Queen Victorias wedding bouquet and which has also been part if every Royal brides wedding flowers ever since.

 Here's some more of the flowers that were out today...

                                                Snowdrops....

                                              Primroses.............

Camellias.....

.......with huge buds

and over head with the winter sunshine sparkling through.

then my favourite winter flower, Witch hazel.

A really lovely day out.

Hope you enjoy your winter walks.

xox Angela.