So I figured I may as well take the old girl out for a jaunt in the summer sun today, give her legs a good stretch and all that. Talking about the Prelude and the mrs here
Went to Houghton Hall, out in the middle of nowhere, forgot satnav and only knew it was near Sandringham but managed to get there in the end. Some great twisties and fast road action spoilt only by the next pensioner on their way to the same destination as us.
Also passed what I can only assume was a Mini club day out as easily 50 plus in a row passed us in the opposite direction, very cool 
I didn't take any pictures and left the mrs to that but she took the bare minimum anyway, so most of these pictures are pulled from Google images.
Onto the house though. Designed by the founder of Georgian style and influenced by Palladio, architecturally it is impressive. Anyway, built during the 1720's for the first Prime Minister, lots of marble interior, mega money spent.
(View out of the house to part of the grounds)
The place was massive and there were ha-ha's everywhere which from what I gather were first used in Britain here, although they are a much older concept. One thing that got me was just how much grass there was to cut, and it was all in those lovely strips but quite narrow so whatever machine did it was a small one. DAYS of work just to mow the lawn.
Also lots of rare deer breeds, including all-white fallow deer. Pretty cool to see but they stayed well away.
The most notable thing was that the estate recently got it's original artwork back on loan from a St. Petersburg museum and they were all put back in place as Walpole had them in the 18th century. LOTS of Old Master paintings which were impressive, although how much of that was down to knowing they were meant to be impressive I don't know, but I did like them. But I wont bore you with pictures of pictures
Went for a wander around the grounds, cool gardens etc. Pensioners everywhere. Don't think I saw one person under 60 in the 4 hours we were there. Found some sculpture pieces made specifically for the grounds, including this wood cabin thing (James Turrell). You go inside and there's part of the roof missing. Looking up at the clouds makes you quite dizzy etc.
Most wat moment of the day: a water fountain on fire (Jeppe Hein). Vid:
Then walking back to the car I spotted this
Anyway. What did you do today?!
, went shopping, then hard gym session, now home cook myself some dinner bed up at 5am for work 
is that you in the pic Donald?
