Moore the merrier

When you are part of a large family it becomes increasingly difficult to get together with all of them at the same time as the years go by and numbers multiply and disperse. So it has been great over the past four days to spend some time in St Albans with quite a few, although not all, of my immediate family and their children. First to arrive, on Thursday afternoon, were Mum and Dad. With a number of days leave still to book before the end of September, I decided to take a couple of days off to spend a little more time with them. On the Thursday evening we all headed to the Wicked Lady pub in Wheathampstead for some delicious food and wine in very agreeable surroundings. It was our first visit to this this establishment, for which Mum made a commendable effort to dress up in the style of a wicked lady with her vivid scarlet dress and matching lipstick. Judging by the lady depicted on the pub's sign, however, the Wicked lady in question was probably the one played by Margaret Lockwood in the 1945 film of the same name. The film is about a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman to bring some  excitement into her life. There is a local link here in that the film is based on the alleged exploits of Lady Katherine Ferrers, wife of the the major landowner in the nearby town of Markyate, which is positioned on the former main London to Birmingham road (now the A5).

Friday's main event was a visit to Hatfield House, childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I. It's a fine looking house and the current owners have done a fantastic job with the facilities for visitors. There's a lovely courtyard area housing a great cafe, a range of tasteful shops and the all important rooms in which to spend a penny. This area as well as the car park was free to enjoy, but with entry to everything else on offer adding up to a small fortune (even with the disappointing £1 seniors discount that would have applied to two out of three of us), we opted to focus on the collection of Henry Moore sculptures on display in some of the formal gardens and the more unruly woodland areas.

'Large Reclining Figure' with the Old Palace in the background

Henry Moore (1898-1986) always maintained that his creations were made for display in natural surroundings. Indeed, in 1951 he wrote "Sculpture is an art of the open air ... I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in or on the most beautiful building in the world.'1 It's not exactly sculpture, but now you mention it, Henry, I wish I still had that papier mache dinosaur I made at primary school - it would look so much more fetching nestling beside my tomato plants in the back garden.

'Draped Reclining Figure'

Some of the structures were more abstract than others, but they all looked great in their surroundings, particularly I thought those placed amongst the long, meadow-like grass in the woodland areas. 

'King and Queen'

It was also lovely to spend some time wandering around chatting with Mum and Dad. One consequence about being 50 is that my parents are now in their 70s, and although they are both still very active and mentally alert, the thought does enter my head from time to time that they won't be around for ever and so days like Friday become increasingly special as the years go by.

'King and Queen with clothes on'

A real bonus of visiting somewhere like Hatfield House with my Dad is having access to his fantastic knowledge of plants. He knows the names of every one (Latin and common) as well as loads of interesting information about them, the result of his horticultural training and many years working with plants.

Name that flower (Latin and common terms please)!

One tree did defeat him, however. Mind you, I was quite prepared to believe it was an 'Oozlem' tree, a name Dad made up on the spot and had me going with for a few minutes before admitting that he didn't actually know. As we were speculating further about its' name, a passing employee informed us it was in fact a Medlar tree. These are self-fertilising trees that can last for hundreds of years, so this one may have even been present as the young Elizabeth strolled around the Hatfield gardens.

1:00 pm on Saturday heralded the remaining arrivals for the partial family get together. In total there were 16 of us (8 adults and 8 offspring ranging, I think from 5 to 23, although I could be wrong). It was a lovely relaxed time and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. After a couple of hours of snapping away happily with my camera to compile a photographic record of the occasion, I remembered that I had taken the memory card out earlier and not replaced it, so I'm hoping that Andrew, who arrived with a lens approaching the length of the Blackwell Tunnel attached to this camera will have captured more of the afternoon than I managed to.

A real sign that I've reached my "middle youth", as Juliet prefers to call it, is the time and care I spend on the upkeep of the lawn. Consequently I was a little nervous about how well it would stand up to invasion.

Josh putting the durability of the back lawn to the test.

Well, I'm pleased to say it stood up admirably. Not that I would have minded really if there were a few signs of wear and tear. It was just great to see people enjoying themselves on it. Admittedly I didn't see all of the action as I was periodically required in the kitchen but the highlight for me was Andrew and Brenda rolling back the years for a swashbuckling game of badminton. 

A fun afternoon.

1. Sculptures and Drawings by Henry Moore, Tate Gallery, 1951, p.4.