Easter Tidings

Hope everyone has had a good Easter break. We've spent most of the time here wielding paintbrushes and catching up on a plethora of other jobs. However, it's not all been work....we treated ourselves to some foodie treats so that we wouldn't have to cook much and ventured out yesterday for a break in the sunshine.

Not being a lover of crowds and not wanting to use the car we took advantage of the town museum being specially open for the holiday weekend and took in its newest exhibition of botanical prints. Although I visit every few months, it's a dynamic place and the contents of the display cases change regularly. This time I was finally able to find out what this strange shaped instrument is called. I've glimpsed one being played in one of the Morris sides and think its name of a "serpent" suits it well. Many were played in church bands from the 18th century onwards and were the forerunner of the tuba. 

The wearer of this late Victorian gown must have been very petite....it was tiny. Wool and silk edged with swan down. Possibly a wedding dress or a skating dress. If I had to put my money on it I'd plump for the latter and guess that it might have had a matching muff when it was first made.

It was only last week that I learnt that this barn originally stood on the farmland where our estate is now built. It's full of lots of farming equipment, but also has some of the trade signs from old Horsham businesses....seeing the one for Cramps made me feel rather nostalgic as I can remember it still being up in the main shopping street during my teens. The shop shut in 1986.

While I was pottering around a Dad and his adult daughter were chatting about the various exhibits. They were admiring this Victorian hobby horse tricycle and she was laughing that any wheeled vehicle she'd ever been given as a child was a violent shade of Barbie pink. As a former fireman he meanwhile was discussing the difficulties those early fire fighters must have faced when only having the horse drawn engine available to them and the time it would have taken to get there.

The newest addition is a small WWII gallery [nothing is on grand scale here]. The sausage sign hung outside one of the butchers, but was deliberately damaged by the Canadian troops stationed nearby. They thought it looked like a swastika and expressed their consternation by throwing rocks at it! 

The museum garden is a little gem. It's maintained by a team of volunteers who put in many hours to keep it looking beautiful. With plenty of seats it's a tranquil little spot to get away from the hustle and bustle of the town centre and can be accessed for free.

Whilst it might not have the grandest of days out it was the type of simple, lowkey experience we both relish and topped off most satisfactorily with a pint of ale in a pub garden on the way home!

Arilx