Garden of Fire!

I stared my new job as Chapel & Collections Officer at Clumber Park on the first of December, just in time for all the festive fun! And just as I started Clumber was hosting a very different types of garden event, the Garden of Fire!

The Walled Kitchen Gardens were temporarily transformed into an enchanted, illuminated garden that felt like you had stepped straight into a fairy tale.

Working with Fuse Fireworks the events team at Clumber Park undertook something daring and different, and being lucky enough to have the opportunity to see the event I think it really paid off!

The Walled Kitchen Gardens, with their gorgeous red brick walls and the largest Glass House in the care of the Trust, are beautiful in their own right. However on this evening they were transformed into another world.

Candles hung in glass jars from trees and on posts, as well as from in plant pots on purpose built metal structures, creating fantastic fiery visions for visitors wandering round the garden.

The first section of the experience felt like walking amongst the stars. The whole experience just made me feel so relaxed and dreamily happy.

There also braziers burning bright, and one are where as you walked past bursts of fire were sent leaping into the sky.

I think my favorite structure was the sphere, although the pretty heart was a close second.

Accompanying visitors round the garden was a soundtrack of beautiful, ethereal music. This really made the experience, bringing it to another level and totally transporting you to this beautiful, other-worldly Garden of Fire.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit something similar do, it was such a unique, lovely experience!

People who inspire me

I have been inspired, by the people who inspire me, to write a post about people who inspire.

Maybe it's just the time of year, new year, new resolutions etc, or the things that are happening in my world at the moment, but I am feeling very inspired, and very resolved; to live better, to do better, to be better.

I haven't made a proper new years resolution for years. I always used to make the same one 'stop biting my nails' but then when I was at university I did, hurrah! And now I can never quite find such a succinct wish for myself for the year.

So this year I am looking to the people who inspire me. I am not just going to keep looking at these people and thinking 'wow, that's brilliant, I wish I could . . .' I am going to do! Or at least give it my best try.

So here is a list of some of the people who inspire me and how.

Angela Clayton.

This woman amazes me, she has crazy sewing talent like no one I know and it fills me with envy. Angela makes a variety of sewn projects, from historically inspired pieces to just beautiful dresses inspired by characters or flora and fauna or just by fabric she finds. 

Every time she creates a new project I am stunned and want to sew something amazing too, so that's what I am going to do. I have written myself a list of projects, some medieval and some not, and I am going to do some sewing!

Follow Angela by her blog or on Youtube.


Sprinkle of Glitter.

Louise is a Youtuber, mum and business woman who I have watched achieve so many great things over the few years I have been subscribed to her channel. Yet rather than feeling alien to me she is still a completely relatable person. When she talks about her worries and crises of confidence I find myself feeling reassured that I am not the only person to think that way, and drawing strength from that.

I watch Louise's blogs and often find myself thinking 'she looks great' and I know she has struggled with her self confidence. That inspires me to make more of an effort to dress they way I actually want to, and not chicken out of wearing something  because I might feel overdressed or a bit silly. She also has fantastic taste and I have found myself taking lots of inspiration from her when dressing my new flat too.

Check out Louise's Youtube channels for her fab tastes, and lots of laughter too!

National Trust Challenge.

Now this is a blog I have been following for a while and they came up with a great idea of listing every built/manned property the National Trust owns and setting out to visit every one, all 257!

I thought I had visited quite a lot until they listed them, and now I know I've got my work cut out! I love visiting National Trust properties so this is a nice goal to set myself, but I don't expect to complete it any time soon! 48 down 209 to go!

Join the challenge here.

Thor Heyerdahl.

I talked about Thor quite a bit in my blog post about Oslo. Not only was Thor intelligent, brave and adventurous, he was sure of himself. So sure that when people told him his theory was going to get him killed he stuck to his beliefs and proved his doubters wrong. He also really cared about the world around him, and when he saw what damage was being done to the oceans he tried to change it.

There are a lot of lessons you could learn from Thor, and not just how to be so cool! I hope to be able to have the confidence in myself he had, especially facing the challenges of the new responsibilities I have in my job. I am also going to go on the adventures I want to, not just dream about them. I have already penciled in the big one for a couple of years time!

Read more about Thor here.

Charlotte.

I have been friends with Charlotte since I was eleven years old, and we have done so much growing up since then. Charlotte has always been a big influence in my life in terms of my religion. It was something that we had in common in high school that most of our other friends didn't understand, and it still bonds us today.

Charlotte has been through more than one person should have to in the last few years, but through it all she still puts others first. She has been amazingly strong, not wallowing in pity as I worry I would in her situation. Despite everything that has happened it has made her more determined to help others, so that's what I am going to do to.

I have started giving regular donations to charities I feel really deserve help, like Cancer Research UK, and I am planning on doing something big charitable events throughout the year, like the Pretty Muddy 5K at Clumber Park in July.

My mum.

My mother is amazing. Not just because she is right about everything (a trait I hope magically appears with motherhood because I'm looking forward to that). Not just because she put up with me as a teenager and we both survived. Not just because she has been through so much and is still the most positive person I know (annoyingly so sometimes). Not just because she always helps me out when I need it, and has the solution to situations that just freak me out completely. Not just because she has supported me and my brother through the most difficult points in our lives.

But because despite all the amazing people in my life, and despite me having moved out six years ago, she is still the first person I want to talk to when I have had a good day/bad day, or something wonderful/awful has happened or I need advice and comfort. She always makes things better when I need her too, and doesn't seem to know how amazing that is and how lost I would be without her.

So my mum has inspired me to try and be amazing for the people in my life, especially for her, because she really deserves it.

You can follow her blog here.

Closed for Cleaning

I have now official been working at Clumber for two months and currently am mostly focusing on getting the Deep Clean of the Chapel finished.

After all the excitement of Christmas and then my trip to Oslo I had a quiet, oh, three days to settle into everyday life at Clumber before the Chapel of St Mary the Virgin was officially closed for the Deep Clean. 

We are now a third of the way through, which having just worked that out makes me feel quite good. It is quite strange leading a deep clean in a new place so soon after starting, but I am really enjoying the experience.

The Chapel is such a beautiful building and I loving getting to see it from all these different angles.

We started the deep clean by packing away all the smaller items in the Chapel so that we can start by cleaning from the top of the building (well as high as we can reach) down.

The smaller bits are wrapped up and stored safely and will be cleaned before they are put back out.

Next we started at the very top of the building, in the Bell Tower, and began working our way down through the tower to the ground. The stairs up to the Bell Tower look like the could belong in a castle, with little windows dotted about as you climb up. 

The stairs spiral one way, breaking for a little corridor with a window overlooking the Nave, and the spiraling the other way up to first part of the Bell Tower.

Then up a ladder through a hole in the floor to where the bell is housed. Here there are windows with no glass in them, so a favorite place birds. This means it is very messy, and since there is no power up there has to be cleaned by hand.

There are some fantastic views across the estate from this point in the Chapel.

After that I did the Organ Loft, which was a tight squeeze for one person and a back pack hoover. This is another area of the Chapel accessed via spiral staircase, a very narrow wooden one this time. The organ surround is beautifully decorated, painted in greens and gold, and you get a fantastic view of the stained glass window on the East side of the Chapel.

A lot of the work in the Nave is done from the top of a scaffold tower, but in the Chancel it has to be done from ladders fitted in around the choir stalls. This is a little awkward but we do the best we can.

The Chancel is full of beautiful carved pieces, Angels, Saints and decoration on the choir stalls. It is one of those areas that is a real pleasure to clean because you get the opportunity to take time and appreciate the beautiful detail of all the figures, and the amazing craftsmanship that has gone into them.

Going up on the scaffold tower in the Nave is fantastic. There are stone walkways either side of the Nave that can only be accessed off the scaffold so I have enjoyed going up on these and looking out over the rest of the Chapel.

Up here are hidden a few little characters, the seven deadly sins. However I think they all look rather cute considering they are the things which can lead to eternal damnation. Just look at this little fella!

Standing on top of the scaffold tower you are still no where near the ceiling of the Chapel. To clean as high as we can we use an industrial vac and three long poles with a brush attachment on the end. It is certainly a workout for your arms!

Once we have hoovered the arches and walls of the Chapel, we work our way down and get to the elaborate ironwork lantern braces hanging in the Nave from the middle level of the tower. These are cleaned with a hogs hair paint brush, dusting them into a hoover.

The rest of the lantern is reached from a ladders, using a softer pony hair paint brush for the brass section, so as not to scratch the gleaming surface.

Spiders seem to love this Chapel and since we are cleaning places only reached once a year it has been very rewarding to get rid of the layers of dust and huge cobwebs hanging everywhere.

I want to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers that have come in to help so far, and thank you to Sleem for documenting the process so thoroughly, and then letting me steal his pictures for my blog!

While we have still got a lot of work to do before we open again on 13th March I am really enjoying myself. As long as I don't get too distracted by all the beauty and hidden details in the Chapel we should have no problem getting ready to re-open.