We started in the garden of this Massive Estate/ Mansion sized “house” as they called it.  Past the garden the estate opened to an expansive grounds.  What looked like to be acres of finely manicured, lawns and gardens, sandwiched between towering ancient looking trees that had to be hundreds of years old. Click here to Read more about Wrest Park.

While the grounds were impressive as a tourist, Jim and I weren’t there to ohh and ahh.  We were there to paint.  As usual, Jim had a plan.  Because of the constant threat of rain, he chose a place near an old Chinese inspired bridge foot bridge that crosses a small river. Near the bridge was a small Pagoda.  Apparently at some point in history these Chinese style bridges and pagoda’s were all the rage with lord’s and dukes.

For us the pagoda was a very necessary would be shelter, in case it rained… 15 minutes after we set up in the bright sun-shiny weather, dark clouds rolled in fast. Not only did the sky turn black forcing us to retreat to “our” shelter, the clouds unleashed a 10 minute hail storm.  So much hail that the once lime green lawn turned white in front of our eyes!

Minutes later the sun returned and so did we.  Back at our spot we proceeded to make our paintings, side by side, artists in arms.  The clouds came back and we did the “Pagoda Shuffle” 2 more times. Until finally appearing from the storm Pauline and her sister Allison arrived with some sticky buns to go with our thermos of coffee.

After finishing up we strolled through the main sculpture garden and the eye popping flower garden to meet up with Pauline and Allison in the warmth of the cafe.

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