Poultry Cottage, Welshpool, Wales

[nanila]

[Humuhumu jumps off a stone outside the gingerbread Fowl House (strictly for the birds).]

On Friday, we piled into the car and drove to Wales to our fourth Landmark Trust property. It's become traditional for us to stay in one over the weekend nearest the bloke's birthday that isn't Valentine's that holiday which seems to have been designed to make people feel bad about enjoying being alone February 14th.

This one is called Poultry Cottage. Once it was part of a great estate that included a model farm. The estate is now broken up, and the Landmark Trust acquired the cottage (where the fowl-keeper lived) and the Fowl House (where the chickens, pheasants, turkeys, pigeons and doves lived). I'm afraid the keeper's cottage is rather plainer and smaller than the one intended for the galinaceous neighbours.


[Pretty Poultry Cottage, fit for humans.]

We used the cottage as a base for exploration nearby during the day, and as a cosy nest at night after the children were in bed. There was no mobile or data signal, no television and no internet connection. I'm not evangelical about disconnecting - we had some BBC programmes downloaded, mostly for Humuhumu to watch - but both the bloke and I do find it helpful for our mental health to be forced, for a few days, not to check our e-mail or spend our evenings constantly half-distracted by our computers.

Below the cut, some shots of the cottage interior, with children (and adults).


[The Fowl House from the front.]

We did go into the Fowl House, but as I was carrying Keiki and it was quite dark inside, I didn't get any decent photos of the interior.


[Keiki using a wooden stool to survey the living room.]


[Humuhumu in her sky-blue dressing gown, holding a daffodil. The bloke and Keiki enjoying their breakfast.]


[The bloke enjoys a book, a plate of birthday gift cheese and a glass of wine. Note egg-shaped lamp!]


[My glasses, cheese and crackers, glass of wine, and postcard of Fowl House, later sent to my parents.]


[Chicken decor, of which there was an abundance. Origami chickens are part of a treasure hunt from the log books. More about the log books later.]


[Humuhumu asleep in her room downstairs. She was very proud of her bravery in sleeping on a different floor from us and Keiki.]


[Me, feeling relaxed after a glass of wine.]

Comments

[gwendraith]

It sounds good and I know Landmark Trust properties are lovely but....there are no photos, just a grey and white no entry sign where they should be :(

[nanila]

Thanks for letting me know. I'll be changing my photo host as soon as I can!

[gwendraith]

Yes, I can see them now. Lovely pictures and as nice a place as I thought it would be :)

[omnipotent]

Boo, I can't see any pictures. Wonder if it's because I'm behind a proxy. Let me disable it and see . . .

. . .


. . . Nope, still no pictures. :( Well, I'm sure the pictures are lovely!

[nanila]

Argh sorry. I got blasé about Google photos. Clearly that was a mistake.

Will upload & swap to Flickr when I'm back in the land of non mobile broadband.

[pulchritude]

I can't see the photos :(

[nanila]

Aaaargh Google photos! I shared the album with my circles, which in the past has been sufficient to overcome whatever weirs permission things they have going on. Have now shared publicly as a stop gap until I can upload & swap to Flickr. Can you see them?

[sfred]

I still can't see them :-/

[nanila]

Now on Flickr, which should have fixed it...?

[sfred]

Yes! Lovely pictures.

[pulchritude]

Yes, I can see them now :)

[cmcmck]

For all its faults, photobucket usually works!

[nanila]

I still pay for a Flickr account, so I really should use it. Thanks for the tip though!

[whereisirisnow]

This seems like a great tradition! Lots of fun! :)

[nanila]

It is a good tradition! I look forward to it every year. One day I want to go back to our very first Landmark which is still my favourite (St Winifreds Well). But it only sleeps two. We could get away with it when Humuhumu was a little dot & didn't have a brother but now...not so much!

[askygoneonfire]

I so enjoy seeing your photos from these weekends away, always look like such lovely getaway spots. Think it's wonderful for your kids as well to have little adventures like this - I would have adored it as a child!

[nanila]

Thank you! Humuhumu seems to enjoy it. Especially this time. I think she's started to have strong feelings about times when she knows she has us to herself (shared only with her brother). She can definitely tell when we're not distracted or stressed.

[lurkingcat]

The fowl house looks amazing. I do like the idea of the chickens living there in mock Tudor splendour although I expect it isn't nearly as grand inside.

[nanila]

The interior is very spacious but as you've correctly deduced, rather plainly decorated. The nesting box doors were attractive, as was the dovecote. I imagine in their heyday the simplicity of the interior provided a good foil for the fancy plumage of the inhabitants.

[lurkingcat]

My brain is still refusing to let go of the idea of chickens nesting on sofas and four poster beds and a guard chicken perched on a suit of armour :)

[azurelunatic]

There's a pair of pictures from my childhood of two of the favorite hens visiting in the house. My Calico is sitting on "the orange couch", an ancient flame orange burlap disaster which chickens *were* allowed on, looking quite cozy indeed. Miss Aurora is sitting on "the blue couch", a very nice wood futon with a high-quality cover, where chickens were *absolutely not* allowed due to the potential for messes, looking beautiful, calm, and absolutely as if she were supposed to be there. So Mama got a picture before lifting her off.

[lurkingcat]

Oh, that's excellent! That makes me so happy :)

[azurelunatic]

There is no picture of the time my dad smuggled Miss Aurora upstairs while Mama's Winter Solstice party was going on, and she wound up sitting on one of Mama's pillows. She was a very regal hen. Mama was pretty mad. My father had not got the memo that this was a no-chickens-in-the-house party.

[yvi]

That looks amazing and relaxing.

And reminds me that I need to plan a short trip (not as relaxing or remote, though - probably Amsterdam or Brussels :-))

[nanila]

It was both of those.

Amsterdam and Brussels are both fantastic places. I would gladly go back to Brussels just to have a cake-eating holiday. And Amsterdam I would one day like to return to now the Rijksmuseum is fully open - both times I went previously it was partially or wholly shut for renovation.

[major_clanger]

Did you get to actual Welshpool? And what did you think of it?

(I occasionally get sent to do cases at its minuscule courthouse.)

[nanila]

We did, but only to go to the Morrisons for supplies. It looked...well. There were a lot of fish and chip shops. Montgomery was definitely a more boutique town.

[major_clanger]

There is a nice coaching-inn style hotel and a good coffee shop but yes, once you've been to those, that is about it. I'm afraid my impression of the place probably isn't helped by my bad luck that whenever I'm sent there it's chucking it down with rain.