A Grand Day Out

 It was a lovely day yesterday - clear blue sky but not too hot. Perfect for a day out and fortunately we had arranged to meet up with friends at A La Ronde which is on the South Devon coast at Exmouth. The original house was built by Jane and Mary Parminter, cousins who had been on The Grand Tour of Europe with Jane's younger sister and another female friend. They were away for several years and on their return Jane and Mary decided to set up home together and they purchased the land where they designed and had built the house that they were to live in - A La Ronde. This is the entrance to the house with the view of Exmouth harbour.

The house has 16 sides. There is a central octagonal hall with wedge shaped rooms leading off it all around the building. It was designed so that you could follow the sunlight from room to room around the house during the day giving the maximum light for reading, sewing etc. No space was wasted and there are cupboards and bookshelves built into every nook and cranny.

I did not take many pictures inside the house as the lighting was not very good. But it is full of treasures collected on their travels along with family heirlooms. However, I soon homed in on some embroidered pictures! I first spotted this stumpwork piece.

Sorry about the reflection and the angle - it was just slightly above my head height.

These two pieces were nearby.

The house is most famous for it's shell frieze around the octagonal gallery at the top of the house. Having recently been cleaned, the National Trust decided that the frieze is now too fragile to allow visitors to view from the gallery so we had to make do with glimpses and there are films of it to view. The staircase up to the gallery is blocked but you can see up - as in these not so brilliant pictures.

You also get glimpses of it from the octagonal hall and mirrors are thoughtfully provided for getting a slighty closer view.

Shell collections are everywhere, mostly behind glass but this one in the fireplace makes for a great display.

The house sits in it's own grounds with the lovely view of the sea.

This is the side of the house facing the sea.

Now a quick recap of my weeks sewing. It was the end of the month so Stitch Journal pictures of June.

And the start of July.

I have added a couple of flowers to my hexie quilt.

And finished a sock.

Thank you if you have made it to the end of this post - I shall be back next week. Happy Stitching.