Day Trip to Baddesley Clinton

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve not been able to see all of our children, so we’re trying to make up for their absence by having some time with the most distant ones by using Absinthe. Fortunately, two of them still live locally and we’ve caught up with them over the last week.
The weather has been awful of late and, inevitably, the Black Dog has been sniffing around. I did think having our own black dog, in the shape of Ralf, might keep the nasty one at bay but we’ve both been a bit down lately.
We planned to drive down to Warwickshire to a National Trust property, where we’d meet up with Gabbie and Jay, who’d be coming up from Wiltshire. We’d chosen Baddesley Clinton (BC) which was open for timed visits, although some confusion over work timings meant we’d left it a little late at 2.30pm to meet up.
It was raining at home when we left but by the time we passed through Cheshire on the M6 things were starting to brighten up. We stopped at Norton Canes services on the Toll road to feed and walk Ralf in glorious warm sunshine. Perfect, although I was amazed by the number of people inside who weren’t wearing masks.
We got to BC just after Gabbie and we were soon parked up and having our picnic. It was great to catch up on each other’s news and to chill in the sunshine.
We only had time for a short walk and couldn’t go into the gardens or house because of Ralf, but still really enjoyed our visit. We’ll be back again for a proper explore next time.I didn’t take any photos of the house, so here are some I’ve liberated from the internet.
We left just as the gates were being locked at 5pm and had a steady drive home, where guess what? Yep, it was raining again.