Adders

England’s most lethal animal is the Adder.  They inhabit Hatfield Moors where I walk with a group every other week. They are very shy and will disappear if they hear noise or feel vibrations from walking. They come out to sun, but if it gets too hot disappear.  It is tricky to catch them.  You need a morning that is dry, cool, with sun just coming out. It has taken 2 ½ years, but I’ve finally seen three of them. I didn’t have my camera the day we saw a large male, but today I got pictures of two females.  The Males are a darker almost black/ blue color with the same tan marking. 

 

Doddington Hall

Main house from the gate house

Doddinton Hall and gardens were built in 1595 and has never been sold out of the family. It is still lived in by the family and holds 400 years of collections of painting, ceramics, and textiles. Like many of the English manor houses it has been opened to the public to help pay for the maintenance and upkeep.

Dinning room

Sitting room with Venetian glass lights
 

Manor houses start to look alike in many cases.  They all collected the same types of things.  The differences are the style of the architecture and they grounds.  Doddington had some unusual items probably because the same family has owned the house for 400 years, so those are what I've shown.

 

Unicorn is on Family crest, so shrubs are cut into a unicorn.

 

Fox heads labeled with date and time of the hunt in gun room.

 

Arab tent brought back by one owner from his time in the British army.  It is set up in one of the bedrooms so that it can be enjoyed.  Has been used in the past  in the garden in the summers.

View of the part of the formal garden, pool, and tennis court from the house.

 

Notice the heart in the wall to the right of the window. The brick layers got tired of using the locally boring bricks so started putting patterns into the brickwork as they layed them.  The designs and were not supposed to be there, but the brick layers were  forced to stop making them but not to take them out. There is a checker board on the other wing.