Simply Holiday....

21/7/2012

I've written before about requirements for a simple holiday. (See under Simply Holiday 21 Sept 2010 and 26 Jun 2011.)

After a perfect break last summer at the Charleston Manor Music Festival in East Sussex (see here) we decided that music holidays were for us.

This year we are going to Suffolk for the Snape Maltings Proms and the complete works of Beethoven for piano and cello, with the wonderful Steven Isserlis. (click here)

I have to say I'm really fussy when it comes to finding somewhere to stay. I want simple, clean, stylish and reasonably cheap - not too much to ask? It has to be at least as nice as home, if not nicer, or why bother? After hours online I've found what I was looking for at Alistair Sawday's Special Places to Stay http://www.sawdays.co.uk

Getting excited now!

What kind of holiday gets you excited?

6 Comments

Sarah link

22/7/2012 04:04:49 am

I hope you have a wonderful time enjoying the music and your accommodation is good. I have had Alistair Sawday's books out of the library and it makes me went to go away frequently to experience all the wonderful accommodation he recommends.
Sarah x

Freda

22/7/2012 07:51:44 am

I think I'd like to work for Alistair Sawday, trying out properties!

Maggie

22/7/2012 05:38:41 am

Just returned from an Antique Quilt Tour.
The major highlight of the tour, which included visiting Bath, Lampeter, Aberystwyth, Cambridge, London and Hemingford Grey, was the display of Welsh and Amish quilts at the Welsh Quilt Centre at Lampeter. Quilt collector, Jen Jones and architect husband Roger Clive-Powell have transformed a decayed and redundant Lampeter Town Hall and Court building into a vibrant and exciting exhibition space including three galleries, a shop, workshop facility and adjoining café. The quilt exhibition, the coffee, the welcome and the adjoining quilt fabric shop, Calico Kate, rank amongst the best I have experienced.
The exhibition, A Quilted Bridge, accompanies a recent book by Dorothy Osler, who, acknowledging input from Jen Jones makes a convincing case for a Welsh influence on the early Amish quilt designs. Both cultures settled near to each other in the early days of emigrations to the USA.
The stunning visual impact of the limited colour palette and simple designs in those early quilts, I found quite breathtaking. Our stay in ‘Dolau Conol’ a former welsh farmhouse restored by Roger and hung with antique quilts was also quite magical. A secluded and beautiful countryside meadow setting, simple, understated furnishings yet with all home comforts, would I think have fulfilled all your criteria, Freda. The intermittent, torrential downpours we hardly noticed.
The sun came out for touring the gardens of the Manor at Hemingford Grey and viewing the quilts of Lucy Boston, the author of the Green Knowe stories. She started her stitching and story writing at the age of 62. Up till then she just transformed 3 fields into a lovely garden. There’s time yet!
Now excited about heading up to the Northumberland coast with the family (except for the duo currently settling into their beachfront house in Melbourne!) and friends. If you are passing on the A1, call in for a cuppa.
It’s quite a long comment, isn’t it? – But it did excite me- ----- and well ----you did ask!

Freda

22/7/2012 07:50:27 am

I did! WOW! Have looked up the websites - it looks absolutely wonderful.

liz (the other one)

22/7/2012 05:26:13 pm

You will have a wonderful time at the Maltings! We have holidayed in that part of Suffolk for many years and it is sheer bliss (though getting increasingly middle class and trendy) As an artist I really recommend you make the effort to visit Blythburgh Church for the amazing light there - and the angels in the roof.

Enjoy: you can hear Britten's music in the very air and the marshland.

Freda

23/7/2012 03:00:19 am

Thank you Liz. I remembered you saying how much you love it there, and will go to see Blythburgh Church ..

Simply Holiday....

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