Whistler's smoking urn

Today we made an expedition by car to Hampshire with Mr hazelh's mother. We visited Mottisfont, a historical house, garden and country estate managed by the National Trust. 

We were fortunate that the timing of our arrival coincided with an outdoors introductory talk about the history of the property. We also took advantage of an afternoon tour of the Whistler room. The walls here are covered in dramatic trompe l'oeil murals.  This one of an urn gives the impression that it's on fire. The artist is Rex Whistler. There is more about Whistler in the Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Whistler.

We also wandered around the rest of the property and gardens on our own, with stops for lunch and tea/coffee in the stables café.

Back at the house we enjoyed our last evening here with a jolly supper together followed by Only connect and University challenge. 

Exercise today: a bit of walking (8,125 steps).