Pretty Baa Lambs

For those of you who have visited our wonderful Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the title will be familiar to you. It's a beautiful Pre-Raphaelite painting, by Ford Madox Brown, and this lucky shot of two happy little souls reminded me of it.

Actually, there could be even stronger links. The lambs are in the field adjacent to Elford Hall Gardens.

The weather improved dramatically this morning, and I decided to go and see how the blossom and flowers were coming on. I spent a happy hour or so wandering round with my camera and chatting to the charming people who work on the allotments and on the site.

Elford Hall, with The Walled Garden, the Head Gardener's house, the stables, outbuildings and other properties, used to be the property of wealthy magnate, Francis Howard Paget. After horrendous experiences in the First World War, he decided to gift his entire estate to Birmingham City Council in 1936, to be enjoyed by the people of Birmingham.

Things didn't work out so simply. Although it was a wonderful gift, it wasn't practical, and the house fell into decay and was demolished. Thanks to some forward thinking, it is now a registered charity, and received a National Lottery grant which enabled the current work.

And the link with pretty baa lambs ?

During the second world war, the entire contents of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery were housed inside the old Elford Hall for safekeeping. So the original painting may not have been far from this pair of charmers....