Gate painting

For the first time in over two years, I painted at my grandparents' house. Whereas in 2015 I was painting fences, today I was painting one of the gates in their back yard. It's an old gate and was in serious need of a new coat of paint.

In a few weeks' time, I'll be doing some more painting for them - this time being the new gate at the front of their house and the new one to the side. The other reason for my painting the old gate was so that I'd have some practice before painting the new two.

Painting gate and fences

I spent a large portion of the day painting my grandparents' fences and one of their side gates. The fences, while numerous, were fairly easy to paint once I'd prepared the vicinity As for the gate...well, I had always wondered when I'd heard and read about people who said it had taken them an hour to paint a gate - I now know why!

All the various crossbeams and angled beams in the gate impeded me on several occasions and it took me over half an hour to paint it. What I thought was going to me a ten-minute job turned out to be something much more time consuming than I had expected.

Still, painting is fun!

Chatsworth House images

On 8th August my aunt and uncle, two of my cousins, their friend, my brother, and I myself went to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Here are some photos of that day, plus some more about what happened:

This is a view of Chatsworth House from the back. Unfortunately, the house was being renovated in parts that day, and this is the best picture I took of the place. I was not bothered about the work on the house, as it does need maintenance for it to be preserved.

This is a piece of amethyst on display within Chatsworth. I think it is beautiful, and I have always thought amethyst is a lovely gemstone, so it was a real treat to see a piece that large.

One of the of many paintings on the ceiling at Chatsworth House. They were so numerous there that it was not possible to get a picture of every one of them. Still, they were impressive to look at...imagine painting them!

This has to be one of the best parts of Chatsworth House: although the violin on the door looks as though it is real, in reality it is a painting made to look 3D.

This is a pink vase. One of my cousins wanted a picture of it, so I answered her request. It actually is a pretty nice vase.

Now this was an impressive piece of art: I was amazed by its detail and at how shiny it was...a truly brilliant piece! Oh wait...they did not have flat-screen televisions back in the 1500s did they?

Well, it certainly took him long enough! I wonder what kept him?

The dining area was a fine room too, though I would not have wanted to have washed all those dishes on my own!

Outside on the grounds was this maze, and this is a picture of it. We spent more than twenty minutes searching for the middle before my brother found a path that we missed: before long, my cousins' friend, one of my cousins, my brother, and myself were in the middle of the maze!

Here is the tree in the centre of the maze. Our friend was the one who went out to fetch everyone in our group who had not found the middle yet. There was a nice feeling of satisfaction when we reached that tree!

The visit to Chatsworth House was excellent, and I do thank my aunt and uncle very much for taking us there. We had dinner at a restaurant called Nando's, a place where I had never eaten at before until then, before going back to my grandparents' house for the night.