The secret bits of the house were open today for short tours and was fascinating.

Staircase that visitors are not usually allowed up

Subtle, please don’t sit here!

Staircase in the billiard room that leads only to the roof!

View from the little staircase

While we were waiting to go in to the house we watched a pair of Martins feeding their young.

Martin feeding their young

It is Refugee Week this week and today, on World Refugee Day, Claire’s No Talent Re-choired group sang Imagine and Your Love Lifts Me Higher and Higher at an open mic session where we were also collecting supplies for refugees in Greece and Calais. It is so heartening to see so much brought in – tents, sleeping bags, tinned and dry food and baby supplies – and all from a community that is not the wealthiest by any stretch of the imagination. Choose Love, as several tee shirts said and we do.