Ionic Rotunda

Petworth House and Park is surrounded by 5 miles of walls which enclose not only the house, lakes and deer park, but lovely 'pleasure grounds' too. The acers, azaleas and many other flowering shrubs are at their best, with scent filling the air wherever we walked on this lovely sunny afternoon. We had tea in the old Audit Room where audit dinners for the tenants used to take place on quarter days - LadyDay and Michaelmas.

This decorative ionic rotunda was suggested by Capability Brown and is on the hillside above the house. Many of the features he landscaped were immortalised in Turner's paintings, a collection of which hangs in the house. Too nice today to go indoors.

In other news: Difficult few days. Apart from the physical wretchedness of certain parts of the chemo cycle, the lab managed to get my last blood test wrong. The result was exactly the same as a month ago, suspicious in itself but how do you question results without losing faith in the people who help you? Spent a worried few days, having been told that it was possible the drug I'm taking may no longer be working for me. On the 4th day, I got a call saying they had an 'amended result' and that there had been 'a muddle'. In fact my result is just where it needs to be, reduced to half of last time and well within the 'normal' parameters. Relief doesn't cover it. I still don't know how the mistake arose or who discovered it and decided to be honest about it, but I'm heartily glad they did. These results are all that patients have to hang on to, during the chemo process, and vital to maintaining a positive attitude to going forward.
Definitely going forward again now:-)