Lots of bluebells

Today I went with some friends to Hatchlands NT house in Surrey, near Guildford. As expected the bluebells were fully out, a couple of weeks earlier than usual and there were lots of visitors. When we got there we were surprised to see about a dozen greyhounds with their owners…a meet up group! After our walk we had an early lunch in the cafe…when we were eating there was a queue of about 30 people and slow service. We then went in the house which has so many old musical instruments…all of the keyboard type, pianos, organs etc. plus many many portraits, including one of the only ones of Shakespeare. There are instruments owned or played by Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Chopin among others. The house has been leased from the NT since 1980s and the family still lives there, mainly upstairs, the collection of musical instruments belongs to them and the chap Mr Cobbe is both a musician and an artist. They do have recitals there at lunchtime sometimes on weekdays, on the old instruments, so we may investigate.

It was very cold and little sun so the photo is a bit darker than I would like. We had a trouble free journey by avoiding the A3 completely!