Llanerchydol Hall

[fluffymark]

It's a good idea that works very well indeed. That is, find a large and pretty manor house in some distant rural location that's available for hire. Then fill it with wonderful and interesting people, organise a few events and activities for everyone, or see what spontaneous happenings occur. And the result is always a very happy one. *smallsmile*

Last weekend saw a large group of us taking over Llanerchydol Hall, an amazing 18th Century Gothic Revival mansion hidden on a hill above Welshpool. The event was the_alchemist's birthday. Breathtaking gardens surround the mansion, and inside it's a total museum of antiques, moulded and beamed ceilings, wood burning stoves, oil paintings, all decorated with fresh flowers. A few photos of the Hall and gardens are now online, but others took better pictures, I think. Travelling there I was collected from Welwyn Garden City by megamole and we picked up the_alchemist's father along the way. I'd met neither of them before so the car journey rovided a good way of getting to know each other. We were first to arrive and were greeted by a charming and eccentric lady. She told us all sorts of silly and irrational rules, claimed the place was definitely haunted, and name-dropped a long list of all the famous people who'd previously hired the place. Still as all of the rooms looked like they were so antique that they should be roped off from public access to prevent damage, it may have made sense. The drawing room in particular had a bust of Apollo precariously perched on a tall thin plinth which wobbled anytime anyone went near it, which was more than a little nerve-wracking. *eeek*

The friday evening, after a most unfortunate attempt at playing darts with robert_jones and a very late arrival of, well, most people, saw a champagne celebration at the very stroke of midnight (the_alchemist has a very interesting story about the circumstances of her birth) and an even later dinner. strongtrousers cooked up something delightful and elise baked a cake, and it was more than worth the wait. *licks lips*

Saturday started with a ride on a choo choo train! A charming steam railway runs from Welshpool to Llanfair. So we rode on it and back again, and that was fun. Later there was exploding frozen champagne, and Bridge-on-a-tiny-table, which was a little on the silly side. The evening's big event and highlight was the Pirate role-playing game, which was lots and lots of fun. Arrrrrrrrrrr! (and yes, it is Talk Like a Pirate Day today) It was a murder-mystery freeform role-play where we all dressed up as pirates/natives/spaniards/whatever, hoisted the jib and set sail to a volcanic island. The volcano was lactose intolerent, apparently. I was cast as Tom the pirate cabin boy, but secretly I was Meg the governor's runaway younger daughter, and it took a very long time for anyone to find me out. Of course this may have led to at least two people reckoning on me being the murderer, which amused me no end. :) The game involved much chaotic back-stabbing as we all tried to save ourselves from being sacrificed in the volcano, find the buried treasure and escape the island. And so much fun. And yes, we drank lots of rum whilst doing all this. Arrrrrrrrr! *piratical noises*

Sunday there was a spontaneous trip to a nearby stone circle (Mitchell's Fold, actually just over the border in England), which was an adventure in itself in getting strongtrousers' large car up a very narrow road which quickly reduced to an unpaved track and got even narrower and narrower and doom! We stopped and strolled up the hill instead. All this before breakfast, and before coffee even! Meeep! We eventually found the circle, and it was a very good stone circle. Yay for stone circles! Then we spotted there was a carpark right nearby, which somehow we'd missed. We felt very silly! We headed back to the Hall for a proper big breakfast and then a readthrough. We couldn't resist doing Under Milk Wood, us being in Wales, complete with Welsh accents (well, I can't do the Welsh accent, but other people did). I discovered that peeling shallots is a fine cure for my current lack-of-crying (and I still think they should be called minions, but then I didn't want to peel myself!) In the evening we dressed up all proper and formal for a lovely dinner cooked by the_alchemist. This was preceded by madrigals sang very well by megamole, mirabehn, robert_jones, leonato and emperor, and followed by games and a lot of gin and snuff and other silliness.

Overall, a very good weekend - I got to see lots of good friends for a whole weekend, meet interesting new people, like megamole, get to know people I'd met elsewhere briefly like shreena and also deepened my friendship with mirabehn a lot. All good things. Yay! :)