Members of SoFA visited Plas Newydd, Llanfairpwll, Anglesey on Wednesday 14 September 2022.
There were 42 of us on board the Don Fraser coach. Our first stop was at Grosvenor Garden Centre, Chester where Edwina had arranged for us to have coffee/tea, we were treated to a choice of home cooked shortbread, gingerbread person or a chocolate chip cookie. These were well received, tasty and very much appreciated.
We arrived at Plas Newydd House and gardens in time for lunch, which was served at the visitor centre. Considering it was a Wednesday afternoon in mid-September there were a lot of cars in the car park and people in the café.
The walk to the house was along a lovely tree-lined path where there was much evidence of red squirrels, unfortunately we didn’t see a single one. The rear of the house came into view with the Menai Strait flowing in front of the property with several yachts on the water.
As we entered the house we saw exhibits of the Marquis of Anglesey’s uniforms, his artificial leg and many other artefacts.
During our visit we were lucky enough to view the current exhibition entitled ‘Rex Unfinished’. This was an exhibition of Rex Whistler’s work, which included several ‘unfinished’ artworks.
Many of us were fascinated with the mural Rex created for the family. The mural is over 17.5 metres long and is an imaginary view from the windows of Plas Newydd. It is worth visiting this venue, if only to see the details of this painting.
There were lots of interesting flowers and bees in the Italian terrace as well as a couple of water features.
The ice cream was very popular with our members, with unusual flavours such as ‘ginger biscuits’ and ‘bara brith’.
We all returned to the bus on time and had quite a good journey back to Southport, thanks to the safe driving of Pat.
It was a most enjoyable day, a very big ‘thank you’ to Edwina for arranging this outing for us. Now we are all looking forward to the next one she’s planning for 2023.
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