Tomorrow...

 ...we are going to pack up the car with an overnight bag and stay at Gregynog Hall for a night's B&B.

  The Formal Gardens, seen from the terrace

The Main House has a mock Tudor facade, and was built in the mid C19th

The Stable Block has been converted into accommodation and a daytime restaurant

...we are going to pack up the car with an overnight bag and stay at Gregynog Hall for a night's B&B.

This may seem a crazy idea to most people, as this country house is only half an hour away by car, but it is set in 700 acres of formal gardens, grounds and farmland, and there are rooms to be had at a reasonable rate for an overnight stay with breakfast.  We shan't be in the main house.  I suspect that is kept for major block bookings, such as weddings and conferences, when the place can be fully staffed overnight (for security reasons, as it is full of antiques, paintings and valuable books). We shall be staying in the converted stable block, next to the restaurant.  There is no evening meal available, but we can have lunch and afternoon tea, and I shall have a conducted tour of the house whilst The Husband and The Dog avail themselves of the extensive outdoor facilities: Italianate gardens and  rambling shady wooded grounds full of Californian Redwoods and other large conifers, under planted with rhododendrons.and azaleas.

My plan is to pack up our own food and drink and have an evening picnic on the lawn or in our room after sunset. Perhaps then we shall be able to catch up with the men's Final at Wimbledon on the TV, having missed it to spend the afternoon doing something a little out of the ordinary.

Of course, we will fetch up there in the MG with the hood down (as the weather is set fair for the whole weekend and then some) with our case and our picnic things, and then I shall flan about like Lady Muck, just as though I were attending a country house weekend in a novel by PG Wodehouse, or Evelyn Waugh or Agatha Christie. 

Preferably one of the the first two.  Don't much fancy the idea of a body in the library - especially not being the main exhibit!