I tried to very very rapidly tidy my hair up and make myself look presentable, we left just after 11am, and rain started, but was light and didn’t last long. At Charlcote 30 minutes later, I started my volunteering shift there with the three usual staff in reception…

Christmas music was playing quietly in the background, a woman with a bobbly hat on and headphones in had a black and white (and very lively) spaniel on a lead, another woman had a bobbly hat, a young boy was very keen on birdwatching, and 1 woman’s card said that she was an environment agency officer. I noticed a large ball of rubber bands on the windowsill, a couple of girls (6->7 years ish) in red coats were very excited to see Santa, and D mentioned a ‘breakfast with Santa’ on the first Saturday in December where 80 people came in in the first 15 minutes. An extremely tall man who had to duck to get through the door came in, there was a toddler in a fluffy brown gruffallo onesie, and as I’d already seen a lot of bobbly hats, I decided to begin counting, and E said something I forgot because D said he’d once been a baggage handler. A boy (4 ish) in a Spiderman hat and a black and yellow waterproof onesie and wellies was clinging onto his father’s leg, D and C started talking about bananas, C showed me a couple of wreaths made of antlers hanging over the area selling plants – apparently when deers antlers are chopped off they’re usually ground up and fed back to the deer, and then he told me that bananas are members of the herb family, and I told C about my fur hat…

…and the man frogmarching us to the cash point to buy it (that was during a trip to Poland – I was invited to try on a fur hat in a market stall – and then the stall owner was very insistent that I bought it).

Lots of the visitors were wearing puffa jackets, I noticed a box of brownies in the tiny kitchen area, asked if I could have 1, C was signing up another woman for membership by 1.05pm, E remarked on the wind chill, I saw a small boy with a Santa hat on (which I decided to count as a bobble), 1 mother and father had 5 children, another woman had a hat with 2 bobbles, and a boy came in holding a frisbee. The small movable radiator by the window was missing a wheel, C told me about a program called ‘The West Wing’ in the early 90’s – I’d had a brief rant about parliament and the politicians saying ‘Mr Speaker’ all the time, and he thinks it’s probably to stop them shouting at each other (i.e. they all shout at the speaker); then I announced my bobbly hat total by that point , and he said something about getting drunk with friends and counting stuff on the Eurovision Song Contest.

I noticed a couple of the big herd of deer resident at Charlcote having a bit of a fight (i.e. interlocking antlers) near a green bucket that C said contained some vitamin stuff that looks like marmite…

…some very very dark clouds were approaching from what I thought was the north, and a man and woman in their 70’s were holding hands as they left; E said something about a Christmas pantomime, and a staff Christmas ‘do’ – and the food that had been served during it was discussed by her, D and C, and they talked about how January and how quiet it is here (D put it as ‘a bring a book effort’). A 6 month old baby in a very fluffy onesie was carried in, another family had a 10 week old squeaking dog who was very keen to sniff and lick my hand; a brown Cockerpoo came in looking very excited and sniffed my hands and legs a lot, a 2 1/2 year old girl came in on what E pointed out was a balance bike (with no pedals – the child’s feet are on the ground either side of it), another family had a bag of reindeer food, E said that bike riding is now taught in schools, the scanners were still making error noises, D whacked them, it worked (and then he got out Henry the Hoover), and another 5 people came in while the cashing up was being done – the total number of visitors was 307 (with a bobbly hat total of 79).

Mum appeared at that point and wanted to go and look at the house, I was thanked and wished a lovely Christmas, and said goodbye at 3.05pm. Inside the house – there were trees (with electric candles on) in each room, the lamps over the snooker table in 1 room had paper-y banner sort of things dangling off them – and various cards on a table – all of which said something about ‘The Lord’ or ‘Our God’ on them, the next room had a massive harp in it, and at that point the room guide there was talking to a couple from Columbia.

We went back outside, saw a small girl splashing around in all the puddles on the driveway, it felt freezing, and after a short stroll around the grounds, we returned to the car park, where squirrels were searching amongst the surrounding trees for sustenance.