Postcards from middle-age

Welcome to this, my first postcard from middle-age:

MoMa and MoPa gave Sam and I a year's National Trust membership for Christmas, and today we finally got around to visiting our first property; A La Ronde near Exmouth.

We had driven past the sign for A La Ronde for years and said we would go and visit because it's supposed to be a quirky little place which it really was.  Built by a pair of second cousins; Jane and Mary the building was inspired by their grand tour of Europe (which took an impressive ten years).  A 16-sided building with amazing views of Exmouth and the sea it is filled to the brim with curiosities like these dolls:

Shell-inspired lampshades:

The main gallery area is decorated in such a way to give the impression of being under the sea.  The walls are painted to emulate being in deep water followed by fabric drapes to represent the waves breaking on the shore, just behind the railings is the shell gallery representing the beach and on the ceiling is a ceiling rose representing the sun.

There are handcrafted items throughout the house made by Jane and Mary including the shell pictures below:

Them girls did love their shells...

Silhouettes of the family are a big theme throughout the house:

And finally a fairly ace sink that I quite liked.

When visiting the lovely brummies a few weeks back we shyly admitted to having National Trust membership, at which point they got their iPhones out to show us the National Trust apps they had.  I guess we've just reached that age?  To be fair who doesn't like a good scone and gift shop?