Stourhead

Ever since we moved to Wiltshire five years ago, I've had a hankering to visit Stourhead, and now we live that bit closer, it's only a twenty minute drive from home. However, it's not somewhere that really appealed to the Green Man, so when my friend Kate came down to stay I had the ideal excuse to go there.

As the weather was dry and sunny, we opted to do the garden walk - the options were to see the house, or the garden, or both. There were two walks, a two mile one and a shorter one mile one, and as we weren't pushed for time we chose to do the two mile walk. I think "Garden Walk" is a bit of a misnomer, as the garden was really much more of a park, but never-the-less, it didn't disappoint. In fact, quite the opposite, it was lovely, really lovely. The main feature was a lake in a valley, surrounded by woodland and various follies. You can read the history of the house and gardens here.

As is usual on any outing, I took loads and loads of photos, I've made a selection of some of my favourites (you have been warned!).

At the end of our walk we had a lovely cream tea in The Spread Eagle, a proper pub actually inside the estate, and then had a browse in the National trust shop, where Kate bought me a lovely plant for my garden (which will appear in a blog of its own soon).

All in all, a lovely day out, well worth a visit if you are in the area. (Although with the caution that, lovely as it is, I wouldn't recommend that you go there with children, it's not particularly child unfriendly, but while I cant speak for the house, there is nothing particularly aimed at or for the entertainment or amusement of children in the gardens.)

Shear Water, from where I'm sitting.

It was such a lovely day we decided to take our lunch and folding chairs down to Shear Water, in Longleat Forest.

Here's what I could see from my chair

the lake

cool clear water

my drink

GM's drink

my lunch

his lunch

the occasional dog walker

now and again a car

my foot

the bench in front of us

some ducks

others enjoying the peace and quiet

a sign (which says "no swimming")

sparkly water

a couple of ladies enjoying the view.

A lovely way to spend a lunch hour. Bet you wish you'd been there?

The Ffestiniog Railway and Portmeirion

Please be warned, this is likely to be a long post, and fairly photo heavy!

Wednesday dawned grey and misty, but the forecast was for improvement during the day, so we set off for Blaenau Ffestiniog. The town itself was surrounded on all sides by steep cliff faces with misty tops, and didn't, I have to say, seem particularly pleasant. Its history is firmly linked to the slate industry, as you can read here.

But we had come here for a ride on a steam train on the Ffestiniog Railway.

We journeyed through some quite magnificent scenery down the valley towards the coast, but were sat on the wrong side of the train for many photographs on the outbound journey. We had bought our lunch with us, so as it was around midday we ate sandwiches on the train.

By the time we alighted at Minfford, the weather had improved and we walked the mile or so to Portmeirion in bright sunshine.

We spent a good couple of hours just wandering around, had a beer or two and some icecream, and generally just marvelled at the whole place. I took upwards of 50 photos, but I've just selected a few to give you a general idea.

Then it was back to Minfford for the return train ride. As the track was mostly single line, the trains were obliged to pass at the station - our up train was delayed at Portmadog so we, and the down train, had to wait a while.

We managed to sit on the other side of the train for the up journey, so I was able to take a few pics of the views.

Thankyou drivers.

This was our last day in North Wales, and the most enjoyable. So it was back to the digs to pack ready for our return journey, and to enjoy a nice bottle of the red stuff with tea.