I’ll probably do this in bits and pieces rather than one big bit because it’s a lot of scenery, photos, ponies, whinging, fog, rain… dangerous roads… for one post.

We started off for Devon around 10am.  It’s a six hour drive (maybe 100 miles?) on twisting and meandering roads that hook and unhook in no logical sequence.  You go up to go down and down to go up and over to go back… it’s really quite bizarre.  But the Navigator has it all under control and she has a method to her madness on these crazy English roads. 

Since seeing Pride & Prejudice last year I’ve had a hankering to get to Stourhead Gardens to see the site where Mr Darcy laid out his proposal to Lizzy Bennet on the steps of the Temple of Apollo on a windy and moody and rain-soaked day.

So a little bend here and a little bend there and several hundred more after that and we found ourselves at Stourhead.  It was a brilliant day with amazing clouds and I was loaded for bear with my big fat 8 gig memory card.

The tricky thing about this Temple of Apollo is that it isn’t within easy walking distance of the car park (parking lot).  It’s about a three mile walk around the grounds and most of that three miles is getting to the Temple.  Blahhhhh… but then… that means I can have a dozen cream teas guilt-free because of all the exercise.  ’tis the hard life of a photographer and one must bear such hardships stoically.

Stourhead is really very nice.  The house (you saw it in yesterday’s post) is kind of tatty inside (there are residents) but the exterior is quite cool and when you have clouds such as those we were blessed with on that Sunday - well, that’s a photo op of the highest order.

After coming out of the house and following the path that would eventually get us to the Temple of Apollo, we came upon this pretty sight, peeking through the flowers and the trees.

The Temple of Apollo, which at some point started to remind me of a kind of ancient and abandoned space ship.  Such a shame.  I’m going to have to watch P&P so I can erase the space ship image out of my mind.

One of the two remaining statues decorating the Temple.  There were several empty porticoes which makes me think that at one time there may have been several more statues.

The bridge that Lizzy ran across to escape the discovery that the dastardly but oh so appealing Mr Darcy broke up the relationship between her sister and the awkward but endearing Mr Bingley.  Interesting to me that this bridge is grass covered.  Inconsequential but interesting.

And so our "one hour" side trip on the road to our side trip turned into more like three hours.  But it was a lovely day even if it ended on a slightly sour note (a slight scolding from our host at Highcliffe House when I called to tell them we would be later than we expected - thank goodness I "did the right thing by calling" them to alert them to our later arrival.  His long-suffering response to my phone call had me on the verge of suggesting that we’d just spend the night in our car and arrive in the morning so we wouldn’t inconvenience them any further). 

And of course, this…

Welcome to the West Country.

But today it is gorgeous and we have places to go and people to meet, photos to take.  In the meantime take a wander over to Draw’s blog - he’s a much faster typer than I.

…meaning we’re back from the West Country which is perpetually draped in low clouds, or what I like to call "fog". 

Spent five days in Lynton which, unbeknownst to me, is located in the middle of this huge low and rather wet cloud.  After spending so many glorious days in Kent, this was a major adjustment for Draw and me.  Amazingly, despite the crummy weather and a less than stellar experience at our B&B, we really did have a great time.  Though… I don’t think I need to go back to Lynton and environs anytime soon.

Highlights of the trip - finding Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies on the same day, seeing Dartmoor for the first time out from under its foggy shroud, finding a letterbox, and the magnificent cream tea at Periwinkle Cottage Tea Room in Selworthy.

Some quick photos before heading to bed.  Lynton did not have an internet connection to speak of for its guests so there’s lots of catching up to do.

Stourhead Garden on our way to Lynton.  Our last view of blue sky for several days.  If you’re a fan of Keira Knightley’s Pride & Prejudice, Stourhead supplied the glorious backdrop for Mr Darcy’s first proposal to Lizzy… in the rain…  gadzooks what a romantic bit that was, eh?

An idyllic view as we walked through the village at Stourhead.

Ahhh… beautiful Lynton.  The view from our room on the Monday.

Looking past the raindrops…

On the Tuesday we drove about 60 miles to find the sun and found ourselves in Dartmoor.  We had visited about five years ago for two days… and it rained.  This time we managed to grab a few rays and such sights did we behold.  Definitely our "A" day.

This day also brought us immeasurable joy as we came upon several clusters of Dartmoor ponies and… JOY!… so many babies.

Lostleigh… a tiny village tucked away in the hills of Dartmoor.  Sweet little tea room here.

Selworthy is positively magical and the Periwinkle Cottage Tea Room is the jewel in its crown.

The mother of all cream teas.  A snappy Loganberry jam and the thickest, most luscious Devonshire cream.  This was definitely worth the five months of dieting I endured getting ready for this trip.

‘Tis off to bed with me now.  We have lots to do and only three days left to do it.

I’d been to Hever a few years back when they had their annual Renaissance Faire and thought it was pretty nice.  We did most of our wanderings through the faire part and also went into the castle.  This time we didn’t bother going into the castle (it’s just too darned frustrating for me to go into these castles and not be allowed to snap photos) we just concentrated on the gardens and in particular the Italian gardens.  The "Fever" part of my title is that I took over 150 photos at that garden.

So a bit more of a peek at what we saw yesterday…

The castle from the outside (of course).

In the Italianate garden - the hedge on the left is getting a pruning (it’s well over 100 years old and apparently time for a haircut).

Love these little vignettes they have in this garden - all along one long wall, room after room.  Perhaps 20 or more. 

Also in this same part of the garden - this billion year old forsythia bush/tree.  Not many flowers but the trunk and branches make up for it.

And this has nothing whatsoever to do with Hever but wanted to make sure that I shared it with you.  Should have gotten posted on our Chartwell day.  This is my dear SIL Josephine who is actually as close to smiling here as I’ve ever seen her.  Jo is a hoot!  She keeps us all in line, especially that guy to her left, JW, who now claims that he is camera shy.  Don’t you just love the color of Jo’s hair?  That’s her natural color - a lovely red shot through with gold.  Brilliant!  Matches her personality to a "T".

Last year, for the first time, Draw and I visited Nyman’s Garden in West Sussex.  It was a positive delight (scroll back a year or so and you’ll find my original post).  We thought, then, that this would be a wonderful garden to introduce Draw’s parents to and very much looked forward to taking them this year.

So Thursday was our Nyman’s Day.

Still an amazing garden but unfortunately we arrived later in the afternoon and the lovely lunches offered at the tea room had been sold out.  Sigh…  Ended up having a nice lemon sponge (which in the US is lemon cake with lemon icing) and some beverage.

We walked around the garden and the house snapping photos but having just done this last year that magical "Xanadu" thing it had going on for me, then, now felt a wee bit "done".  It’s very hard to rearrange the landscape of a place so your this-year’s-photos don’t look like reruns of last year.

Nevertheless, it’s really a very cool garden…

…just make sure you get there early in the day if a tea room with food is a "must" for you as Nyman’s seems to sell out rather quickly.

After this second trip to Nyman’s, Draw and I have decided there will be no more repeats this year for the purpose of taking photos.  Except maybe for Hever today, but more on that in a bit…

So, Day Five, and we decided to visit Marle Place.  It’s practically in Sheila and Peter’s backyard and since Peter… oh good grief!  I totally forgot about the whole aka Just William thing.  It’s practically in Sheila and JW’s backyard and since JW had to work in the afternoon it was agreed that Marle Place would be a great visit.  AND Draw and I had never been.

Now we’re cookin’.

Very nice "little" garden, very visitor-friendly (no dragon ladies directing your every move and no ropes saying "do not step here").  After much discussion I ended up giving Marle Place a 4/5.  The garden is wonderful but the tea room (I’m now understanding that the English take their tea rooms very seriously) was rather just okay.  Two kinds of cake and two kinds of juice just don’t cut it after a hard mid-morning stroll through a sunny garden.  And I’m totally missing my Fentiman’s Victorian Lemonade.  Had Marle Place offered Fentiman’s they might have squeaked a 4.2 out of me.

More snaps of Marle Place which also boasts a small gallery…

…and original art works peppered throughout the gardens.

Including these absolutely amazing mosaic steps that lead up to the very proper tennis court.  These steps alone received much of my photo time.  I am so going to do something like this in my backyard someday.

I took a ridiculous number of photos today but it is ridiculously late and I have much to do tomorrow.  So a reporting of our trip to Hever will wait til later.  We’re headed to another new (for all of use) National Trust property in the a.m. and I have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Just a little Hever teaser  :o)

TTFN

Taking a breather to reflect on the last two day’s travels and sights.

Thursday, I had a wonderful morning meeting up with two customers who are now, I’m thrilled to announce, friends.  Dawn and Lorraine popped in for some coffee late morning and we had a great chat, lots of laughter… it was delightful to meet these two very lovely ladies.

And Lorraine, baby, your tats are uber cool.  (Lorraine sports an amazing mehndi-style tattoo on her left foot!).

Before I get into Days Four and Five of our travels, I thought I’d share a few snaps of Knole and Chartwell from Wednesday’s sightseeing.

The ominous Knole - this is from the courtyard

This is in the opposite direction of the shot above - hanging on the wall with a few other skulls.  Now that is either one bizarre looking steer or one heck of a spooking looking horned pig.

An archway in the garden at Knole.  I have to admit that this was not the prettiest garden I’ve ever seen.  Quite overgrown and unkempt.  But this archway was pretty.

This urn wasn’t too bad, either…

This is one of the many beautiful lawns at Chartwell, stop #2, on Wednesday.  Amazingly, I didn’t get very many (or actually any) shots of the house.  Perhaps, it was because of…

…this.  The lady who greets you at the door of Chartwell.  Yikes.  Is that her "Welcome" face?  I wouldn’t want to see her "Unwelcome" face.

Some pretty flowers in the Chartwell kitchen garden.

And some pretty artichokes. 

And that closes (for now) England 2008 Day Three.  Our National Trust membership cards are now well and truly broken in.

Hooray for these National Trust cards - our visit to Knole was "free".  After much anticipation, we finally journeyed to Knole yesterday morning and I have to say, "Oh, okay".

Set in a deer park there were several "very dangerous" deer frolicking around.  Scampering up to the sightseers begging for biscuits and rolls.  Of course, I ran in the opposite direction heeding the Danger signs.

The house is very ominous looking from the outside - like an insane asylum.  Not a pretty place by any stretch of the imagination.  The interior is quite cavernous but there were several walls inside stenciled and painted that were quite lovely and some of the rooms were charming.  And the art… wonderful.  But you couldn’t take photos (of course) and they didn’t have any sort of compendium of the art in the bookshop tho you could buy a list of the paintings for 50p.  Er…

The gardens at Knole were really a disappointment.  Sheila and Peter gave it the thumbs down and left after five minutes.  Draw and I stayed on… for another 15 and then headed back to join them.  The other neat thing about these free admissions is that you can leave after 5 minutes or 20 minutes and not feel guilty.

On to Chartwell, the family home of Winston Churchill.  Not being British I wasn’t particularly moved by the fact that Churchill once lived here, but I was moved by the very lovely and homey feel to this house.  It felt like a lot of love resided here.  Again, no photos inside… and I was given the evil eye and a strict reminder before I ever entered the house that no photos were allowed.  Thank you very much, you scared me right out of sneaking any photos you old poo.

The grounds of Chartwell are equally lovely… several photo ops here.  Like a smoker craving a cigarette, the minute I stepped out of the house I was dragging out my camera and snapping photos like a made fiend.  And it was at this particular point that a lovely day turned brilliant.  The weather was so fine I couldn’t help but mention it… a dozen times.  It was absolutely a perfect day.

Of the evening, Peter treated us to a lovely dinner at the Poacher in honor of my birthday - thank you, Peter.  A very nice restaurant, a lovely meal, wonderful company.  Pretty darn good day in my book.  Not to mention I managed to snap about 170 photos but lots of duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates just to make sure some are clear.

Joyful rediscovery: Fentiman’s Victorian Lemonade
I drank three bottles of the stuff yesterday.  One of those no-nonsense lemonades that will knock your socks off.

Joyful new discovery: Clarnico Cream Mints   As my sissy-in-law says, "These are very morish.  You always want more".  And I do.

You can take the American out of America but you can’t take the American out of the girl.  I’m starting off with a quick and heartfelt standing ovation for David "Cookie" Cook for the win.  Yep, I was up at 7am England time booting up the laptop to see if Zabasearch’s prediction was on the money.  Cookie is the bomb.

Good show, America!

Just a few photos from today’s adventure out. 

Some kind of blue flower at Grand Comp gardens, and playing with DOF

Taking a picture of Draw taking a picture while the family checks out that wood bench in the background

A little hidden grotto at Great Comp (or Grand Comp)

Another "hidden" part of Grand/Great Comp

A closer look…

A door and a window in the same shot!  Smallhythe Place

Got up fairly early this morning and we were on the road by 9:45ish.  Heading to Knole to try out our new National Trust cards.  But Knole isn’t open on Tuesdays.  Blah - so a quick turn and another quick turn and about another dozen quick turns and we were on our way to Great Comp Gardens to try out our brand new 2-4-1 garden cards.

Great Comp is quite pretty - nice big lawns - some lovely flower beds.  Very peaceful.  If I hadn’t been so motivated to use that National Trust card I probably would have liked Great Comp a bit more.  Draw and I gave it a 3/5.  Not a whole lot to see but what we did see was pretty.

The tea room at Great Comp is very sweet.  Lovely outdoor eating area but with weather as fine as we had today, we ended up having to grab a seat inside to have our lunch.  Draw and I had a very aromatic and tasty Tomato & Stilton soup.  I love Stilton.  And a fresh baked wheat roll and pear juice for me.  Sorry, no snaps of the meal - tho the interior of the tea room was cute, it was also quite dark. 

Lunch at Great Comp… 4/5.  Had we eaten outdoors I might have pushed that to a 4.5/5.  Oh, you know ambiance is a major part of the whole package.

And now on to a National Trust property that was open on a Tuesday: Smallhythe Place - the summer home of actress Ellen Tracy who was quite well known in her day (early 1900s).

Charming little house ("little" meaning the number of rooms the NT allows you to enter).  Lots of mementos and bric a brac…  tons of photo ops but you’re not allowed to take photos without prior approval.  Now, this is a story all by itself - my kind of peevishness towards the NT and their very stingy attitude with regards to members (ME) or anyone for that matter, taking photos inside the homes.  I think I’ll leave this discussion for a later post as I am almost certain that the family is eating our Chinese dinners without me.  And I want to get some photos prettied up for the blog. 

Tomorrow… I do believe we’re going to give Knole House a try again.  And maybe wander over to Ightham Mote even though I am feeling definitely peevish toward this NT property, in particular.

BTW, everyone has their journals now.  Sheila has written in hers, Draw in his, gotta check on those other two kids to see how they’re doing.

Til later!

Well, lookee here… photos.  So happy I decided to make the effort to lug my laptop with me this trip.  Not happy with the actual lugging, but the having is very cool.