It appears that the weather gods have cottoned onto the fact that we’ve only got a few short weeks left in the UK, and after a distinctly lousy summer, autumn has been really lovely so far.

Over the past few weekends we’ve made the most of the sunshine and made a couple more trips to National Trust properties. In this installment – we’ve been to Wakehurst Place and Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. As with all the National Trust places we’ve visited – both were extremely beautiful and provided me with plenty of photo fodder. No, there is no deliberate connection between these places despite their names both ending in “hurst”.

Here’s the view from the tower at Sissinghurst.

And here’s one of the many flower/plant shots I took in the Sissinghurst gardens.

Nice, eh?  And since I know you’re hanging to see more photos from these days out… Here are the links to our photos from Wakehurst and Sissginghurst.

The trip to Sissinghurst was made all the better by the company of good friends Carlo and Cathy who were visiting from Oz.. It’s nice to be able to say “see you soon” and it actually being true.. I can’t believe that in three months I’ll already have been back in Melbourne for a week…

Here are some photos from another weekend trip out to some beautiful National Trust type places.

Firstly we have some lovely pics from Bodiam Castle, a beautiful medieval castle in East Sussex. It was a very cloudy day so some of the shots came up a little dull – but great all the same.

Then whilst driving around we randomly came across this church and adjoining cemetary in a little town which turned out to be called Etchington.  Very pretty.

Last stop for the day was indeed the highlight. An estate called Batemans which was once upon a time the home of Rudyard Kipling of The Jungle Book fame. The house was stunning – one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in our UK travels. Worth taking a minute to look at some of these photos. Yes, we bought a copy of The Jungle Book as a keepsake.

Aside from seeing all these beautiful places (yes, even if this has been one of the lousiest UK summers on record) we’re really enjoying just getting out and going for a drive. Very therapeutic. And the afternoon tea with scones, jam and clotted cream add nothing to my enjoyment at all – hee hee…

No, I’m not being crass. Today we drove a couple of hours out to the delightful historic town of Lacock (pronounced “Laycock” – not much less rude sounding, is it?) in the county of Wiltshire. Yes, in case you’re wondering this was another National Trust related trip. I think we’re going to enjoy this…

Lacock is a small town dating back to the 13th century. According to the local tourist pamphlets and the short Wikipedia article (worth a quick scan) a number of famous films have had scenes shot in and around the town – including a couple of the Harry Potter series and the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I can certainly see why this would be a popular choice for film crews – it’s quite beautiful.

I managed to take a number of cool photos – but here’s the real story – on a Saturday during summer, cars and people everywhere.

All the cars detract from the atmosphere a little, but you still get an excellent sense for how the town once was… Especially once you get into the National Trust Abbey and gardens – car free and wonderful… But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’re talking about a strikingly attractive town here.. Here’s a nicer photo to bring you back into the picture..

Aah, that’s better…

Here’s a link to the nicer of the photos we took.

After wandering through the gardens and the Abbey we were in desperate need of a cuppa. Thank heavens for the local tea rooms that did a mean Cream Tea (tea, scones, strawberry jam and all-fat clotted cream).

Mmmm.

A delightful day out.

In other news.. I’m off to Germany for work on Monday – a couple of meetings will take place that could determine what I’m doing next year. Hmmm…  (CH, yes we’ll talk).  Melbourne-related talk is getting a lot of airtime in the Polli house at the moment – it’s all very exciting.

Having made the decision to return to Australia it could be very easy for us to spend the next six months wishing we were already back home and not making the most of our remaining time in the UK. Just as I was starting to get a little bit that way – Olivia came up with a brilliant idea – “making the most of our remaining time in the UK” – pure genius.. So, having neglected most of the UK in our travels to this point, we’ve decided to try and squeeze as much as we can out of England before we head home.

To this end we went for a bit of a drive on Saturday … and saw STONEHENGE (…yes, where the demons dwell for all you Spinal Tap fans)… It was an extremely cool thing to see. There were a number of people there but the monument is set up such that everyone can get a great look without having a million people in your way. I was thrilled to have been there..

Another hour further west from Stonehenge is the Stourhead estate. Armed with our newly acquired National Trust memberships (Andrea, you’ll be proud) we had a wander through the historic 18th century house – most wonderful library I’ve ever seen, and the surrounding gardens which were both massive and beautiful.

Weather permitting – we’re aiming to do a hell of a lot of trips like this over the next few months. I’m actually quite excited about it all. Looking through the National Trust handbook there’s an awful lot of stunningly beautiful places that we can now get into for free..

Here are links to STONEHENGE PHOTOS and STOURHEAD PHOTOS

The following photo of “The Butt of Sherry” pub in Mere, Wiltshire has nothing to do with the National Trust and is included for the purpose of amusement only given its silly name.