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…