Stourhead

 Our plan this morning was to go to the beach instead we came here ......

This is Stourhead in Wiltshire - we have been wanting to visit here the last two Autumns and have never made it. The weather forecast wasn't good for this weekend either, and we had resigned ourselves to missing out for another year. As we took the road out of Weymouth we suddenly noticed some spectacular Autumn trees and changed our minds and our destination!

Although we encountered heavy rain as we drove along the weather had cleared by the time we reached Stourhead. I have never been here before and my husband last visited here around 45 years ago as a child.

Stourhead is a National Trust property which has one of the best 18th century landscape gardens. It was inspired by the great landscape painters of the 17th century. The gardens contains temples, grottos and beautiful trees with the lake as the centre piece. When it was opened in the 1740's a magazine described it as a "living work of art" and this is still the case today.

It was probably at it's best a few weeks ago, but we had a chance to marvel at those trees that still were dressed in their autumn glory.

As it was the last day of the half term holidays and also as this is such a popular place to visit at this time of year there were many other visitors. There were grandparents enjoying the walk with their children and grandchildren - and talking about their previous visits as they wandered around. Small children were gathering an assortment of colourful leaves to take home.

I loved looking at the little cottage with the smoke coming out of the chimney. It reminded me of one of the cottages in the woods, which appears in so many fairytales. Trees that have died have been turned into works of art. Can you see the owl that has been created in the tree at the bottom of the collage?

I'll finish with the view that Stourhead is so famous for. It was a lovely way to welcome in November and I'm sure it won't be 45 years before we return again!

Thank you to everyone for your concern over the storms here last weekend. It wasn't as bad as they predicted and although many trees were blown down, other damage was minimal. It looked as if Holland and Belgium had stronger winds than us. I hope everyone stayed safe. I enjoyed reading about all your recycled treasures too, thank you for sharing them with us.

Hello and welcome to my new followers David Turner from Wold Ranger, Lynette, Patrica, and Bovey Belle from Codlingsandcream. If you have links please let me know.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy week.

Sarah x