apples and hearts

Stourhead,

you have been here with me before.

This weekend we came here not only for a walk on a beautiful autumn day, but also to visit the Apple Day at the Stourhead farm shop, a regular annual event.

It gives us an opportunity to taste and buy a large selection of locally grown apples.

I love some of the wonderful names given to apples, for instance "Slack-ma-girdle"!

This area is also known for its apple cider and there are many producers here, old and new.

A relatively new company is  Fosseway Somerset Cider, which had a stand here today and we had a chance to sample their cider which is very nice.

 Needless to say that we came home with some of the "tastings".

I think I should explain a little the name "Fosseway".

Fosse Way was a road build by the Romans, which connected Exeter in the Southwest of England with Lincoln in Northeast.

It is possible that it was originally a defensive ditch to mark the western frontier of the Roman rule in Britain, and later filled in. Many parts of the original road still form parts of the roads today.

Fosseway runs through our county of Somerset, hence the name is used quite often here.

You can read more about Fosseway here.

Of course I could not help myself and I had to make an apple pie when back home, to keep to the spirit of the day.

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My stitching week has been taken up mainly with the small blocks for the Scandinavian Christmas border. I am now glad that I have decided to finish the quilt as per the original pattern, it will give it a nice finish.

I have found this sign in the National Trust shop at Stourhead.

I think it will go so well with the quilt.

I have also made some progress on the Norwegian design jacket.

During the week I received my order of this beautiful lace yarn, from Nimu Yarns,

a mixture of alpaca, silk and cashmere. I first saw this yarn on rubysasha's blog, thank you rubysasha for "discovering" it!

I plan to make a large scarf rather then a shawl, when I decide on a pattern.

I have a couple of lovely patterns in mind. I like both of them very much, I just need to make up my mind.

I wish you all a very good week!

weekend

It wasn't a good week as far as the weather went, cold and wet, I think you are getting bored with me telling you this. Heavy rain on Friday night, but we knew better things were on the way!

Saturday morning - much warmer but fresh, a good time for an early walk.

Stourhead is the nearest National Trust property to us, and so we visit often. Those of you who have been following my blog for some time, have seen pictures from here before.

"That" bridge

and the Temple of Apollo,

both of them "played" their role in the film "Pride and Prejudice" ( the later version, with Keira Knightley).

It is a time "in between" as far as plants go, the spring flush of colour now gone and the autumn colour a long way away, so colour here is mainly green, but here and there are some unusual plants and trees.

and some more views

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Cottages by the entrance to the gardens, one of them is a holiday cottage, which you can rent for your holiday.

The entrance to the courtyard where you can find The Spread Eagle Inn

and an art gallery, in front of which were some interesting exhibits.

Of course we can not miss out the National Trust shop on the way out. Needless to say that we went home with another addition to our garden!

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Saturday night and our two grandchildren are staying for a sleepover!

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Sunday morning - at last we have SUMMER! And BBQ weather!

Grandchildren have gone home and DH and I are recovering:

autumn walk

Following a very wet and all together horrid weekend, yesterday and today has been just glorious, beautiful autumn days, with wall to wall sunshine.
We drove up to Stourhead, for a walk around the lake. The autumn colours were quite spectacular this year, but last week's rain and wind had taken  most of the leaves from the trees. But there is still a lot of colour around and on a still day like this is a pleasure to take photographs. It was mid morning when we arrived, there was still some frost on the ground in the shaded areas.