Day at Hestercombe

 Ok today's post is full of photos of my and Andy's walk from Taunton to Hestercombe in Somerset.  We did this mid September before we had the lovely heatwave.  As you can see the skies were grey and it was a bit nippy.   We had a nice snack of fresh blackberries on the way.

This was the view over the fields from Pitcher's Hill, Cheddon Fitzpaine.

We saw some nice wildflowers ... Common Toadflax

And some nice buildings

With beautiful Hollyhocks outside

As well as free apples for the taking

Check out the Hollyhock taller than Andy!

Sitting in Hestercombe's 'Stable' coffee shop.  It is converted stables and we are in one of the stalls

Beautiful Cyclamen in Hestercombe shop

The man is looking away as I enter my pin number

A beautiful Autumnal display, would love this in my garden

I love this cute building which is the 'Bat house' - there are bats inside but we didn't see any because the monitor showing them was broken

On our way through the grounds

This is usually a waterfall but I think someone had turned the tap off!!

Andy on the Chinese bridge

I loved this tree, maybe a few fairies living inside?

We bought some swan food but the swan didn't appreciate it

A nice feature.  There are loads of lovely features at Hestercombe

And some lovely grapes, a bit sour though

 Beautiful flowers

I love this daisy like flower which seemed to grow everywhere and here they are growing out of stone steps.

Snapdragons (easier for me to spell than the latin name)

I love these Michaelmass daisies with bees and butterflies.  Click on the picture for a beautiful enlarged version...

You can see the butterflies easier if you click on the picture

Hestercombe House

Guess who?

Love this interesting entrance

In the outdoor coffee shop, beautiful Cyclamen on the tables

Love the tree growing in the pot, shame the picture doesn't do it justice

An interesting hole in the wall, taken by Andy ... actually the next 7 pictures were taken by Andy

Me taking photos of the bees

The Orangery

A nice house on our journey back home

And an even nicer dog we stroked as we passed by.  Her name was Belle

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  We had a lovely long day there.  I recommend it totally