The Courts Garden

We've actually been on two outings in the last two days, so I'll be writing a couple of blog posts over the coming days. 

On Sunday, we visited The Courts Garden, a National Trust property in the village of Holt in Wiltshire. This is the place I mentioned at the end of my previous post. For reasons I'll go into later, it was a bit of a disappointing trip, but overall I think the property is worth a quick visit.

We were meeting family friends there, and as we arrived early, we had a little look around the village first. There was a really pretty little area with a lily pond and a willow tree, which was almost as nice to see as the garden itself.

As you can see, there was a furry visitor who particularly loved the pond!

Then our friends arrived and we went to the garden, which was very well set up with regard to social distancing, as there was a one-way system in place. 

One thing I liked about the garden was that it contained features that were reminiscent of different parts of the world, in particular Japan and Italy.

There was one part of the garden that had ponds filled with lotus flowers and waterlilies and a little wooden bridge, which reminded me of the Japanese gardens I visited in Santiago and Buenos Aires.

The garden also had many Roman style statues and columns, which made me feel a bit like I was in Italy.

Other interesting parts of The Courts Garden include the house...

...the sunken garden...

...the orchard...

...and this dog statue...

...along with many pretty flowers and trees.

It was a nice place to look around, but unfortunately the resident cat wasn't there, which was a shame, as I'd been looking forward to meeting him or her! 

The Rose Garden tea room was also a disappointment. It had a selection of about 15 different varieties of cake, as well as various savoury snacks, and yet absolutely none of it was suitable for vegans. Given that there were several gluten-free options, it really didn't make sense. Why would they cater extensively to people with one dietary requirement and provide nothing at all for people with a different dietary requirement? Plus it's actually very straightforward to make vegan cakes, so there's no excuse for not getting with the times and offering some options that don't harm animals or the planet.

My parents had told me great things about the tea room, so it was really disappointing that it offered nothing for me at all. They both got big slices of homemade cake to take away, whereas I had to pick up a sandwich from ASDA on the way home! To be honest, it left me with a bit of a bad impression of the garden overall, which I know is harsh, but you come to these places for the whole experience of looking around and then going for coffee and cake afterwards, so they really should be catering for everyone.

Our outing yesterday was to Faringdon and Lechlade, and I'll be writing about it soon. It wasn't exactly the most exciting trip in the world, but it was a nice day out with a few interesting sights to see.

Dyrham Park

Yesterday, we went on our second outdoor outing of the week, this time to Dyrham Park.

Dyrham Park is one of our favourite National Trust properties to visit, as the mansion is so impressive to see and its gardens are beautiful.

Like Lacock, Dyrham has been used as the setting for various TV series and films. In recent years, it has played the part of Sanditon Manor in the TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Sanditon, and a French country hotel in the WWI drama The Crimson Field.

When you see the house, it's easy to understand why it's so popular.

The house is currently closed to visitors due to Covid 19, but to be honest, that didn't matter to us very much, as we've already been inside it at least a few times! Besides, I think the gardens are more interesting than the mansion's interior. I particularly liked seeing the lake, which was surrounded by colourful flowers.

One of the things Dyrham is best known for is its population of deer, but unfortunately they weren't around yesterday, though we have seen them on previous visits. However, we did meet another animal friend! This regal-looking cat was very happy to stare down at us from the top of his wall!

Afterwards, we drove to the Tog Hill picnic site to eat our lunch. There are amazing views from up there; you can see across to the entire city of Bristol, the Severn Bridges and beyond to the Welsh hills.

It was a very nice day out, though I have to admit that I am feeling the urge to visit somewhere a little different, like a city or a beach. I like the countryside, but it would be good to have a bit of a change of scenery, or even a trip to a different country. However, going abroad unnecessarily just doesn't seem like a good idea at the moment, so I guess that will have to wait a while. 

Our next trip will be to another nearby National Trust property this Sunday. Although it won't quite be the change of scenery I'm dreaming of, it is at least a place I haven't been to before. My parents told me it has an excellent café and a resident cat, so I'm looking forward to checking it out!

Lacock

Yesterday, my parents and I took a day trip to Lacock, a village in Wiltshire that's famous for being the setting of many famous films and series. Thanks to its quaint and old-fashioned appearance, it's been used as a backdrop for the BBC Pride and Prejudice series, Downton Abbey, and the Harry Potter films, among other things! So as you can imagine, it's very popular with tourists.

We really enjoyed visiting Lacock, although the day turned out to be more eventful than we expected. But I'll get to that later!

The main streets of the village itself are very picturesque and instantly recognisable to anyone who's seen the costume dramas mentioned above.

But the most famous part of Lacock is its abbey and the abbey grounds, owned by the National Trust.

The grounds have various different parts to explore. The first bit we saw was the botanical garden, where you can find many types of flowers, some used for medicinal purposes.

Then we visited the orchard, in front of St Cyriac's church.

One of my favourite parts of the grounds was the rose garden, which was really pretty to look at.

Then we came to this little lake with views across to the abbey. It was a really idyllic place.

The abbey itself was a huge and very impressive building. The cloisters inside were used as part of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, and I really wanted to see them. But unfortunately, the interior of the abbey is currently closed to visitors due to Covid 19. However, seeing the exterior was still a great experience.

The final part of the grounds we saw was the courtyard, with this interesting German-looking building.

Lacock was such a nice place to walk around, and I would definitely recommend it as a great travel destination for the current times we're living in. Because it was a hot day, there were plenty of people there, but a really effective one-way system had been set up, so social distancing was always possible.

One disadvantage of the summer weather was that the car engine overheated on the way back and we had to stop in a lay-by in a small village. Luckily there was a pub there so we could go and get some food and drink while waiting for the recovery van, before getting towed back home!

Despite all that, it was still a very nice day. I showed the pictures to my boyfriend, and he said he'd like to go to Lacock with me when he comes to England. Hopefully that won't be too far in the future! I also hope that next time we'll be able to visit Hogwarts!