Garden
I had an amble around the garden this morning, and took a few photos of the flowers. OK, not just the flowers - vegetables as well!
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King Alfred’s Tower
I've been to Stourhead a couple of times before, but have never got round to going to the nearby King Alfred's Tower.
It's 205 steps up to the top, so Mother decided against it and sat in the car and snoozed.
When I got up there (wheezing slightly, legs like jelly), it was cloudy and with rain clearly falling nearby.
Within about 20 minutes, it all cleared up, so I was able to take photos of dark skies and blue sky & fluffy clouds within a very short time!
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Stourhead
Mother came to stay for a few days, and while SWMBO entertained her for most of the time (Tyntesfield and Concorde [only open until the end of September]), I felt morally obliged to take a day off work and take her somewhere.
We ended up going to Stourhead, somewhere she'd not been before, and one of the best known landscaped gardens. Fortunately, we managed to avoid the rain - the heavens opened just as we got back to the shop & tea room, which was a perfect excuse for a slice of cake.
I think this is one of the nicest views there is - it looks completely natural, but you just know that a landowner with a firm opinion of his place in history combined with a egomaniacal landscape gardener probably uprooted several small villages and converted a small hill into a substantial lake. He probably then decided that he didn't like the colour of the water and had the landscaper...