The weather during most of the autumn had really been very disappointing but I came to the conclusion if I didn’t get out looking for some of those fabulous autumn colours even if the weather wasn’t ideal they would all be gone till next year. I decided a visit to the picturesque Sheffield park a garden laid out by Capability Brown may well be worth it even though the best of the autumn colour was already finished

When I visited Ashridge Forest back in early May I thought wouldn’t it be lovely to come back in the autumn time, visit the same places and see how different the locations looked. I’d been watching forecasts as we’d had some horrid wet and windy weather and planned a trip when I thought I would have suitable weather. Really though I’d left it quite late in the season so wasn’t exactly sure there would be many leaves would be left on the trees.

As I’d got myself organised for Christmas early this year for a change I was able to have a couple of days out in mid December and I visited Wakehurst Place. I was very interested to go here as it is part of Kew Gardens who lease it from the National Trust to enable them to grow many plants that couldn’t cope with the pollution of London. On site too is the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, which opened in 2000. It aims to house seeds from 10% of the world's flora by 2009 to save species from extinction in the wild.

 

It was a really wintry feeling day when I visited Ightham Mote with a very light dusting of snow on the rooftops. Set in a Kentish sunken valley, Ightham Mote is a rare example of a moated medieval manor house, dating from 1320 with later additions and alterations over five centuries. It’s another property owned by the National Trust and in recent years has undergone extensive restoration work which is now complete but has taken several years.

Following the excesses of Christmas we felt like we needed to get out for a short walk but as we were getting over colds we didn’t feel like going too far. It had been a long time since we had visited Reculver for a walk on the beach so we decided to go there. What I hadn’t expected though was for the beach to be covered in frost.