Denbies and Stepping Stones

Having only had a few days holiday this year so far (my plans have been falling through all over the place), I booked a day off and headed to Denbies Wine Estate for the day. I got the bus there so I could properly enjoy myself. 

I did the indoor tour in the morning with a tasting, though they were fairly stingy with the number of wines we tried. Still the cellars were cool.

After lunch (and a glass of wine of course), I took the outside tour in the 'train' - a landcover towing some couches. 

Heading out. 

View back to Denbies.

This was the Sparkling tour, which includes a glass of bubbles at the top.

I wanted to go for a hike afterwards so went over to the Stepping stones walk by the National Trust. It looked pretty simple on the map, but they really need to work on their signs. 

I thought the walk was called the Stepping Stones due to the stones across the river. 

After the stones, I followed the signs and headed along the river. Because the sign said so. Turns out, the signage was wrong and this was the wrong path. Still it was a nice little walk until I turned back and found the right one again.

Awesome tree.

Entrance to a WWII bunker.

When I got back to the right path, it was all uphill. 275 steps apparently. Though some of them were knee high so I would realistically estimate twice that. So maybe the walk was named after this. (It's my own fault. I wanted to see Box Fort, which obviously would be on a hill but this escape my notice until it became painfully obvious. And I do mean painfully!)

Still the view from the top was great. And there was a cafe there too which I fell on like I hadn't seen civilisation in a year. 

The fort was really disappointing. It didn't really look like the Roman fort they claim. More like a 1950s bunker covered in graffiti. 

Box Hill Fort

View over Denbies vineyards.

I did find a really nice sit down at the top in the sun and peace and quiet.

After making it down again, I had a restaurant booked at the bottom (score for planning) and had packed a change a clothes so I didn't stink out the restaurant. I got there early and enjoyed a nice glass of wine beforehand. The food was nice but I was quite disappointed in the size of their 'large' plates. I was still hungry but the place was getting packed and noisy thanks to a wedding party coming in. So I got the bus home and an early night. 

Painshill again

On the Sunday of mom and dads visit we went out to Painshill gardens/park. The weather held out and didn't rain, which is the best we can say.

Chilly but enjoying the view

Hermits bed.

I knackered them out walking so we chilled out on the night with dinner and a film. They left on Saturday :( to head to the caravan for a week. And I have spent this weekend relaxing and sleeping ahead of a busy few weeks. 

Wisely and Taste of Autumn

Last year I ended up at Wisley Gardens for their taste of Autumn festival mostly by accident. This year I planned it. The weather hasn't been great (thanks to Storm Brian) but there were sunny spells and I only had to take cover a few times.

The fountain.

Still flowers out

But Autumn is here.

Looking up to the rock garden.

I enjoyed the greenhouse - it was so nice to be warm but it did take some time for my camera to de-steam.

Spanish Moss.

Bottom of the rock gardens.

Looking over the park.

They also have a lovely bonsai tree walk. All of the trees are between 30 and 80 years old.

The stalls area wasn't as busy as last time, I guess due to the weather. And they did have the apple selection. Last year they had stalls of loads of different apples to taste and buy but this year their orchards were hit with disease so they couldn't. Still they had lots of different stalls (an amazing number selling cheese!) so plenty to buy.

I added to my Christmas presents (I started early this year) and left after noon. I was planning to stay for lunch but the lunch stalls weren't there this year either. So I spent the afternoon (and rest of the weekend) relaxing.

Today I won second place in our data Bake off. (I was never going to win over the syrup soaked donuts!) So I'll take second happily!