Houghton Lodge

The thing about living near the sea is that if you get a weekend plus sunshine combo then you don’t stand a chance of getting anywhere near it (unless you enjoy sitting in traffic). On days like these it’s far more pleasant to travel inland – you have the roads to yourself and you can discover hidden gems like Houghton Lodge.

It’s only about 20 miles away but I didn’t know it existed. It’s not commercial at all, it’s just like you’re visiting some very wealthy acquaintances who make you put money in an honesty box before you enter. You enter through the walled garden, which is delightful…

There was so much to point my camera at, including thes dahlia’s which even though I have a garden full of them myself, I couldn’t resist snapping…

These asters were pretty too – that’s a well in the background in the centre of the garden…

Flowers are so obliging when it comes to having their photos taken – they always look great, especially dill, which I think I may have to  plant for next year, because look at how great it looks if you get down under it and shoot up through it…

Outside the gardens but still in the 30 acres of grounds we went for a walk along the River Test; very pastoral and English, as you’d expect in the heart of Hampshire…

Houghton Lodge itself is fabulous and just the sort of house I would demand if I ever became a multi-millionaire and incredibly bossy. Look at the chimneys and the windows, so lovely! Jane Austen is rumoured to have visited here in her time. Living in Hampshire you hear this a lot, and I am sure that if she actually visited all the places she is supposed to have then she would never have had time to write all those books. They use the house in movies and TV productions too. You might have seen this place crop up in Die Hard. No, hang on, I mean David Copperfield, I’m always getting those two mixed up…

Mark’s favourite bit was the free bags provided to collect any fallen apples. Honestly, that boy is very naughty and it’s really not in the spirit of things to shake the trees THAT hard to make the apples fall. And it was all I could do to stop him picking this…

So, looks like it’s apple crumble for dinner again tonight. What a hard life!