I was in a bit of a quandary just now, whether to tell you about the pictures in my home office as promised, or whether to tell you about our day trip today to Basildon Park. I’ve decided to go for the latter while it’s fresh in my mind, and you’ll get the pictures another time. I hope that’s OK?
A month has passed since our last day trip out of Windsor when we visited Winkworth Arboretum. Basildon Park is another National Trust place near Reading, about 50 minutes in the car today. Again I had to buy tickets online in advance at £8. each and there was a free car park when we got there. We had been there probably over 10 years ago for a picnic with my parents and my sister and her family.
On arrival we noticed how busy the car park was. It was quite crowded around the entrance with families, but we managed to keep a distance. The first thing we did was to go to the café kiosk to get our lunch (top priority, obviously!). We had a Cornish pasty and a sausage roll to share. David got some salt and vinegar crisps and we had Diet Pepsi each to drink. That all came to approx £13. which wasn’t too bad. I had a couple of penguin biscuits in my bag that we had for pudding. We sat on a nice bench surrounded by roses near the big house for our picnic, as far away from the overexcited little children as possible, as David seems to be allergic to them.
After lunch we set off on a walk across the fields. The scenery was absolutely stunning, a real feeling of space. The walks were colour coded and well signed. We did the longest route which took us just over an hour. We overtook a few people. David walks fast! When we were on the woodland walk we got away from most of the people. The few we did meet were very friendly and everyone said “hello”. I don’t think people were so friendly at Winkworth, but then the weather was not so good that day, so that affects people’s mood. Anyway, I wasn’t really there for the chit chat, but I was in a good mood so I smiled and said “hello” to everyone, whether they liked it or not!
Here are some of the pictures from our walk..the house itself was not open today.
I’ll have to send this picture above to my sister, she really likes teasels. I remember as a child people used to make Mrs Tiggywinkles out of them using the teasel head as a hedgehog face, with a white bonnet around. They looked quite cute!
We had to walk through a couple of fields of cows. I think they were young bulls. Mostly they were not interested in us (phew!). One paid us a bit of attention and I held David’s hand for a few steps. He is used to me doing this. Usually it is for loose dogs. I am pretty scared of loose dogs. My heart starts thumping in my chest and I feel the adrenaline pumping if a dog comes bounding up to me. Well today there was only one well behaved dog on a lead, so that was fine. These cows were safely behind a fence, looking at me…
This was a very strange folly type place below. I think someone lived there. It looks quite cute here but it felt a bit creepy.
We preferred this property in the background with the smart converted barn.
We also thought this house would probably do… provided all the visitors went away!
I liked some of these dead trees, like sculptures..
And lastly, here’s a sideways heart in the sky for you.
Night night my Waffle friends. Back soon xx
The Windsor Waffle 