My sisters visit and the last month

We finished our busy week with a visit to a beautiful garden at a village called Souldern. Veronica, our neighbour looks after this amazing garden just beyond Banbury and as a result of her descriptions of the platings we invited ourselves to have a look at the project. The garden is quite extensive and quite lovely, even at this late stage in the summer/autumn. Apparently the first stage planting involved about three thousand perennials about three years ago so it is looking quite developed now. We really were able to appreciate the work she has done and the overall layout of the property. They have had major redesigning done very cleverly that occurred over a few levels with fabulous steps and a particularly fantastic vegetable garden and raspberries to die for. We were able to pig out on delicious, fat and plump raspberries. We collected Carol, my sister and her partner Stephen from Heathrow that afternoon. They flew via Seoul and were very pleased to finally be in England. Carol spent a week with us last year, but this is Stephens first trip to the UK. Wednesday we spent showing them around Banbury and letting them acclimatise, repack and get mentally prepared for a trip down to the South of England. We set of early all very excited about the journey and had to stop in Banbury for Carol to buy a new coat from Debehams, and have our first coffee of the day. Our first discovery was a sign post for Highclere Castle at Newbury which is the setting for 'Downton Abbey'. This definitely merited a detour and we were gobsmacked by the vision of the magnificent exterior of this building. Sadly some of the interior is in a very sad state of repair and no doubt a major headache for the owners. Our next port of call was Salisbury Cathedral which has the largest spire in England and a copy of the Magna Carta. One would expect it to be pages long, but it is a simple set of rules by which society should live and modern law is still governed by it today. Our final stop was Abbotsbury where we stayed at the Ilchester Arms. This is quite a special place as on the wall in the hotel is a large photo of Stephens' great great Grandfather who was a swan keeper at the famous Swannery here. Abbotsbury started its life as a monastery for Cistercian monks who ran a sophisticated and successful monastery before HenryVIII got busy with the dissolution of all the Abbeys. The swans were bred as food for the monks, but today they are a draw card for tourists as they are mute. We were able to find out lots of history about the Gil family from the record keeper at the Church. She lived in the Vicarage. Which is the house that Stephens father was born in. Abbotsury is very cute quiet village and was a lovely introduction to our first southern village. Day two took us further west to Penzance. This was quite a long drive through southern countryside and along parts of the coast. Most of the dairy and cattle farming is down in this area and it was lovey to see so much pasture instead of the patchwork of fields of arable farms all ploughed up. We called into a donkey sanctuary which housed a large collection of the cutest donkeys. We did enjoy patting them and reading about all their personalities. The sanctuary was absolutely spotless with clean pens and very happy donkeys. We were very glad to finally make it to our guesthouse at Penzance which was a short walk from the main promenade along the beach. Our host steered us to this area for dinner and we discovered the most amazing and delicious carvery that offered every type of roasted meat with Yorkshire puddings and a selection of about 12 vegetables. Yes we ate until we hurt!!! St Ives and Lands end are very near here so we spent the next day exploring. St Ives is known for its artists and the Newlyn Art School which were a group of painters inspired by the impressionists. There work is quite collectible these days and quite pricey. We loved it in this seaside village and enjoyed poking around the shops amongst a labyrinth of streets and alleys. We finished the afternoon off with a good session in a local pub located right on the beach. It was humming with locals and visitors with families and dogs. We visited the Minnack theatre which is the result of a woman with great vision and a love for the arts. This amphitheatre is carved from the rock face stretching down the cliff below her home to the shore and was hand built by her and two workmen. She was involved with the continuing development of the theatre until here death in her early 90's. The slope is so steep it is almost vertical and the setting very dramatic with the ocean as a backdrop. It was really quite lovely. St Micheals Mount is a castle located 300 meters from the shore at Marazion and is perched on a small rocky island. You are able to walk across a causeway at low ride, but as this was not till 2.30 we took a 10 minute ferry ride. The ferries are lovely wooden boats that hold 10 passengers and the skipper holds the boat beside the stone dock with a rope while you board. The island has been owned by the St Aubyn family for the last 600 years, but the castle was built by the Normans in 1044 who thought the island resembled Mont Michele in France and were granted permission to build a Cistercian monastery. It began life as a trading port for tin mining and then became a defence fort when there was fear of an attack from the Normans. We all decided we could move in there tomorrow. The rooms are beautifully furnished and not too big or grand. It had a lovely cosy feeling. This was our last day in this part of the Cornish coast as we are heading to Pendogget which is further west and very close to Padstow. We stayed in a 16th century coaching inn which had rooms that had been refurbished so fantastic showers, but the main bar and dining room were original. The meal was superb and our waitress was the spitting image of Alice the girl in the Vicar of Dibley. She even poked her bottom out when she spoke and had a permanent look of surprise on her face. We tried hard not to laugh. Padstow is, of course famous for Rick Stein and it should be called Padstowville. He has 7 establishments there. These comprise his fish and chip shop, cafe, gift shop, main restaurant, accommodation cottages and a seafood restaurant. We were very excited to find Rick's fish and chip shop right beside the car park which sits just above the main part of the town. It is a very pretty fishing port with boats of all shapes and styles crammed into the small harbour. The fish and chips were devine and the place packed. Near here is another pretty village - Port Issac which is the location for the TV series 'Doc Martin'. Another series is due to be filmed there next year. There is a debate amongst the locals as to whether or not they like the cast and crew being in the town, but it must surely only be a good thing. It is quite a remote place so the added income they would bring would, without doubt, stoke some life into the place. Carol and I walked right up to the highest point above the cliffs whilst the boys had an ale in the pub. Our journey continued further north into Exmoor. Our destination here was Marston Lodge at Minehead. This was a boutique style hotel which has been totally refurbished by the owner. It was just fabulous and quite plush. It sat high above the main town centre but was only a five minute walk through the most gorgeous cobbled lanes into town. We had the most delicious Italian meal. Our host here was a real enthusiast for the traveller to travel off the beaten track and explore. He has three suggested trips through 'lanes' which a are so pretty. The lanes are entirely covered with giant trees and at this time of the year the autumn colour is so lovely. The forest in this part of the country is true northern hemisphere style with oaks, birches, elms, chestnuts etc. also most of the non arable farming is here so there is much more rolling pasture. We loved it to bits. It was a very misty day so not such good visibility but even more pretty to travel through. We had morning tea at the Periwinkle tea rooms which were in a small thatched cottage which was one of 5 in a cluster that were once workers cottages for the farm owner at Selworthy. They were a picture perfect jigsaw style setting. I wanted to stay here forever. Had lunch at Dunstar pub which was a giant building covered completely in bright red Boston Ivy. Stunning!! We are really loving trying all the different ales, Ciders, whiskeys...... Etc. We made it back to Knightcote late that evening and finished off the day with a meal at one of our local pubs the Farnborough Inn. Carol and Steve had not yet tried Bangers and Mash. The meal was superb and much better than the average pub meal. It seemed like we had been away a month - we had driven more than 800 miles in the week but had a wonderful time exploring the south.