5th May. 

Today was our fifty-first wedding anniversary and fifty-sixth years to the day when I first met Ian. To treat ourselves, we are off to a pub for a meal. No restaurant for us! Didn't bring any fancy clothes for a start and well, after all those years together, we no longer need to treat ourselves to posh nosh!

The view from the Walbury Hill was very bad this morning. Lots of low cloud and mizzle about. We had debated going for a walk, but with the weather so iffy and lots of cars turning up and parking in strange places and at ridiculous angles, I could see us getting hemmed in. Breakfast was gulped down rather rapidly and with the sat nav showing the way out not to be the way we came yesterday, got away pronto.

As mentioned yesterday, that lane leading up to Walbury Hill was extremely narrow with very few passing places. I had hoped going the opposite way would be better, in fact it was worse! Even Ian, who normally doesn't worry about this sort of thing, mentioned he hoped we would get to a main road soon. Anyway, only one car was met, and thankfully right by a passing place.

So our destination today was Sherborne Castle and Gardens. It meant travelling back toward Salisbury and entering the County of Dorset. The sat nav took us through small villages and one such village, Kintbury, had the K&A Canal running alongside.

 

It's been years since we last did this canal, what I can remember, mooring was difficult in places then, whether this has improved, I suppose we will only find out if we cruise it again.

Salisbury Cathedral seen from MB.

The closer we got to our destination, the worse the weather became. Didn't bode well for the stroll around the Castle gardens. Arriving at Sherborne Castle (it used to be called a Lodge) a brief lull in the rain meant the walk to the Castle was in the dry. Took the brolly just in case, although those that read this blog will know of Ian's dislike of them. But I did catch him unawares, ha... his street cred has gone completely!😉

 

Sherborne Castle is not self-guided, a tour had to be booked. At the ticket office and with so few visitors today because of the weather, we got on the next tour available at 12.45.

Again, no photography permitted inside. The place was still being lived in, and the owners asked for privacy in all areas. Most of the rooms were still used by them, so I could see why. 

Our guide Jean was excellent. Very knowledgeable about the family history and reeled off dates and family names as far back as the 17th century. So good was she that I felt this as a specialist subject in Mastermind would see her sailing through and winning the program. 

So in brief. The castle was built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594, had been landscaped by Capability Brown. and has been the home of the Digby family since 1617.  To find out more, click HERE

 The tour took about an hour and the only photo we were allowed to take was through one of the upper windows looking across the lake to the Old Sherborne Castle ruins.

 

We walked part of the gardens in the pouring rain, shame it was such a dismal day, sun might have shown it in a better light. Once again, where was the colourful planting! No excuse really, as a garden centre was right next door, and they could have made the borders look magnificent.! Everywhere was neat and the grass manicured to perfection, maybe that was Capability Brown's vision overall because the first thing he had done was dig out the lake and then create the landscape.

A strange looking tree grew along one of the paths.  Never had we seen the likes, so Ian used his phone with the plant identifier app and discovered it was called a Handkerchief Tree. Hmm, I suppose we should have twigged because it did look like hankies adorned the branches.
 

Davidia involucrata, the dove-tree, handkerchief tree, pocket handkerchief tree, or ghost tree, is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Nyssaceae. It is the only living species in the genus Davidia. It was previously included with tupelos in the dogwood family, (Wikipedia)

The rain started to ease as we left and made our way to a pub called Halsey Arms nr Pulham which allows overnight parking. This would be the perfect place to have our Anniversary Meal.

We arrived a tad early for the start of their service, (cooking started at 6 pm) so a few drinks first and an anniversary selfie.