NT

Bleak, grey start to the day but dry at first. The Gorse Fox had his wits about him (unexpectedly) so started the geo-tagging software while we were having breakfast.

A check on the National Trust app revealed that “A La Ronde” was only about 9 miles away, was open, and may be worth a visit. We donned our gear and headed for the car. The route chosen by the SatNav insisted on taking us across country using the smallest roads it could find. The journey was suitably interspersed with stops in passing places and reversing back to make room for oncoming traffic. The Gorse Fox was weary by the time we arrived, felling as if he’d been driving for hours instead of the 30 minutes it had taken.

It was a lot cooler than we had expected. The Gorse Fox had to return to the car for his fleece. The rain had started and any thoughts of wandering through the grounds soon evaporated. We did, however, look at the Kokedama forest as we arrived. Now, the Gorse Fox should probably clarify that this was their description and half a dozen trees doesn’t really constitute a forest (in his humble opinion). It did seem like a clever concept. Small balls of winter flowers are hung in baskets from the bare trees. Later in the spring these are taken down and planted. The whole thing is a Japanese idea and you can see how it could be quite spectacular.

We wandered into the cafe for a coffee then started a tour of the house (currently covered in scaffolding). It was built for two ladies in that late 1700s after they returned from the Grand Tour. It is a sixteen-sided building and essentially stayed within their family until it was passed to the NT in 1991. It was intriguing but seemed a bit higgledy-piggledy. It finished off by providing touch screens with a VR type review of the building. Only one of the screens actually responded to touch and even that locked up. Not impressed.

The rain had set in. We decided to head back to the hotel (by the main roads). Back at the hotel, the Gorse Fox downloaded his photos and again tried the geotags. It seems flakey. Again it seems correct in iPhotos, but again the EXIF data doesn’t seem to show the tag. The Gorse Fox has written to the support group to find out what’s wrong.