All On A Summers Day...

July has been such a beautiful month. Not endless warm, clear summery days mind you - this is England after all. But we have had enough warm bright days for beautiful memories to have been embedded in my mind's eye. One of those memories was visiting Cotehele (pronounced coat-heel) in Cornwall. This is a beautiful medieval home on the banks of the Tamar River.

What a day to visit this magnificent Tudor house! Not too hot but lovely and warm, sun shining - no grey clouds hanging about which meant the bees and butterflies were everywhere.

This was the entrance to the converted barn - it's now a tea room where you can grab something to eat - which we did after we had walked through the gardens and house.

Here's the house, isn't it just beautiful? I have to say that it was very higgledy-piggledy inside. The floor plan made no sense at all :)

My favourite bit was the terraced gardens. Summer is definitely the time to visit these National Trust properties. The gardens are just magnificent.

Of course the gardens are huge. We followed a winding trail and pushed through a little gate. On the other side we were able to look across a field and spy the Tamar River. On the other side of the river Devon - our own home county. How's that bit of Victorian engineering?! What a fabulous bridge spanning the river ;)

Back up to the terraced gardens and on up to the house...

I loved the framed view through this archway.

After exploring the house it was back out into more of the garden and orchard. I have to say that orchards and greenhouses make me very happy - my happy places :D

Look at their sweet peas! Oh my goodness - I love sweet peas. I have never had much luck with growing them - but this year my own sweet peas have actually been successful enough for me to pick a small bunch for my home. Of course mine look nothing like Cotehele's sweet peas - but I'm getting there.

I took quite a few pictures of this area - greenhouse and hydrangeas = LOVE!

I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the English country side. It certainly is a great way to bid July farewell. Tomorrow we welcome August, I'm looking forward to enjoying every bit of this wonderful summer month!