Stourhead to King Alfred Tower

On a baking hot day at the beginning of July - Andy's birthday in fact - we decided in our wisdom to do a six mile walk up a hill.  Genius!  Luckily, most of the walk was in woodland so we were afforded some shade, but it was still pretty tough.

We parked up at Stourhead, a National Trust property on the Wiltshire/ Dorset border and the first bit of the walk actually went through some of the gardens to get out to the walk proper.

Finn was on a lead all day as we were walking through grazing land.  He did have a paddle in this pond, but he was still on the lead!

We saw hardly anyone all day until we got to King Alfreds Tower and we were welcomed by a couple of lads smoking a joint when we got there!

It's the strangest structure - three sided and with nothing inside it at all except a staircase.  It was shut this day but I'm not sure I'd have gone up anyway for the views - too hot!

Poor Finn laid down in the shade at every opportunity.  I felt like doing the same thing!

Back at Stourhead we sat in the courtyard and had a cider which was most welcome - we were seriously overheating so probably would have been better with water!  After a little mooch around the shop, we headed homewards and stopped at the Walnut pub for a ploughman's lunch - passing Finn bits of cheese under the table!

Fabulous day, lovely to get out for a walk, but I think we'd have enjoyed it more if it had been ten degrees cooler!

Fish and Finn

What I love more than anything in the world is for both my boys to be happy and this was certainly achieved during this holiday.  I had one catching more fish than we believed possible and I had the other jumping in the lake at every opportunity for a cooling swim!  The only time things got a bit tricky was when Finn jumped in to catch the fish when Andy was releasing them - that wasn't good.  Or when Finn jumped in after Andy had cast out and grabbed the float and snapped it in too.  That wasn't great either! 

I love this - my boys intently watching the float!

Even Jess came along and watched the float too!

I haven't gone mad here, I thought the tail was really pretty!

Is this our tea Mum?!

Just a small selection of the huge amount of fish that Andy caught!  I love that Finn is in very nearly every photo here - the boys were inseparable!