The Vyne ... for apples?

We finally visited The Vyne, near Basingstoke after lots of times saying ‘we really must see the pace as its close’. Orchard Day there gave us the reason … and so we’ve been. The grounds are great for wandering/ kids (and there were lots of kids there!), but the House wasn’t all that inspiring for me. I liked the craftsmanship of the wood panel carving, and the heated plant room (but the one in Casa Loma, Toronto is better); but overall it was far too dark for my liking. I didn't think it was worth the price of £7.50 admission if you were paying, but good with the NT life membership!

We also got to try lots of different varieties of apple .. and I found one I really liked ‘First & Last’, although ‘Norfolk Beefing’ was good too. If you had apples you didn’t know the variety of … the man from Sparsholts (the local agricultural college) was there to identify your variety. LOL whilst tasting a woman came up with an apple from the tree of the house they’d just moved into … alas it was nothing more exciting than a green (ie not fully ripe) Golden Delicious. But then followed a man with an ‘apple’ for identification …the man knew straight away without cutting open it was an ‘Asian Pear’ … said of a good example in Winchester (where the College is) … which is where this came from, the bloke owned the tree!

Besides that we visited the roundaboutness that is Basingstoke town centre … good for Brownie purchases :)

Then on Sunday we tried to resolve our storage issues … or lack of space for them. We have found a possible solution … but Argos don’t have all the bits we want … so I’m watching their reserve and collect bit on the website for when the bit we want is in. Lets hope it comes in before my parents descend …