On the first weekend my folks and little sister were over from New Zealand, we decided to head out for a picnic…the problem was choosing where to go?!? I decided to round everyone up and head to Buckinghamshire to visit the National Trust property, Stowe Landscape Gardens.
I’d never visited so we all like to explore something together for the first time if we can…the girls headed down to Tesco to buy the necessary ingredients to pop in the picnic basket…G was forced into the loft to bring down the picnic baskets…loaded up, we were on our way to National Trust Stowe.
Stowe has attracted visitors since 1717 and 2017 is no different! Not having any idea what to expect, we had an oooh moment as we headed up the drive at Stowe……we parked up (it’s free parking for National Trust members)…decided to take the golf buggy rather than walk the necessary 10 minutes…yes our legs were painted on…
…why would you use your legs when someone invented a golf buggy to take you for a quick twirl to the best vantage point at Stowe. It also gave us some time to take some family pics…golf buggy family photos are what every family photo album is missing these days.
The view was pretty impressive…I’m pretty sure you’d agree! Do you remember when Elizabeth first sees beautiful Pemberely in the BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice…Stowe has a tendency of creating these special moments as you wander around the gardens…just when you least expect it…you find yourself admiring a wonderful gardening masterpiece.
We decided to pull out the picnic blanket and set out our carefully made *coughs* purchased picnic ingredients…no picnic is complete without a thermos!!
^^Jonelle and Mark, I can’t thank you enough for the picnic basket that you bought me a few years ago for Christmas…it’s getting used a lot these days! The perfect Christmas Gift for the difficult to buy for folks…a picnic basket and a National Trust Membership would be a great present…the links for everything are in the travel tip section at the bottom of this post.
We sat down enjoying the perfect English summer weather…complete with an angry grey cloud or two…
…made a few sarnies, ate a few strawberries, poured the tea and said chin chin (not the Japanese meaning!)…okay we may have taken china cups with us as well on our picnic…
…mum did a few instagram lunges while holding her phone for weight training (who said instagram is bad for your health!?!)…
…then the heavens opened of course! So we made a run for it to this little temple in the gardens (not a bad spot if I say so myself)…
…still with a lovely view over the lake to Stowe House.
After a few comments from complete strangers about taking bone china cups on a picnic…obviously they don’t know what they’re missing…we packed up and went for a wander around the landscape gardens at Stowe…
…but not before taking a few hundred photos of that beautiful vista of National Trust Stowe for the family blog album; I thought it would be good to get my belly out for the photos as well (don’t zoom in to close…I repeat don’t zoom in!)…
…mum nailed the back to the camera instagram pose…
…along with Lisa!
This isn’t going to be a short post as you can probably already tell…it includes our family photos from the day…we like to have a giggle and enjoy ourselves and as my family and friends read this blog, this is an easy way to share our day with everyone…with almost 100 photos. You may want to pull out your own bone china tea cup and fill her up and maybe make a sarnie or two…otherwise you could end up a bit parched from a crap load of scrolling!
It would be fair to say that Stowe isn’t a small property to walk around and something that I didn’t realise…there aren’t really any gardens with flowers…it’s more parklands which you can easily walk around but it’s rather large (like 10,000 steps large!).
There isn’t a set route that you must follow so we did a rather large loop around the National Trust property…
…stopping whenever daddy wanted his photo taken…
…mum was having a fluffy hair day due to the water in Bedford so dad didn’t get told off for placing his hat on her hair and ruining her hair…her usual birds nest was a complete fluff ball!
Dad found a pretty good spot to take a photo or ten…
…a pose that he has now adopted for this European 2017 tour photos…while us ladies tried to hide our copious double chins…
…we failed, and this was after dad jumped as high as he could to get us from above (double chins are less visible from above…dad jumping while trying to take a photo was bloody funny!). A picnic basket does hide a number of picnic / afternoon tea sins if you hold it in front of you.
Dad found time to have a round of golf…
…while Lisa and I decided to take a dip in an English swimming pool!
We found a naked lady who must have being feeling slightly nipply from the wind…
…she didn’t seem to be to bothered though…she held onto her milk jugs so she didn’t poke any eyes out!
Stowe House was being used for filming (we don’t know what for) so there were certain areas that you couldn’t access…however we did of course…and then the English followed behind…
…so we rambled up to the front of the house to take in it’s beautiful features…
…Dad decided he would have a sneak peek inside Stowe House…I was pretty sure we would get arrested at this point…can you imagine telling someone that you got arrested at a National Trust Property (how bloody rock n roll!)...it’s just as bad as being banned from Nandos for bad drunken behaviour *coughs* I was the innocent party!
We continued our little walk around National Trust Stowe with Lisa trying to take some lovely photos of mum…
…but she got photo bombed by a couple of crazy folks…they will appear again shortly.
There were a load of little nooks and crannies to explore…including finding a little church…
…the locals were dead quiet…to a couple of folks practicing the flamingo pose…
…a pretty little building or two in the middle the gardens…
…ohhh some roses…we did see some flowers…
…we rocked up to see these men, they didn’t look to happy to see us…300 years of tourists visiting Stowe and they couldn’t even raise a smile at our arrival…pffff…they call this The Temple of British Worthies…
…we stopped to take a few photos with them of course, punishment for them not smiling…how cool is Lisa’s dress, she made it herself…
…Mum and Dad both admired the fence which of course left dad pondering about the front fence at home.
How beautiful is this vista…my favourite word in this blog post is vista…can you tell? V-I-S-T-A…I feel like I need to channel my inner Nigella to say vista while licking a wooden spoon covered in chocolate.
Lisa and Mum gotta posing…
…while Dad and I carried the picnic baskets.
Mum took over the humping of the baskets…
…she put on an oscar worthy performance for the cameras…then a black ops rouge sheep decided to take me out and came racing towards me in a full on charge with red blazing eyes (I have a fear of sheep…weird I know as I come from New Zealand…sums me up nicely really!)…I ran while Mum, Dad and Lisa all laughed at me…apparently the sheep was moving slowly to the lake to take a sip of water when I crossed his path…they didn’t see the look he gave me…he was going to eat me!
We made for a beeline to the pretty building in front of us…The Gothic Temple…
…once again, I can’t get over how amazing Lisa is with making her own clothes; that dress is so cute…
…we snapped a few photos, mum may have posed while those crazy folks photo bombed her again…
…she was totally oblivious <Dad and Kelly insert an evil laugh or two>!
Mummy got her pretty photo without the crazy folks…
…well almost…Dad and I are humping the picnic baskets in the back ground!
By this stage we had walked off our picnic but there was another rather photogenic spot that we had to cross…Palladian Bridge…super pretty…
…we stopped to take a few photos as it would be like passing Go on a Monopoly board without collecting the £200…
…always remember to look up…
…we spotted another family that was out having a picnic at National Trust Stowe…they probably weren’t as crazy as us Kiwis.
We headed in the direction towards the exit… having a backwards glance over the beautiful vista behind us…
…we awaited our chariot to take us back to the facilities and shop.
I popped into the New Inn for a little snoop…
…it’s right by the entrance and set up as it would have looked like all those years ago!
Travel Tips for a Picnic at National Trust Stowe Landscape Gardens, Buckinghamshire
- National Trust Stowe is located in Buckinghamshire, quite close to Milton Keynes and Buckingham.
- Wear comfortable walking shoes as the property is rather large
- You can hire a golf buggy to make your way around National Trust Stowe which is something I would definitely do if we take G’s brother to the property due to his disabilities.
- There is a cafe and shop at the entrance and another little kiosk right at Bell Gate however their are only two toilets…one at the entrance and by Stowe House itself.
- There are a number of great picnic spots at Stowe but just be aware you will need to carry all your bits and bobs around with you like we did afterwards.
- The car park is free for National Trust Members
- Entrance to the property is £11.20 per adult / £12.40 with gift aid however it’s free if you’re a National Trust member. If you’re a foreign national and plan to visit a few National Trust Properties over a week or so then I would highly recommend investing in a National Trust Touring Pass.
- If you can’t make up your mind which British Heritage Pass to purchase then I’ve written a nifty little post for you.
- Stowe House is managed by the Historic Houses Association so you will need to pay an additional fee to gain entry ontop of the above prices if you don’t hold a HHA card to snoop inside the house.
- Take a raincoat with you as there isn’t much shelter offered around the grounds…I’ve just purchased this great little Barbour number in bright yellow (and it’s in the sale!)…it’s lightweight and the best bit is, it covers my bottom and I’m basically a giant!
- Check out Amazon for some great deals on picnic baskets…remember a picnic is what you make of it…our family are big fans of picnics and we enjoy our time together as you can see from the photos. If you want a posh picnic basket then check out Fortnum & Mason or if you’re happy with second hand then check out eBay.
- The National Trust have a some really great picnic spots to enjoy…one of my favourites is Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire…watch out for the falling apples!
Where is your favourite National Trust property or Picnic Spot?
xx
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