Audley End House

We spent two September weekends in a row enjoying the Audley End manor house.  It is less than an hour's drive on the other side of Cambridge from us.  Our first visit was spent inside the house on a rainy fall day.  We went back the following weekend for their annual apple festival and spent the entire day in the gardens.

We are inside a walled kitchen garden which grows fruits and vegetables from Victorian times.  These grounds contain the largest variety of apples and pears in Great Britain.  The fruit  trees were pruned and trained to form a wall around the veg gardens which were unsightly to the ladies of the house.  

 
 Fruit varieties that required more warmth than England naturally provides were grown on the walls.

By far, the highlight for Zeke and Lily was bobbing for apples.  It sounds innocent enough until you wait in line and witness all the kids participating with their wet faces, drool seeping out, spitting in the barrel...gross.  I'm still shocked they didn't come down with a terrible case of something.  

Wandering the rest of the grounds we discovered hidden streams, waterfalls and forests of ancient trees.