Steven and I are always visiting country houses and gardens on our days off, and yesterday we headed up to Wallington Hall. The nice old man at the gate talked us into getting a membership which is probably the most exciting thing thats happened to me in a long time as we can now get into any National Trust property for free. Magical stuff. Peeling off that leafy sticker and putting it onto the windscreen of our car so they (other N.T. inner circle folk) know we can park for free was thrilling.

On a serious note, this will be incredibly helpful for those days when you can't think of anything to do. We can jump in the car with Pim and head out to Cragside or whatever and just have a good walk around, without worrying about paying £13 each.

So, Wallington Hall was our first tick off the Trust list. The greenhouse was one of the prettiest I've ever seen.