About three months ago Katy and I decided to incorporate a monthly meet-up in our diaries. One day every month we arrange to meet at an attraction and spend the day nattering, soaking up some culture and enjoying being ladies who lunch. This is what we saw on our latest trip….

Polesden Lacey

For me, the hardest thing about arranging a monthly meet-up isn’t saving the money for entry tickets, cakey lunches and the inevitable not-really-needed souvenirs, or even finding a date which we can both make. It’s actually deciding where to go! It was my turn to choose this time and with an embarrassingly meagre amount of knowledge of what there is to do in this county (or the neighbouring ten to be honest) I turned to our good friend, Google. And I have to say it turned up trumps with Polesden Lacey in Great Bookham, Surrey.

First stop after the hour long drive was the ladies. Now, most people probably wouldn’t start a blog post with a trip to the toilets but I most definitely ain’t most people. So here we go: Polesdon Lacey’s toilets are the most impressive public loos I have ever ‘been’ in and that’s a fact. They are palatial in size and spotlessly clean.   Also, they have paper, soap and hand dryers that actually dry your hands. Polesden Lacey had already impressed me.

As the house wasn’t yet open, we headed for the gardens.  The grounds of the estate are really relaxing to walk round and luckily for us the gardens were still in full bloom.

Hey, who knew Dotty Perks had a branch here?

Whilst perusing (good word that) the map, something caught our eye….

Imagining a world exclusive hybrid breed of insect and poultry, we set off on our journey and were shocked to find….  just your regular bees and chickens as separate entities.

*I’ve no idea if they are Betty/Molly. If not, they should be.

I also found my dream cottage.

After lunch, it was back up to the house and a moment or two to appreciate the view.

Although only half of the house is open to the public there is still lots to see. I didn’t take photos inside preferring to buy the guidebook instead (which has much better pictures than I could ever take) but here’s a taster:

Finally, a trip to the shops; there’s a fabulous second hand bookshop (the complete works of Emily Dickensen for £2!), a classic souvenir shop, and a garden shop too. Katy treated Meg and Gus to a Cat Mint plant and I treated my Dad to some local ales.

After a lovely day out it was time to head back to Windsor and Brighton….