We decided to follow an invitation in the Mendip Times ‘Afternoon Tea every Sunday in July with Marston Music. Says I ‘why not?’. The estate is about 3 miles south of Frome and contains an amazingly restored and maintained church. The concert was in a church on the Marston Estate. When we showed up at 2.40 pm there were about a dozen people listening to a decent jazz band. We helped ourselves to some tea and cake and sat down in one of the pews.

The group were featured on a poster which was made available. The acoustics were not that good, a bit echoey. I felt it would have been better to hear then in a smoky bar rather than a church but they made a jolly enough noise.

I was not in the mood for jazz and so stepped outside ad admired the scenery. There was a lot of it to admire. Also my EMF meter read between 43-46 out of 100 which is quite low. There is nowhere that reads zero so smog is everywhere. Here is a general view of the landscape.

This is a view of a small group of people who obviously know each other well. ‘Close knit’ is the term. They were not unfriendly but I cant say they reached out.  Maybe they were just trying to figure out the tasks as it was the first music session of the year.

About 3.30 we went for a lovely walk in the very large estate. It is well managed. The huge ‘Lord of the Manor’ house has been purchased by a company and is being renovated. The Marston House estate  has the remains of pleasure grounds dating to 1724-45 by Stephen Switzer. There is also a late-18th century landscape park. Further work was undertaken from 1819-22 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, and more re-workings in the later 19th century.
Pleasure grounds laid out by Stephen Switzer between 1724 and 1745 and altered with advice from William Sawrey Gilpin around the 1820s, and a late 18th-/early 19th-century park around a country house.

We saw a huge ‘English Oak’ tree and enjoyed the carefully mown wide walking areas friendly to visitors.

On our walk we met a young couple who were having a delayed over night birthday break. Her birthday had been January and his had been March but they put it off until better weather. They were staying at The Lighthouse, a B and B not far away in Tytherington. At £125 per night it is amongst the more posh establishments and indeed has good reviews. We were prompted to say that for a short break you don’t have to travel far.

13 signs you’re suffering from toxic family enmeshment, An excellent analytical article for those  who tend to over-involve themselves in the activities of their family members.