Leith Hill and Leith Place NT

A wonderful walk at Leith Hill in Surrey where the bright sunshine accentuated the fresh greens of the trees and ferns and the view from the Tower towards the South Downs was spectacular. After a 7-mile walk in the morning, I spent the afternoon at the very peaceful Leith Place, Ralph Vaughan Williams' home from the age of two till he was 20.

Wimpole Christmas Lights Trail

This is the first time Wimpole Hall (National Trust) has organised a Christmas Lights Trail. We visited on Sunday and came away with mixed feelings. It is certainly very bright and festive with lots of very clever modern technology both in light and sound. The main drawbacks were the very large number of visitors combined with the narrowness of the paths meant that there was a lot of queueing and you were too close to the exhibits (for people with sensitive eyes it was uncomfortable in many areas). For me, the best exhibits were the 'standard' coloured lighting of trees and features and the lighting of the Hall itself. 

Storm Light and Trees at Lyveden NT

I stopped off at Lyveden Manor and New Bield in Northamptonshire and walked around the estate (house images to follow). There were some very dramatic skies throughout the couple of hours that I spent there - perfect to show off the winter trees.

Knole National Trust, Kent,

Knole was extended from an earlier manor house in the 15th century and became a royal possession during the Tudor dynasty when Henry VIII's daughter lived and Elizabeth I is also said to have visited. From 1603, Thomas Sackville made it the aristocratic treasure house for the Sackville family, who were prominent and influential in court circles. Over more than 400 years, his descendants rebuilt and then furnished Knole in three further bursts of activity.

Thomas Sackville's Jacobean great house, unlike any surviving English great house apart from Haddon Hall, still looks as it did when Thomas died, having managed "to remain motionless like this since the early 17th century", balanced between growth and decay.

Hinton Ampner National Trust Garden

On Thursday, we moved our location from Petersfield to Christchurch to explore the New Forest. En route we called at Hinton Ampner a National Trust property with very fine grounds. Here a selection of find from Shield bugs, Large Skipper, Hoverflies, Plant bugs and Sawflies to Spotted flycatcher (a rare bird in Cambridgeshire these days) and young Blackbird