Before reaching Allan Bank I had the opportunity to sit and watch the Herdwick sheep for a while. They fascinate me; some of them look just like my human’s grand dog, Buster, who is a Bedlington Terrier.
At the entrance to the gardens I posed for a photo with a willow squirrel, and hoped that I would see some of the real red squirrels that live in the garden.
There is a splendid view from the garden of the hills surrounding Grassmere.
Here I am just before going into the house. I could see the lake from here but forgot to get a photograph.
National Trust properties often have a room containing books for sale. I read Rupert and the Magic Seeds while the humans browsed. I think Rupert wears rather silly trousers.
The next room was set up as an art room, with tables suitable for full grown humans and small humans and bears to have a go at painting. I did a quick self portrait.
After going upstairs a guide suggested that I might like the play room. The inhabitants were certainly very pleased to see me.
I had a little ride on a wooden horse that rocked but didn’t go anywhere.
There were lots of hats to try on. I don’t think I would make a very good police bear.
Two of the resident bears put on a special afternoon tea for me. 
Before saying my farewells I tried out the blackboard.
Allan Bank has a special room for knitting. I did a few more rows of someone else’s knitting and would have continued but the humans said we needed to get some cake before the cafe closed. I like cake.
There was also a great selection of games in the knitting room that visitors can play. The croquet set was just the right size for me; I struggle somewhat with full size croquet mallets.
Next to the games table there were lots of knitted animals from the Beatrix Potter stories. They all seemed very busy but Jemima Puddleduck quacked a few times to me.
Cuddly squirrels were for sale in the next room. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see a wild red squirrel (though the humans have promised to take me to Brownsea Island oneday where red squirrels also live). I started reading ‘Squirrel Nutkin’ but didn’t finish as didn’t want to miss cake. 
We made our own cups of tea and put some money in the donation box, then bought some cake at the cafe counter.
It was a huge piece of very yummy carrot cake. 
On the way out I posed for another photo.
I very much enjoyed Allan Bank as there was so much there to do. It is a great place for bears and human children.
For more information about Allan Bank see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/allan-bank-and-grasmere
Refreshed from my nap I inspected the produce. The squashes were growing very well.
When we reached the entrance to Speke Hall I paused for a ‘selfie’. Speke Hall is very old; it was built in Tudor times.
There is a courtyard in the middle of the house, and just above the door I noticed a hole in the eaves. The guide said this used to be used for ‘eavesdropping’ or in other words listening in on the conversations of visitors to get some idea about whether they were safe to let into the house.
The walls between the timber frames of the house are made of ‘wattle & daub’. Wattle and daub is made by weaving twigs with wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. (source:Wikipedia) 
The inside of the house is mostly Victorian as the house was renovated and updated over the years. There was a banquet laid out in the dining room including some rather delicious looking desserts.
I was pleased to see fire hoses at the ready in case of fire.
In one room behind wooden panelling there was a ladder leading to a ‘priest hole’. A priest would have lived in the secret room at the time when it was against the law to follow the catholic religion. 
In the kitchen downstairs I was very tempted by a large salmon until I realised it was plastic!
Before leaving the house I decided to try on a few hats. I think this one makes me look very important and a bit silly at the same time.
I felt more at home in the cap, and the humans said I looked quite ‘dapper’ in it.
The mop cap clearly isn’t right for bears.
After leaving the house we went outside to explore the gardens.
Here I am at the back of the house.
Beyond the formal garden there are some woods including a willow sculpture which I explored.
I played a little tune using a giant glockenspiel, but could only reach the bottom three notes.
I should have wondered about the possibility of giants when I measured my height. The sign behind my head said ‘baby giant’.
I clambered around on some big tree trunks, one of which was inhabited by fairies (you may notice the door).
It was quite hard work for a small bear.
Just as well I found a chair to rest in, though the chair was exceptionally large.
The very large chair suddenly made sense when just around the corner a house came into sight. Someone was sound asleep inside, snoring very loudly. Someone with very big feet. A giant! I didn’t hang around for long in case he woke up, he may have been a ‘big friendly giant’ but I wasn’t taking any chances.
Giant feet need huge shoes!
Once out of the woods I explored the maze, keeping an eye on the woods in case the giant had woken up.
All the excitement made me quite hungry. Wet Nelly yum yum yum.
While the tomato sauce was simmering I chopped up all the other toppings.
Grated the cheese, taking care not to grate my paws.
By this time the simmering tomatoes were ready to be blended into a sauce. 
My human bought the pizza dough for me earlier in the day at a local baker’s shop. It smelt jolly good.
As I rolled out the dough it seemed almost as though it was alive as it kept springing into different shapes! I would have liked to pick it up and toss it about as I have seen happen in pizzerias but didn’t want to risk getting dough all stuck in my fur.
Before putting on the topping I carefully brushed olive oil all over the base. 
Next I covered the base with the various toppings.
At this point it things went a little bit wrong. I forgot to put flour on the board and struggled to lift the pizza. Sorted it in the end using the bottoms of three cake tins. My human put the pizza into the oven as I didn’t want to scorch my fur. The oven was on its highest setting (250c fan) with a special pizza stone in it onto which my pizza was placed. My human says we need a pizza peel to do this next time (a flat bit of metal with a handle)
I must say the final result was delicious.
After showing our National Trust cards I had a conversation with a resident horse.
People live in the Manor House so some of the gardens are ‘private’. They have one of the excellent topiary houses all to themselves.
From a distance I thought that there were some strange creatures in the meadow; however on getting closer discovered that they were piles of grass drying in the sunshine to make hay.
A dog lives in the garden though he didn’t say much.
The Manor House looks very pretty with roses growing against it. 
I had a look in the well but was very cautious not to get too close. I think it might be very deep and not a good place for bears.
Some people were picnicking next to this topiary house; we have cut them off the photo. Topiary houses are good places for bears and I think human children probably like them too.
It was quite warm during our visit so I thought about cooling my paws in the little stream, then remembered that getting soggy isn’t a good idea for stuffed bears like me.
There is a special little house for storing apples. I spent a few minutes in the rocking chair and had a good look around.
High up in the middle of the ceiling was a very big wasps nest. Fortunately the wasps had all moved out and it was empty. I don’t like wasps; I do however likes bees, as they make honey.
There were lots of very big vintage cars parked in the front court yard.
They were all Alvis cars; the Alvis owners club were having a picnic.
A few of the Alvis cars had ornaments on the bonnets. I really liked the rabbit and asked the humans if we could put one on our Skoda Fabia.
My favourite Alvis car was the TC100 Grey Lady. The owner very kindly let me sit in for a while. 
Any visit to a National Trust property would not be complete without a visit to the tea room for cake. Unfortunately the tea room at Chalfield had closed when we got there but tea and biscuits were still available self service. We put some money in the honesty box.
There were loads of packets of biscuits. I opted for the oat cookies.
Karen made some tea and I sat in the sunshine to eat my biscuits. They were nearly as good as cake.
We then set off along the path to explore the estate and the manor house. The house used to belong to Charles Wade, who started collecting things when he was seven years old. In 1951 Mr Wade gave the house and its contents to the National Trust. The first interesting item that I spotted was a windmill with lots of little wooden men that moved around as the sails turned.
The windmill is a replica of the original one which is kept inside to protect it from the weather. The windmill was on a tall post, not on top of my head as in this photo!
Further along I was delighted to find a special area for bears, though the humans said it was for children really.
I spent a while exploring; the humans couldn’t see where I was until I popped up over the fence.
I was very pleased to find a little bear shelter in the woods too.
In the orchard I climbed up into one of the trees to get a closer look at the shiny red apples.
After walking up through the cottage gardens I clambered up onto a wall to have a look at all the doves sat on top of the dove cote.
I forgot to ‘mind my head’ in a couple of places but as my head is quite soft luckily it didn’t hurt much.
There was a bear sized typewriter of the sort that would have been used during the first world war. I like being able to see the type hammers going up and down hitting the paper on old-fashioned typewriters. 
Here I am outside the main Manor House. Mr Wade didn’t live inside the Manor House, he had lived in a much smaller building in the garden called The Priest’s House. Over 400 years ago the house and gardens were part of an Abbey.
This is the bathroom in the Priest’s house. The bath looked very deep; Mr Wade must have been able to sit in it with the water right up to his neck.
In this photo Mr Wade’s box bed is just behind me. 
We went outside again and I had a little rest as my legs were starting to feel a bit tired.
The model village next the ‘harbour’ was full of tiny houses too small for bears. They were replicas as the ones that Mr Wade made are kept inside nowadays to stop them being damaged by the weather.
When we went into the manor house I found the original houses stored high up on some shelves.
There were several trunks inside the house with very complex locking mechanisms. This one is over 400 years old. I think it must have been very difficult to open without the key.
There weren’t any bears on display anywhere though I did find some other ancient animals and dolls locked up in a glass case. They all looked a bit worried.
Upstairs we found an amazing display of very old bicycles. I rather like this one, the seat looks just the right size for me. Unfortunately as everything is so very old I wasn’t able to try it out.
Here I am in front of a huge clock that was telling the wrong time!
I don’t know whether Mr Wade was able to play any musical instruments but he certainly collected many. 
I wondered whether all the buckets were there in case of fire or whether Mr Wade just liked buckets!
I tried to have a conversation with chap but I don’t think anyone was inside!
This is not a bear sized helmet!
After being inside the helmet I needed some fresh air so went outside to explore in the kitchen garden. The yellow courgettes were growing well.
There were some courgettes being sold on the produce table but my humans forgot to buy them; I think they got distracted by the lovely sweet peas in the bucket.
Sheep live in the field outside. They had all recently been shorn and so were looking quite thin.
I’m not sure what this plant is, but the bees certainly like it. 
Wandering back up to the entrance I managed to get caught up in a burdock plant. The humans managed to free me; then I carried a few seeds along with me a for while before brushing them off my fur. 
This was a good visit food wise. Before leaving it was necessary to have afternoon tea. Yum, yum, yum.
I then noticed a sign stating that we were at a site that had been used for testing rockets.
Here I am looking at the place where rockets were tested. Their engines were started up but they didn’t actually take off here, they were strapped into special gantries to keep them still. If everything worked the rockets were taken to Australia to be launched into space.
I spotted a couple of rabbits hopping about but they didn’t wave. I think they are quite cautious when it comes to bears.
The rockets gathered large amounts of information about space. A Black Arrow rocket launched the first British satellite. The satellite is no longer used but it still orbits around the earth twice a day.
Here I am sat on a life size scale model of the Prospero satellite.
In another room there was some equipment which was used for gathering information during the tests. I climbed up for a closer look but I didn’t touch!
Here I am in the control room. It isn’t actually the original equipment, but I think it looks quite impressive.
The Old Battery, which was built in 1861 by the Royal Engineers, and their site office was the first building constructed. 
Before going into The Cartridge Store I had to put on special clothing made of calico to ensure that I didn’t take any gunpowder out of the building.
I was very excited to find an entrance to a tunnel leading to an 1899 searchlight emplacement. Here I am running back to the humans to tell them about it!
I climbed down to the tunnel using a spiral staircase fitted by the National Trust; access used to be via a ladder.
The tunnel was very long and quite a walk for a small bear.
I was quite relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
There was an excellent view of The Needles from The Searchlight Emplacement. Fortunately I didn’t get my head stuck.
The tearoom is situated inside The Signal Station. The hot quiche lorraine warmed me up as a cold wind had blown up outside. 
I managed to persuade the humans to buy me some cake too 🙂
Yum yum yum……. tea soaked fruit cake
Here I am in front of The Signal Station in the sheltered pathway to the position finding cell.
There was a special instrument in the Position Finding Cell for gathering information about the whereabouts of ships and the direction in which they were travelling.
The weather was changing and I was quite worried that my fur could get a soaking so I had one last look at rather splendid Needles before we hurried off down the hill towards the car.
I stopped briefly to admire the coloured sands of Alum Bay, which is situated next to The Needles.
After showing National Trust membership cards to a man in a hut I bought a souvenir guidebook.
I had a good look at the top of the windmill, where there is a big wheel and a wooden screw called a ‘Worm Screw’. There used to be chains that hung down and the miller would have used the chains to turn the the top of the mill, known as ‘The Cap’ to face the wind.
I also had a good look at the four wooden frames (before posing for a photo by the door). The frames would have been covered in canvas sailcloth, and a small boy known as a ‘Nipper’ had the job of climbing out onto the frames to attach the cloth. I don’t think I would want to be a nipper.
Once inside the windmill I set about climbing up to the top. This took me quite a while.
At the top there was a trap door. I was a tad worried that it might suddenly open up so I decided not to walk over it. Sacks of grain used to be hoisted up through the trap door.
Grain would have been tipped out of the sacks into this huge wooden bin. The grain then traveled downwards through canvas chutes to the hopper above the mill stones on the floor below.
There was an enormous wooden wheel with an iron band around the outside; known as ‘The Great Brake Wheel’. The miller would have applied the brake by pulling on a rope (which was attached to a lever) which was passed down on the outside of the mill. The Great Brake Wheel was used to slow down or stop ‘The Wallower’ (the horizontal wheel) which drove the upright shaft. 
I carefully went back down the wooden ladder to ‘The Stone Floor’ where the millstones are housed. I got a bit distracted here as there were some windows, so I climbed up to have a closer look at the sail frames.
One of my humans took a photo of me from the outside!
The next floor down is ‘The Machine Floor’, with the huge upright shaft which takes power from ‘The Wallower’ at the top of the mill to the great spur wheel. Here I am sitting on the leather belting drive having a good look at everything.
Downstairs there are two millstones that make me look like I am even smaller than I am.
There were also some weights which were impossible for me to lift.
I climbed onto the scales but they didn’t even move. This must mean that I haven’t eaten too many cakes yet.
On the ground floor I was pleased to find some miller style clothing for people and bears to try on. I rather like the hat but I am not sure about the smock, it was a tad large.
Before leaving the mill I had a go at milling some grain using some small bear sized millstones.
After a few minutes of watching them they all suddenly got up..
…and ran out into the field.
Nye continued to smile – I don’t think he realised just how dirty the experience had left him. 
The humans decided that he would have to sit in the car on a plastic bag for the rest of the visit…
After lots of human hand-washing we continued to look round the farm. There were some very sweet lambs.
The chickens were all indoors (to reduce the risk of them catching bird flu).
This big brown goat was very friendly. Goats have a reputation for eating anything. I am glad that Nye didn’t fall in with the goats.
We went and had a look around the farm buildings. The open fire grills were all lit and very warming to my fur.
There was a sign telling people all about the grills.
I had a go at driving this rather splendid red tractor.
I could hear some ‘cheep cheep cheeping’ sounds while on the tractor. Further investigation found the source.
The farm has lots of dairy cows that were all out in the fields grazing while we were there. They make ice cream with the milk which is very yummy indeed.
I went for a little walk around the ponds. The ducks swam off as soon as they realised we didn’t have any food for them; before we had a chance to photograph them. 
We started to feel a bit sorry for little Nye left in the car on his own, so before we left we bought him an ice cream and took it to him.
As soon as we got home Nye was put in the washing machine in a special net bag on the ‘silk’ wash so as not to spin him about too much.
Unfortunately the mud was ingrained on Nye’s bottom and he was still dirty when the wash cycle ended. He needed to soak for a while.
Karen scrubbed his fur after soaking and popped him back into the washing machine again, this time on the ‘quick wash’ where he was spun around rather more. Some bears call the washing machine the ‘Bear Jacuzzi’.
The tide was out though so I climbed into the bear carrier for the trip as the surface looked a bit wet and I didn’t have any wellington boots with me.
When the tide is in people and bears can cross using this strange boat with wheels which is called an amphicraft.
The St Aubyn Family have lived on St Michael’s Mount since the 17th Century, though in 1954, the 3rd Baron St Levan gave most of St Michael’s Mount to the National Trust though they kept a 999 year lease (which is a very long time) to live in the castle and manage public viewing of the historic rooms (source Wikipedia). National Trust members and their bears can visit for free as long as they show their membership cards….
As we climbed up to the castle I stopped to have a little rest then Karen pointed out to me that I was right next to The Giant’s Well. I didn’t stay there long.
I climbed up into a little window in a wall that I thought might make a good place to hide from giants.
Further on I came across some battlements with a row of cannons. After clambering up onto one I could see a lovely view of the sea. 
Just in front of the castle I paused to take a ‘selfie’.
It was a long tiring trek to the front door. 
I was rather hesistant entering as just inside the door there was a bear much bigger than me with very big teeth. 
The views from inside are amazing. I was jolly pleased that my human had put her coat in the bear carrier which turned it into a pillow to stand on.
In one of the rooms I spotted a rather grumpy looking dog.
On the roof terrace there was a very old thermometer which was a tad confusing to read as it was in Farenheit instead of Centigrade. In between freezing and temperate seemed about right though!
I peered over to have a look at the sea which seemed to make the humans a bit nervous.
The gardens looked splendid.
Back inside I noticed that the Queen had visited recently. 
Being a bear I am sometimes able to go places where humans cannot. I had a peak up this very old staircase, but at the top there was a piece of glass and I couldn’t go any further.
They are well prepared for any fires that might break out. These buckets were full of sand.
On returning to the outside we came across more battlements and smaller cannons. In the past these would have been used to defend the island.
All the climbing and walking around made me very hungry. I was very pleased to find a cafe. The Sail Loft make very yummy celeriac soup.
