Tea mugs and Tree ferns - part two

Having left John Leach's pottery, we drove about a mile down the country lanes to Burrow Hill Cider Farmhouse. The county of Somerset is famous for its Cider (fermented Apple juice). For a number of years the apple orchards of Somerset had been run down, but in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in Cider making here with single variety ciders proving particularly popular (with me anyway) (-: There are many farms in Somerset selling 'scrumpy' (rough cider) which can be very rough indeed! This place we visited also makes Apple Brandy and if you click on the photo below to enlarge, the sign tells you a bit more about this.I liked the fact that there were sheep roaming freely through the apple orchards. I wonder if they're allowed there when the apples are falling? I don't know if sheep would eat apples? Do you know Roy?There was an opportunity to sample the wares, but being the driver, I didn't succumb! (-:I was tickled by this sign up above one of the doors there. I don't think I particularly fancy being pickled!!! (-:It was round about lunchtime by now so we moved on to this Smokery which had been recommended to us at the pottery as being somewhere quite different to eat. I love smoked food so was in my element here. This is Chris's lunch of smoked fillet of Trout.I decided to go for the smoked tenderloin of pork. YUM! As we usually do, we tried each others and I think I actually preferred Chris's trout, both were delicious though. We also had some great puddings, but I was so interested in eating mine that I forgot to take photos! (-:After our lunch Chris and I had a bit of a spend up in their shop. Not cheap, but nice for a treat! These were mainly smoked meats.And these some of the smoked fish available. They also had smoked cheeses. I was in heaven!Our last stop of the day was at a Garden Nursery. Eric wanted to buy a couple of house plants. This was a proper 'plantsmans' nursery with many unusual plants. I could have spent a fortune! You'd have loved it Evie, they had a great array of ferns!In the end Eric surprised us by buying us this beautiful Tree Fern (I saw these in the wild in the rainforests of Australia). At the moment this is gracing the edge of our pond where it looks right at home. Thanks dad in law!Oh....and as promised, I popped round to snatch a photo of the famous Tea Mug. It's already been put to good use! (-:Cheers Eric!