Last week featured Apple Day, a celebration of all things apple (just to clarify we are talking about the crunchy variety not the tech giant), so yesterday we decided to venture to Glastonbury and participate in the National Trust’s Apple Picking Event at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. It appears though that we were a little late for it as by the time we arrived the promised apple activities (apple pressing, apple art etc) were nowhere to be seen.

On the way to the Tor we pass across the entrance to Chilkwell Street which is home to the infamous Chalice Well, source of as many legends as it is glasses of water. The Chalice Well has rumoured healing red waters which are linked to the crucifixion of Christ(!) and is one of the top tourist destinations in Glastonbury. Just across the road from the Chalice Well is The White Spring. The White Spring is also rumoured to possess healing properties but is very much the poor sister to The Chalice Well and doesn’t seem to be held in quite the same regard from the local druids and white witches. I, perhaps sceptically, think that this is just the consequence of clever marketing on the part of The Chalice Well owners but…

Anyway, returning from our apple picking adventures the children were intrigued to find out what the grotto, as Steve described it, was all about. I fear that they may have imagined it to be a year round Santa’s Grotto. When we stepped into the vaulted Victorian Well House to be greeted with a ‘candle-lit inner place of sanctuary’ featuring sacred, healing pools, seasonal altars and shrines to Brigid (Celtic Fire Goddess), Our Lady of Avalon and the King of the World of Faerie, you could forgive them for feeling a little off kilter. When you throw into the mix a couple of adult bathers entering the healing pools in nothing but their birthday suits, well, then I hope you can understand T’s clenching of the hand and J’s stage whispered query “do you think we should call the police?” as he backed out the way we had come.

I fear that our apple picking trip shall be remembered by the children for more than J’s “skilled up tree climbing” and T’s rather precise stick prodding!

We managed to walk away from the non-existent apple picking event with a massive bag of apples as so as we got back home we enjoyed a rather delicious roast beef followed by a scrumptious apple crumble with homemade (yes, I know) vanilla ice cream. Yum. Happy (Belated) Apple Day – and if you have ideas for what I can do with the remaining apple stash please let me know…