SOMERSET, IN THE DEEP west of England, is the highway to the great beaches of Devon and Cornwall that lie beyond. It’s not often a place that people think to stop in, but on a perfect summer day there, it’s hard to understand why. Huge, richly green hills are cut by narrow, winding lanes lined with unkempt hedges of beech and bramble. The verges, unruly with purple knapweed and pink campion, allow only sporadic peeks into the fields beyond: a herd of black and white Friesians chewing the cud here; a corduroy hill of newly mown hay there.
In the gardens of small, higgledy-piggledy stone villages, late roses hang on to their yellow petals in the warm summer sun, deep purple buddleia attract pale butterflies, and in every backyard, without fail, there is an apple tree. Next to many of them, a Union Jack flutters in the light breeze.
GROWING PAINS: Polish workers thin the fruit in a British orchard—a sight that might be under threat.
JOE GIDDENS/PA/AP