Ancient Monuments

A week off, and a few days away enjoying some of Wales' ancient monuments courtesy of CADW and the National Trust.  Started with a visit to Tretower Court and Castle - the Court has some good interior reconstructions, and the Castle is an interesting small ruin.  Moved on from there to the extensive and much more impressive ruins of Raglan Castle, with its views over the surrounding countryside. 

Stayed in Tintern, so of course we visited Tintern Abbey.  Had a walk round Tintern itself (including the ruined and supposedly haunted St Mary's Church) and through the forestry at Symond's Yat Rock (where we just about spotted the nesting peregrines through our binoculars).

Also spent a day at a National Trust property Croome.


Interesting place, a mix of World War II exhibits, a historic house, and restored Capability Brown parkland.


As it was raining when we arrived started with the exhibition on the RAF base which used to be on the site, and the work they did to develop the early radar systems.

As the weather improved moved on to the landscaped grounds - the sun even shone briefly!

Finished with a tour of the house, which is still something of a work in progress, with rooms reflecting the changing ownership of the property (including one painted and decorated by the Hare Krishna movement, who were tenants in the early 1980s).

Finished with a trip to Chepstow Castle (which had the CADW dragons in residence), and Tredegar House.  Enjoyed a National Trust cream tea at the latter - although the local jackdaw population were keen to partake too:

There were also jackdaws at Tretower Castle, popping in and out of the walls, swallows in most places (here nesting in Raglan Castle) . . .


. . . and a baby coot keeping a low profile in Raglan's moat:

Weather could have been better on some days, but all in all a good birthday break - part of trying not to feel like too much of an ancient monument myself.

The wine helped!

Cat on a Hot Thatched Roof

Weekend with family, and a day out in Huntingdonshire.

First stop Hinchingbrooke Country Park, walking round the lakes - admiring the wild flowers, and the local wildlife . . .






We then moved on to Houghton Mill for a return visit . . .



. . . taking a walk out from there to Hemingford Abbots - a very pretty (and probably very expensive) village, with lots of thatched cottages, with their own brand of interesting wildlife!

The day was enlivened further when a badger ran across the road straight in front of us - not something you usually see in the heat of the day, although it soon disappeared under a garden hedge!

Didn't have time today for a longer walk, but there were other routes to follow, and a nice country pub for lunch - may well be back.

More Cake Please!

Long weekend ahead, and stopped for tea and cake in the sunshine  . . .

Unfortunately for the local sparrow population we'd eaten most of it . . .

Swallow Show

Think they were performing for the camera this afternoon!

Spring Sunshine

Celebrating a warm and sunny weekend and a garden full of Spring flowers - with the clematis looking particularly lovely.

Still got primroses and tulips too, and the cowslips are now out:






It's also been a productive weekend in the garden - cleaning down the greenhouses, weeding the fruit cage, trimming some of the wilder sections of hedge - but taking time to enjoy the sunshine too.

Boozy Blackcurrants

Finally got around to decanting the blackcurrant vodka which we 'laid down' before Christmas - which in addition to the vodka itself, left us with rather a lot of very boozy fruit.

An afternoon's baking later and we have a stock of blackcurrant deserts (crumbles and cakes) for the freezer - should keep us going for a while!

Up the Fruit Cage Path

For a while now I'd been pondering the path in the fruit cage which, made up of large stones and broken concrete tile, was not very stable underfoot.


So having spotted some stone chippings on offer in the local supermarket  ...

... and with thanks to Martin for hauling all the bags to the end of the garden ...

... we now have a very nice pebbly path, which is much safer for weeding and harvesting from.

It all looks much nicer as well.



(I suppose I'd better confess that this photo was taken a good bit after April 2017 - yes, I'm retrospectively blogging again!).