The Courts, garden at Holt

I almost forgot…between the Iford Manor visits, we took Mark’s mum and dad for breakfast at The Field Kitchen at Holt and a wander around the beautiful National Trust gardens at The Courts at Holt.

Yeo Valley Gardens

Mark had a day off yesterday so we revisited another favourite garden – Yeo Valley organic garden. Beautiful day, beautiful garden, delicious lunch. Happy people.

Home to Rio sleeping happily in the cool of the long grass.

Iford Manor, the Peto gardens

I have been to Iford Manor a couple of times recently – firstly with Mark and a week later with Trish. The wisteria is looking amazing!

And a week later…

I was so excited to meet the cats – despite numerous visits previously, I had only seen them on Instagram.

Bees in our garden

I just can’t stop taking photos of bees!

The last days of our holiday

Better late than never…the last few days of our holiday on Langland Bay near swansea, last month.

Aberglasney Gardens

For my birthday it was my choice of how to spend the day…I chose Aberglasney Gardens, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Despite the mist and drizzle, the gardens were beautiful – a mass of Spring flowers. The fritillaries in particular were amazing!

Mum managed really well with her new walker…

…even in the woodland gardens.

A robin sheltered from the rain with us.

…and bees were everywhere, despite the rain.

You can see the raindrops on the bee’s fur!

When we got back to Langlands Bay the sun was shining, so we could walk to the brasserie for a birthday dinner…very delicious!

 

 

 

Coast Path and Rhossili

We woke on Saturday to unexpected sunshine and made the most of it. Breakfast at the Langlands Brasserie, saw mum safely back to her armchair and then Mark and I set out towards Caswell Bay..

A little sit down to watch beach life…

A cup of tea and a Welsh cake. Did I mention that the owners of the flat provided milk and prosecco and truffles and freshly baked Welsh cakes??!! Then we drove to Rhossili. Mum preferred to wait in the car, admiring the view, and Mark and I walked towards Worm’s Head…amazed by the courageous sheep!

I fell in love with a trio of sheep dogs!

 

Langland Bay, Gower Peninsula, Wales

Once again Mark’s parents have brought their tortoise (and their own vacuum cleaner and gardening tools!) and are taking excellent care of the cats while they clean our house from top to toe, wash and iron anything they can get their hands on and tidy up the garden. Not only do we have a week’s holiday, but we will go home to a shiny, clean house and garden!

This time we have brought my 83 year old Mum with us and decided we should pick her up from Chepstow and keep on going. Mark found the most wonderful apartment – views on to Langland Bay and – on a clear day – to North Devon in the distance. We bought Mum a (bright red) walker, as she doesn’t find walking easy anymore and the flat, although on the second floor for the views, has a lift – so no stairs for mum to battle. It’s an easy walk from Langland Bay Manor to the promenade between the beach huts and the beach and Mum is doing brilliantly, walking along the front to the cafe once or twice a day.

This is the view from Mark’s and my bedroom window…sigh…

Mum found her spot in the living room for much of the week!

When we had unpacked, Mark and I went to explore, realised it was very mum-friendly and went to fetch her for a bit of a walk and an ice-cream…Marshfield Farm blackcurrants in clotted cream; my favourite.

A lovely place from which to watch the world and his dog go by…

Back to the apartment to be greeted by a friendly cat…purrrfect!

 

 

 

September in April: Sweden

I cannot believe I haven’t posted since July! We went to visit our very dear friends in Sweden 8 months ago and I haven’t posted anything else as I wanted to keep it chronological. We go away again soon, so I am going to cheat and post the Sweden photos and edit the narrative when we get back home. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy making up your own descriptions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home again, home again…jiggidy jog

I was awake early on our last morning and took photos of the bees in the Homestead garden.

We ended a wonderfully relaxing week as we started, with breakfast at the Courtyard cafe in Lyme Regis (remembering to ask for just one vegetable fritter and one egg each).

A wander through the town to pick up some presents – and say goodbye to the cats of Lyme.

A last walk along the sea front.

An easy drive home and our cats seemed pleased to see us – despite having been spoiled rotten by Mark’s parents while we were away.

I think perhaps Mark didn’t want any more photos taken…