A sudden day out

The weather report said Monday was going to be a sunny day, so being retired and having done all our chores on Saturday and Sunday, and like Mr Mole in the Wind in the Willows we decided not to waste a lovely spring day and so on the spur of the moment we went out for the day.
Having an annual pass for Blenheim Palace, we headed off to Oxfordshire and the village of Woodstock.

Getting out of the car, the wind seemed a little fresher than we had expected, but it soon warmed up. The grounds of BP are so vast, in the years we have been visiting there, we have never done it all, so there is plenty of scope to find something new each visit.
The first stop was the cafe for some coffee.

We then strolled around the gardens.

 To get to the larger gardens, you have to go through the main building and then through this ornamental garden

You can then either go down by the lake or along past the South Lawn to the far side of the grounds.

One of the local residents

A spring idyll, sunshine, daffodils in the foreground and sheep grazing in the distance

The parkland has a large variety of different trees

The house viewed from the south

Not a well kept secret

After this walk, it was lunch time and we ate in the Water Terrace Cafe.  The meal was not exceptional but better than a motorway service stop.

After lunch, we then walked off in a different direction heading for the weir. 

On the way we passed all this blossom

Last time we were there, the weir was not running very fast owing to a lack of rain, but today it was trying hard to imitate Niagara. 

This year the weir was flowing well

Last year,

Walking back, we passed under this tree, which was literally buzzing with activity as several dozen bees were gathering pollen.

A bumblebee working hard

I am glad that I do not have to find my lunch in such an undignified manner.

The amusing thing about this posture is that they keep flapping their feet, even though they are in the air and so gives them no purchase.

After that, we were walked out and so around three, we started back for home.

On the  way, I was reminded that this is the time of year when you can see where the local houses dumped their garden waste when no one was looking. 

Feral daffodils

If you look at the ditch opposite a house in a country lane, you will often see daffodils growing there in the spring. Sometimes in the ditch or just on the edge of it.  When gardeners dig over a flower bed, it is not unusual to accidentally dig up a few bulbs that were planted there and disposing of the waste soil, they get disposed of too.  If the gardener decides to dump their rubbish in the nearby ditch, rather than find somewhere to dump in on his own land, a few months later up come the daffodils.  So you find these little clumps of daffs at intervals along country lanes opposite a lonely cottage or two.  Just occasionally you will find an isolated bunch where there is now no house.  This show where there was once a farm hand's cottage.   In the 60s, you would often see an old abandoned cottage which once housed a farm hand and his family, but since farms have become more and more mechanised, these workers were no longer needed.  In those days, people were moving away from the country and so a small isolated cottage with poor accommodation and maybe no bathroom, no mains water or gas, were not saleable. So they remained empty and fell into disrepair, to the point where it was more economical to pull them down and plough up the land they occupied rather than repair them.

Lastly, this sign has always made me wonder.  It is not the thing you expect to find in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, but it is a rather specialist zoo and does in fact hold a collection of crocodiles and related species from all over the world.

Spring, or is it?

This winter has been one of the warmest on record, but now it is officially spring the weather has become wintery and we are having frost and snow in some parts of Great Britain.

The earlier warm winter has confused the plants in the garden, with several kinds that usually turn up one after another are all in bloom at once. In fact, our daffodils which are usually around in March were in bloom with the snowdrops in February with the crocuses arriving after the daffodils, instead of before.

Only the Bluebells (top of the picture) have not yet come into flower, but they are well advanced and will not be far behind. 

It Must be Spring

We have just had a nice day out at Lacock Village and Lacock Abbey, both places that feature often as a backdrop for filming cinema and TV period dramas.

A street in Lacock village

Lacock Abbey

Although the daffodils are not yet all in bloom, and the snowdrops are just past their best, the whole place was covered in crocuses and the sunny day made it feel very spring like.

A mass of crocuses

Lacock Abbey was once the home of the Talbot family and Fox Talbot, the British inventor of the photographic process.  He was the first to use a negative.   It is one of the statetly homes of England and has many of the trappings of the luxurious life style of its past.  In order to prevent deer wandering into the formal grounds surrounding this kind of house, a kind of moat was used which became known as a Ha-Ha.  The idea was that your guests could see an uniterrupted view of the vast estate without being hindered by walls or fences.  It was invisible from the house and I have often wondered if any house guests ever fell in when slightly confused by the intake of strong drink.

A Ha Ha

Spring?

It looks like spring is on its way. It still is a way off but hints are appearing. Snowdrops are blooming and the birds are setting up home.

 
We had an old nest box which had great tits nesting for a couple of years, but we never saw any chicks. Eventually the box started to come apart, so I built a new one.

At first a blue tit investigated it coming back and forth for a while but stopped calling after a few days. Now a great tit has been flitting back and forth for more than a week.  He is alternately poking his head into the box or sitting nearby chirping loudly. No doubt he is telling the world that he has found a nice nest site and any suitable female bird would be welcome to come and share it with him.

So winter may be on its way out soon and more spring flowers will be showing themselves quite soon.

Spring is springing

It looks as if spring has arrived at last in England.

Because it has been a warmer winter than usual, some plants are well ahead of others and we have had snowdrops in different parts of the garden for over two months now. Likewise our daffs are coming and going at different times, instead of all together.

Elsewhere, the waters are receding, allowing those poor distraught victims of the flood to try to recover what they can from their ruined possessions. We live near the headwaters of the Thames and the water meadows have been flooded as usual, but for longer than usual and now the rain has slowed down a bit and allowed us to experience whole days of dry * weather, the grass is appearing again here and there. 
 *Dry is a relative value, some days it has only rained for a few minutes, or has missed us by a few miles.

The water meadows near Cricklade

So hopeful signs all around for an end to the wettest winter on record.  We have even had some sunshine and I snapped this picture to prove it.

Look, blue sky!

They are doing some building work in a small town we visit from time to time which is about thirty miles from us. If you look closely you will see a poor man trapped up the eighty foot ladder waiting for something to do. It must be quite peaceful and warm up there inside that greenhouse-like cab and he is obviously relaxed and settled in for a long wait.

Looking closely you can see his feet.