Jephson Garden

I had a little time to spare in Leamington today and so wandered through the park.  Last time I took photos there, at the end of last summer,  the flowerbeds were being emptied of plants.  Now they are very colorful again, especially the wallflowers..

In some beds the tulips had been under planted with wallflowers, in others there was a base layer of pansies and violas..

These particular tulips, in a newly laid out area of the gardens, looked very effective..

In other corners of the gardens..

..tiny conifer flowers..

..a patch of allium in a wonderful deep purple, but only a couple starting to come out as yet..

..wisteria on the garden pavilion..

..a solidly planted clump of teasels.. Perhaps for the birds?

.. very pretty and unusual violas.

Grey Friday in Warwick

Today was rather a grey, and eventually rainy day.  We were in town to do a little shopping and for Lauren to get her hair done.  I took the opportunity to visit a few charity shops and wander around a few antique centres, taking a few photos along the way.

Warwick is so full of wonderful historic buildings that there is much to see.  The above 18th Century Court House is an important building but a relatively 'modern' one by comparison with some in the city.

This is the carved wooden portico and oak front door of a Tudor house in the road leading to the old East Gate.   It is by the edge of a busy road and traffic lights and easy to overlook.   You can see this house looking back through the arch where the road out of Warwick originally passed through the gate.

It would be somewhat inadequate for modern traffic in and out of the city.

Somehow I managed to catch a gap in the traffic which is normally pretty busy here.

Almost the only splash of colour near the gate today was this wonderful Victorian post box.  An adjacent plaque advises that this is one of a pair of pillar boxes modeled as Doric columns which were cast by a local company in Birmingham in 1856.  There is one by the East Gate and one at the West Gate of the city.

Polling Day - Thursday 7 May

A rather wet and stormy day today - but between the showers we set off for a walk to the polling station so that Lauren could cast her vote.

As for me, no vote today, so I waited outside and amused myself taking pictures of a scented lilac bush which, though saturated, looked lovely in full flower.

Voting done we walked on to the local shops and at the new Barbers Shop we identified a future possibility for a bargain cut for James and his 'lad'.

Knit one... (Wednesday 6 May)

It is a long time since I have done any knitting but I decided to give it a try with a pattern for a cardigan provided by Mum and some denim blue wool from the Guildhall Market in Bath.

I had hoped to get this finished to bring back to Leamington but didn't quite manage it.  However, thanks to Mum knitting the button band for me there are just a few seams to stitch now and I have turned my attention to a matching hat.  It is intended to be 3-6 months size but does seem quite generous!

Lauren showed me everything in the nursery today, it is all ready..

Shows of Strength

There were some majestic beasts at the Show yesterday ..

We kept our distance as they moved around.

In one of the rings we watched two shire horses being paraded for the judges. This horse was just four years old and seemed to enjoy being shown off.

This one was older and huge - very strong and a little less compliant..

There was a show of human strength in the tug of war competition.

On Show

A fine May Bank Holiday Monday and the day of the North Somerset Show, which Maggie and Brian kindly invited me to.  These llama were not the animals that I expected to see but they were handsome creatures.

A little further on and the young rare breed pigs were being put through their paces for the judge (the beautifully turned out lady in the foreground!).

The larger pigs were sleeping the day away in the sunshine.

A little further and there were many different varieties of sheep to admire.

They were also being put through their paces and judged.

So many pictures!  I will save some for tomorrow..

Sunday at the farm

Today we went to Maggie and Brian's for a lovely lunch.

Afterwards it would have been tempting to have a sleep like Tiggy, but instead we dodged the showers and went for a little walk around the farm.

We saw the calves who apparently enjoy the occasional potato..

Tiggy looked on..

We also saw a late but newborn lamb ..

..and another who needed to be hand fed..

And then time to go in for a Cornish cream tea!

All in all, a very good day!