The Week-End Part Two

Well, what do you make of this little fella? I had one of these when I was a child but the dog was brown and white. I have been looking to get one for about two years or so. Most of the ones I've seen have been in a bit of a battered condition so when I saw this one on the Louise Loves web site he had to be mine!

He arrived on Friday morning and went immediately into the car to go to his new home in Devon!

He has settled down well! I photographed him on the landing as the light was a bit naff in the bedroom where he now has pride of place!

As mentioned in my last post on Friday after picking Our Daughter up from school we headed down to Devon. On Sunday we set off for one of my favourite destinations - Forde Abbey.

There was a large group of these alluims and they were a magnet for the bees. I do like bees, with their chunky striped bodies and their delicate wings.

Forde Abbey in all its glory! At this time of year the restaurant / cafe is open too and the food is delicious.

When you're only away for the weekend you don't want to be a slave to the kitchen especially when it is hot and sunny. We had a wonderful lunch at the cafe before making our way around the glorious gardens.

This place is amazing. I like the reflection in the long pond's water.

Here it is again!

The dog came too and even looked at the camera! Maybe he's getting the hang of it - "When she calls my name and has that black box pointing at me maybe I should look at where her face should be!"

Our Daughter - clearly in need of a hair cut! We had one booked last week but it had to be cancelled at short notice due to work commitments! She's beginning to resemble the really long haired relative who used to live in the chimney, whose name now escapes me, from the Adams Family. Just remembered the long haired relative was called "Cousin It". Do you remember them on the TV many years ago. The song at the start of the half hour show went something like:-

"They're creepy and they're spooky,

Mysterious and wooky

They're altogether cooky

The Adams Family!"

I used to like Uncle Fester who used to walk around the house with lightbulbs in his mouth and the children Wednesday and Pugsley. Also, the wonderful butler, Lurch who answered the door and used to say in a loud booming voice "You rang!" before taking the guests hats and coats. And what about "Thing" who was really just a hand in a box but used to deliver letters etc.

It was made into a film some years ago now but I remember the black and white version that used to be aired on Sunday mornings.

They certainly don't make TV programmes like that anymore.

In one of the fields was this piebald horse who came up to say "Hello!" He then followed us as we carried on walking around the field. He was very entertaining and so lovely that I took some more photos to remind us later of how friendly he was!

Here he is striking a pose!

And again! He reminded me of Cowboys and Indians and "Bonanza". I used to love that programme too as a child. I remember guzzling down my tea / dinner as it used to be on at about 6.30 p.m. I think it was on a Tuesday. It was certainly on a weekday and not the weekend. Funny the trivial little things in life that you recall. I used to love watching Westerns as well. I had a thing about horses especially piebalds and used to always feel sorry for the poor Indians who always seemed to be getting a hard time from the cowboys.

When I was in the infants school (age 5 - 7 years) in the late 1960's / 1970's hairbands were very much in fashion and we girls used to collect birds feathers and turn our hairbands into Indian bands by wearing them across our foreheads. We would play Cowboys and Indians. The boys were always the Cowboys and the girls were always the Indians! I'm sure a psychologist could read a lot into that! I used to love collecting sticks which had fallen off the nearby trees to make a pretend camp fire - little pleasures!

The same trees bore pine cones and we would collect them for our art projects - turning them into Christmas trees by painting them green or by putting glitter on them to resemble snow. They would then be attached to a Dairylea cheese box which had been glued together and painted and glittered. Little boxes would be made to put around the base of the tree as would be presents and these delightful, wobbly objects would be given to our parents as a gift at Christmas!

There seems to be a lot of reminiscing in this post!

There were many of these lovely yellow flowers on display at Forde Abbey as well. I don't know their name but they look like overgrown buttercups!

I still have some more to show you from Forde Abbey but will do that later in the week - we saw some goslings and ducklings too! How fantastic was that! I do love Forde Abbey!

All too soon it was time to go home.

Until next time.

June.