Five Go To Forde Abbey!

HELLO there! A warm HELLO and WELCOME to my new followers too! Thankyou for your lovely comments on my last post! From a few of the comments that have been left I 've realized that there is a problem with my posts not being updated on the blogs that follow me! In fact it seems that Blogger is indicating that I last posted a year ago! I have tried pressing various buttons to see if there is anything that I can do to rectify this but cannot see a way out of it! If someone out there in blogland is aware of this problem and more in particular knows how to resolve it could you please let me into the secret!

Now that that problem is off my chest a post about what we were up to on Friday the week before last. We headed down for the first time since the end of January onto the A303 - destination DEVON!

One of our favourite haunts is Forde Abbey just over the border from Devon in Somerset.

I had missed going to Forde and seeing how the gardens change month by month. I would in particular have liked to have seen the crocuses in February and the daffodils in March. Alas it was not to be!

Anyhow I said a few posts ago that I wasn't going to mention my health and so I won't! It's time to feast your eyes on the splendours of what we saw at Forde Abbey! I was determined to try and get a good photo of a bee! I hovered with my camera in my hand over this bush for about five minutes. I'm sure that bees have an inbuilt mechanism which warns them when mad women with cameras are approaching so that they can play a game of tag - "You can't take a photograph of me! I'm too fast for you, you see!"

This one hovered a tad too long and I got him!

 KP poses in the bog garden!

Gorgeous pansies!

The great thing about Forde Abbey is that the dogs can come with us too! Here is George - refusing to look at the camera with KP in the wild flower meadow!

Forde Abbey!

Some more wild flowers - pink campion! I used to love these as a kid and remember picking them to give to my grandmother to place in a jam jar with water.

Fabulous irises!

Across the lake we could see swans with their cygnets. We had brought some stale bread with us and we didn't have long to wait until they swam over!

The swans stayed with us for some time!

The parents were very protective of their brood and made sure that the ducks didn't get anywhere remotely near the bread!

KP managed to find a tree to climb!

We saw some amazing flowers!

I particularly liked the colours on these Himalayan Poppy flowers!

The long pond!

Another photo of the long pond!

I love foxgloves despite the fact that they are poisonous! They are so tall and graceful adorning our hedgerows throughout the Summer months.

The water lilies were yet to open but when they do I'm sure they will make a fabulous backdrop to the Abbey!

One of the many benches dotted around so that you can sit, relax and take in the surrounding beauty!

A photo taken by KP who asked if she could borrow the camera to take a photo!

We spotted a dragonfly!

We got talking to a lady who owned this dog and some spaniels. We had never come across this breed before - it's apparently a munsterhound! I love the leg markings and what a fab tail! We all decided that our next dog would be one of these!

The horses in the field came towards us and KP gave them some long grass to eat!

The horses were greedy and grateful!

And posed nicely for this shot!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and head for our base in Devon.

We were away for the entire week and there is plenty to show you!

Hope that you have all had an enjoyable weekend!

Until next time,

June.