Kew Gardens

Last Tuesday I met my friend in London and we went to Kew Gardens. It was lovely to meet up with my friend again, we try to meet at least once a year. We walked and talked, it's always nice to find out what she has been up to. We took lunch with us and sat in the sun to eat, it was quite warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. I took lots of photos, here are the best ones.

Cow Parsley

Bluebells

Snakeshead Fritillary

Summer Snowflake

Magnolia

Reflections on the water

I hope you enjoyed sharing this trip with me, well done if you made to the end!

Glorious Sunday!

What beautiful weather we had in the South today! The warmest day of the year so far, I think we got to 18°c. It was so nice to feel the warm sun on my skin (I was in short sleeves!) and to have the windows open so a breeze flowed through the house. I did three loads of washing and got it all dried on the line too.

I spent about an hour and a half in the garden planting and just watching the wildlife enjoying the weather too. I planted my mini daffodils and some snowdrops in the rockery, to hopefully enjoy next year.

All of the time I was outside there was a Comma butterfly flitting to and from the heather. I took eight photos but only a couple were any good!

Comma butterfly

This could be a dead leaf in the heather!

There were a couple of bees too, a Red-tailed bumblebee and one with a white bottom. I also saw a yellow coloured butterfly and two butterflies dancing around together but I couldn't see what they were. 

Red bottom!

I spent 10 minutes standing still, by the washing line pole, waiting for a robin to feel brave enough to come to the feeders so I could get a photo. The robin teased me, flying from the tree, to the fence, onto the grass but never to the feeders. Just standing, listening I heard the sound of people chattering, a lawn mower starting up, a motorbike whizzing up the hill, a car alarm going off all sounds I wouldn't necessarily have acknowledged if I hadn't been still. Sometimes our lives are so busy and on the go, we forget to stop and listen and take things in. 

A few more photos from the garden today. Blossom in my neighbour's garden.

Daffodil buds.

A lone seven spot ladybird.

My washing blowing in the wind.

Spring is on the way and I can't wait! I hope you've all had a glorious Sunday too!

The Royal Standard of England

I met up with an old work friend yesterday and we went to The Royal Standard of England, the oldest freehouse in England.

We went for lunch but didn't even think about booking a table, there was a large party and all of the other tables were reserved. Fortunately, some tables were free until 2pm and we got there just before 1pm. The large party were all dressed in medieval clothes, it was quite a sight! We ordered quickly before the large group and sat at table 13, we were a bit worried because my friend and I are both slow eaters! I had the steak and kidney suet pudding and my friend had the cottage pie, the food was lovely it was fairly expensive but worth it. We didn't have the time or room for pudding! 

A couple shared our table and I thought I recognised the lady and I was right - I looked after her son at a nursery about six years ago.

I took a few photos of the inside of the pub but only on my phone so they didn't come out very well. It was really nice but quite dark and cramped inside, they had a couple of fires going, the atmosphere was nice and the staff were really friendly.

2pm came round quickly but we had both finished our meals so we finished our drinks at the bar then went to sit outside at this tree table.

We sat for a while then we went for a walk. They had a map on the website of two walks nearby but the map wasn't very clear and we couldn't work out where it started! My friend thought we should go along the track in front of the pub and she was right as it led to, what we thought was, the first turning. When we got back we realised the first turning was actually right by the pub and we had missed it as it is quite overgrown.

We ended up doing the longer walk, which was nice although a bit muddy in places. We walked through the Wildflower Meadow, there wasn't much colour but we did see lots of, what looked like, chrysalis' on certain stems. I couldn't get my phone to focus but we think they were Burnet Moth chrysalis'.

This is one that was open so I brought it home. The brown bit was inside the silky, papery part. There were quite a few the same but also a lot more that weren't open.

This was a field further along, we could see three tractors in the distance.

One tractor was cutting the grass, one was putting it into bales and the third one (below) was picking up the bale then it spun wrapping around it and dropped it off the other side. We thought this was really clever!

Some horses, the one with a cover on kept nodding at us!

Now we were on the way back towards the pub. We passed some lovely houses behind where we stood here.

We walked quite slowly and it took us about two hours but we think we did an extra bit that isn't on the map!

I really enjoyed seeing my friend as I hadn't seen her since last summer and it was a great day but I did feel completely shattered when I got home.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend too!