Too Cute!

I went to the Arlington Bluebell Walk today with Chrissy. I hadn't purposefully planned two trips to see bluebells on consecutive days, but hey it's bluebell season, so why not?  

The weather turned out a lot better than it was forecast to be and there was intermittent sunshine, and whilst yesterday's bluebells were lovely, they weren't a patch on today's!  The Arlington Bluebell Walk is through Beatons Wood which belongs to Bates Green Farm, and the annual trail was opened in 1972 when they opened for a single weekend for parents and friends of the local primary school, who were trying to raise money for a swimming pool.  It was so popular that since then they open every year during the bluebell season and charge an entry fee which goes to charity.  There are different walks through the woods and farmland, mobility scooters are available to hire for those less mobile and there's one walk that's suitable for the scooters.  

Chrissy and I did the various different walks  and came across a family of Mallard ducks at one of the lakes - they had at least 13 ducklings and one guy counted 15!  They were so adorable and mummy duck brought her babies out of the lake and we laughed as we watched them running around.  We crouched down to take photos and this little one didn't seem too concerned about me being there and came running right towards me, it was so close I could have touched it, but I sat very still and let it run past as I didn't want to scare it.  As much as I loved the bluebells, I think this was the highlight of the day!

After our walk we sat outside in the sunshine and had some lunch from the little farm cafe. The tables were in a very sheltered spot so it was lovely and warm, and after we’d finished we just sat chatting. We arrived at about 10.30am we didn't leave until after 3pm, so it’s been a lovely relaxed day.

Not long after we got home we had our delivery of slate - 50 bags weighing 20kgs each!  I asked the guy to put the pallet at the top of the drive, next to the area we were going to fill, and once Alan finished work, he set to, putting the new weed stop down and then distributing the individual bags over it. I'd made a curry, so we ate that and then we went back out to finish it off before it got too late. Alan cut the bags and tipped it out and then we spread it around - much easier than having one very big bag delivered, and it was finally finished about 9pm just as it was going dark.

Josh has almost finished rendering our terrace wall, he's just got the garden side to do and he's coming back on Monday afternoon to do that - it's looking great!

Today has also been very interesting as we've been helping Charlotte try to get to the bottom of the story behind the Chinese silk print she found whilst clearing out her parents' property.  She sent us some photos so that Alan could sent them to one of his Chinese colleagues in Arizona, and I also sent them to my Malaysian friend Tannie, whose husband Keith is Hong Kong Chinese.  A lot of interesting information has been learnt and messages have been coming and going all day, it's wonderful to be part of the ongoing investigations!

Anyway, it's the weekend, hope you have a good one!