Churchill's Swans

Chrissy and I went to visit Chartwell which was Sir Winston Churchill's home in Kent, and is now a National Trust Property.  We spent a lovely few hours strolling through the grounds and saw lots of goslings on the banks of the lake which were sadly chased by a dog whose irresponsible owner had let it off it's lead!  Luckily all geese and goslings safely made it into the water - I've never seen them run so fast!  I shouted at the dog owner to come and get her dog and told her what it had done, she said she thought she was through the next gate where dogs are ok off their leads, she was totally oblivious as to what had just happened as the dog had run so fast, she was quite a distance away from it - totally unbelievable!

We went to visit the studio which housed all of Churchill's artwork and then the house which has the most amazing views across the countryside.  Then we went in search of the black swans which we'd seen mentioned - Churchill was given two black swans in 1927 and they have remained there ever since, not the same two of course lol!  Anyway, we found them and as we walked over to the lake they came to us.  They're such beautiful birds and not ones that you see very often, so this had to be my blip today.  My alternate choice was the heron which you can see in my extras.

We had lunch sat outside and by the time we got back to the car it was 3pm and although we'd planned to go to Emmett's Garden, another NT property which is just a mile away, we decided it was time to head home as it's a 1.5 hour journey.

Alan's been on a 'team build' day from work and they went to the escape rooms in Brighton.  He messaged me as I was almost home, to say that he was on the bus and did I fancy meeting him at White Cliffs Cafe for a drink.  I didn't take much persuading and after unloading my food shop, I headed down there.  I should have gone to Zumba but to be honest I'd already decided to give it a miss as it's been a long day and I was too tired.  We only had one drink, but it made a nice end to the day.