Happy Birthday Will

Today Stratford celebrated William Shakespeare's 449th birthday. His actual birthday is on Tuesday, 23rd, but the celebrations are always over a weekend.

Town was packed and the flagpoles in yesterday's picture were bedecked with flags. There was a parade of the good and the great and the dignitaries of the town this morning, which we missed as we had to take Dylan to the vets and then meet Emma for coffee.

As part of the birthday weekend residents were given free entry into all of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties. We have done all of them, some more than once or twice over the years, but as it was such a lovely warm day today we decided to wander down to Ann Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) Cottage in Shottery. The house is quite interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable, but the highlights of the property are the gardens which are extensive and very well kept with some very interesting installations including this huge wicker construct which is a favourite place for people to sit in and have their photo taken against the backdrop of the cottage.

As you can imagine I took lots of photos and almost gave you the same shot as yesterday but with flags a-fluttering, but it is getting late and I decided on the wicker basket, unusually for me, virtually unedited - I must be tired!