Summer's final fling

... not as in caber tossing, or affairs of the vital organs, but of woodpecker's summer holidays! I didn't have to go to INSET training at school today, as I have a part time contract and will do just part of the training tomorrow.

So I chose Lacock Abbey, a place that was nearby; open on Monday; part of the National Trust (because we recently joined); and near other blippers. And obviously I ordered some good weather too!

Cowgirl couldn't join us after all, but we wish her well in Israel. Lozarithm was there in his blipfoto teeshirt, and was our very excellent guide for the day. We toured the gardens and parkland, both formal and informal; plus the Abbey cloisters and the rooms upstairs; the second hand bookshop in the courtyard; the village with its olde worlde pubs, shops and houses. I was a bit surprised to discover that Pride and Prejudice had been filmed there, as we'd been listening to the BBC version with Juliet Stephenson on the way down! Mr Darcy wasn't there, but will be this Saturday or Sunday, dammit! I don't suppose it'll be Colin Firth or, er, the other one.

Hard to say what I liked best. Just being there and finding out that there was so much to explore. Being with blippers. Feeling the sun warming my skin. Finding a kitten in an orchard...

The Inn/restaurant was on my 'must visit' list, too, because I wrote a poem for the Brunel 2oo celebrations in 2006 that mentioned the Engineer's (restored) bed that now rests upstairs in this inn! It is 7ft square apparently, though Brunel was a short man and only wore the stovepipe hat to make him look taller. As others before me have done, I asked to see the bed, to pay homage, but sadly the room had been let and was occupied. So I will have to go back, which is no problem at all as I enjoyed an excellent dressed crab salad and superlative service At the Sign of the Angel..

Now I'm at home on the sofa with Bomble, watching Doc Martin finally getting married and getting ever so slightly weepy. End of holidays, all right!

PS Sorry if you looked before. I changed one collage for another. I wanted more blue sky.