Wightwick Manor

We also spent the day at Wighwick in the gardens. I love the house there but it was shut so we wondered around the gardens and had a picnic. Picnics seem to be the key to this summer.

The kitchen garden is great there. I would love to be able to grow veg like that. And they had seem lovely photos. I got some good bug and flower shots. (Dad got me flash gun and is going to teach me macro-photography. So I am practicing.)

Bee butt. 

Kyoto Gardens

A few photos from a sick trip to Kyoto Gardens in Holland Park. 

Bridgnorth and camera trip

On Saturday we took a walk out to get some air and I treated mom and Dad to a breakfast in Bridgnorth. Thankfully we took the vertical railway up the hill (and walked down).

Enjoying the railway 

View over Bridgnorth and the river

Long way up.

We had a nice breakfast at a very little cafe which also sold lots of craft things.

Breakfast

 And after looking around a few shops and getting some things for New Year Eve, walked down the the lower Town.

View on the way down.

Today after being up early for a Skype call with a collaborator who never showed (on a Sunday morning as well - sometimes I really don't like my job!), Dad and I went for a walk to St.Mary's Church to play with our cameras. It was a little bit cold!

Frost 

Ice.

St. Marys Church is a lovely little church which has graves over 200+ years old in the graveyard, though I think the church is older.

Shadow on the doorway

St. Marys

 I spent some time getting used to my new lens which has a nice depth of focus (so I can select limited things to be in focus - it's great for portraits).

Ivy 

More ivy 

And some leaves for a change

Frost

There are a number of very old headstones in the graveyard.

Tilting

1823

(Unintentional) moss art

After the church, we walked down to King Georges Park. I used to go there a lot when I was younger riding my bike and scrambling in the woods. Now they have put up fences everywhere. Still we took some more photos, chatted to a lovely little lady and I managed to get jumped on by a muddy dog. :-/ 

Willow

Setting sun

 We spent some time just photographing ducks and seagulls. There were a lot of them!

Looking for dinner.

 Dad was very jealous of my seagulls shot.

"Ducks" in a row

Staring contest

 Dad was just changing his lens to get a photo of the seagulls on the fence when a gaggle of geese noisily made their entrance and scared all the other birds of temporally. He was not impressed.

The geese have arrived

Once the sun set, it got really cold so we headed back where mom had us tea and coffee ready! :-) 

More vineyards

On Sunday morning, the last day of my long weekend away, I got up late and went out for a big breakfast. Not quite an English breakfast but still. (I ended up at Cracker Barrel which is ok though I much prefer iHop.) The plan was to head home via some wineries. I am trying to get to as many of the local wineries/vineyards as possible. But I was a little early. I ended up sitting in a car park for 45mins watching my kindle as they didn't open until noon.

The first was Cave Ridge. It was really pretty and the people were lovely. I ended up coming away with 2 bottles, a voigner (white) and a port like desert wine which was really tasty.  Some of the others were nice but not worth the price they were asking. It would be nice to sit and have lunch there with some of their wines.

Courtyard

View for drinking.

On the way to the second vineyard, I stopped a lavender farm to get some fresh lavender for my bedroom. They also had a little farm with rabbits to play with and other animals to feed. I couldn't resist!

Bunnies fighting for lettuce

Having a sneeze.

Slightly freaking looking goat

Pony

Ducks

Turkey!

The air smelt amazing and so relaxing. I spent some time wondering around the gardens

Lavender

Bottle tree

Flower

I did have to do a double take and slightly backed off when I saw this guy. Way too big for my liking.

Spider!

The duck pond was also really pretty and the sun was out. Though the water was a very unnatural blue.

Duck pond

Boy and his firefly jar.

The second vineyard was Crosskeys.  The wines were ok but like with most VA wineries they are really overpriced. The only one I did buy was another port style red dessert wine which was really good. I didn't like this place as much as the last one as the service just was not half as good. The place was beautiful but they people were more stuck up.

Cross Keys vineyard

I ended up getting something to eat and chilling to make sure I was ok to drive home. They had some live music and, though, not much choice in food for me, the salad was very tasty.

Live music

Ice tea and salad

I ended up going down the i-81 to get home instead of the back road as it would have just taken too long. I still hate the i-81. More people try to kill me on that road than another. Most should not have licenses! But I got home safe and it was a great weekend. Possibly the last weekend away for a while. But I still have the hot air balloon voucher so need to rebook that. So maybe....