Stourhead revisited

We met Nanny Glynis and Uncle Brian for a visit to Stourhead gardens.  A lovely walk with two visits to the cafe!

Brian, Glynis and Nicky

Look; a rabbit!

Brother and sister, Brian and Glynis

Nicky, Oscar, Nanny and Brian

Julius, Oscar, Glynis and Brian

The Temple of Apollo

The ceiling inside the Temple of Apollo

The view across the lake from the bridge

Geese taking the amazing colourful flora for granted!

We're keeping him!

So we are keeping Toby, we are still undecided about his name so are sticking to Toby.  He's just had his vaccination and checkup and to make things official I've carved our contact details into his collar.

That's George's and my shadow by the way.

He's looking so much happier and healthier already, also George seems to really like the company; it's had a calming effect on him, although George keeps trying to fit Toby's head in his mouth to encourage him to play....

At least the blurry out of focus shot conveys the amount of movement with these two

Leaping George

Not much of a post, just really a picture of George.  I managed to get a shot of him bounding through the long grass on Barren Down (his favourite running spot).

When Toby Met George

Okay, so we've got a screw loose and have decided to get another dog.

We met Carol walking her dogs the other day and she asked if we'd be able to home a dog she knew of who's owners weren't able to look after it.  His name is Toby, also a lurcher, but a three year old greyhound X collie; a lovely friendly dog that got on splendidly with George.  We'll start a trial week from Sunday so see how we get on.

They were quite hard to separate and went off exploring together

Neither photograph well but, like George, Toby's very handsome

We're thinking of carrying on the renaming theme and calling him Edmund; he didn't seem to be interested in his own name.

Collett Park

One of the gems in Shepton Mallet is Collett Park.

It's a very pleasant park with; playing fields, duck pond and stream, large green with a bandstand, some outdoor gym equipment, an aviary and two playgrounds (one for toddlers and the other for older kids).  It's adjacent to some allotments, bowling green, tennis courts and some grazing sheep.

What makes it so notable for us is the early years playground as there is actually stuff that under twos, like Oscar, can go on.  The climbing frame is cleverly seperated by a horizontal ladder that little legs can't reach across so even this frame is broken into two age groups and means that, once old enough to get across, there's more to explore and should keep kids entertained for longer.

Oscar loves it and unlike most playgrounds he can do more than just sit on the swing or scream because steps are too big for him to get up the slide...

Grandma goes to Collett Day

Grandma Christelle came to visit this weekend. We picked her up from Castle Cary station on Friday afternoon while Oscar was at nursery and she went back by coach on Sunday morning.

Saturday was a busy day; first thing we took mum to Wells as she hadn't been there before and it is very close to our home in Shepton Mallet. It was market day so mum got a chance to see what Wells is like at such a busy time and we all enjoyed a nice sit down in the square with a cuppa.

After having a nice play around on the Cathedral Green we went to the Bishops Palace and walked around by the moat. Nicky took some lovely photos of the moat, we were really lucky with the weather.

Back in Shepton Mallet it was Collett Day which is like a large village fete held outdoors in Collett Park. George did his usual pulling me in every direction when there's a lot going on so after an hour of helping out on Oscar's nursery's fundraising stand Nicky took him and we stayed there a little longer and had a bite to eat. It was a real mix there; along with the expected cake and plant stands there were an odd display of stationary engines, classic cars and, of course, morris dancers.

After a glorious day the weather turned at about 5pm; just in time for me to take George for his regular walk up to Barren Down via the orchard and cider factories; it really tipped down but we were well prepared and waterproofed up. Mum and Nicky stayed at home and Mum put her feet up while Nicky started on dinner. I've not recorded the track before so here it is on Google Maps;. Itturned out to be 2 miles in total which is probably why I get so tired with Oscar in the back pack...

Maesbury Castle

Maesbury Castle is an iron age hill fort about 3 miles from our home in Shepton. When Nicky finished work we all set off and parked nearby and walked about one and a half miles to the site.

The surrounding fields are very pleasant traditional hay meadows. The grasses were very varied and had some beautiful flowers. We were pleasantly surprised to find a collection of Common Spotted Orchids, less impressive but very pretty was the Hedge Woundwort.

Traditional Hay Meadow

Common Spotted Orchid

Hedge Woundwort

Grasshopper

Just before the site was a very old Beech and Hawthorn hedge which had beautiful exposed gnarly roots.

Gnarly roots

Hawthorn

Hawthorn and Beech Hedge

On the fort the views were breathtaking. I'm looking forward to going back with binoculars and, one day, a proper camera.

Bristol Channel

Westbury

Glastonbury

George just loved running in the long grass, we filmed a short video of him running around in circles. Of course Oscar had a great time in the back pack carrier and mooing at cows.

I recorded a track of our walk on my phone using My Tracks which you can check out here!

Won't give up...

This poor courgette plant has been through the wars but refuses to die.  It's been trampled on by George, dug up by cats and pulled out by Oscar. In a rather desperate act to cling on to life it is the first to flower out of all our cucurbits (I bet I haven't spelt that properly...)!

The Royal Bath and West Show 2011

As we live in Shepton Mallet it would be crazy not to go to the Bath and West Show every year. It was a really good show with lots of variety of things to see and do.

Nanna and Granddad also went to the show today with Mitch so we met up for a bit. Days like these make me really appreciate how wonderful it is living where we do.

George found it all rather exciting but, after pulling me around for an hour or so, he calmed down and seemed to have a lovely time. He met lots of other dogs, including some from the Greyhound Rescue stand. He really wanted to say hello to the heavy horses but we didn't think the horses would have liked it so much.

Oscar had a super time, he really enjoyed all the animals but best of all the tractors and steam engines.

The photo's I've uploaded are:

• Hunters and their dogs in the main ring
  
• Granddad, Nanna, Oscar and Nicola enjoying the show
  
• The police horse and dogs put on a super demo
  
• A collection of Steam engines that Oscar loved
  
• Nicky with George found lovely carriage that was used in the heavy horse event
  
• One of Oscar's favourite goats with comedy ears
  
• Fancy horse and carts
  
• Morris dancing, it wouldn't be a country show without!
  
• Yes, live cow milking!