Lytes Carey

Patrick thought we should have a day out so we had to go to the bank and other places then on to Lytes Carey which is now owned by the National Trust.  It is very close but as usual you do not visit the places near to you.

A view of the front of the house it still has all the original furniture from the last owners so it feels like they have just gone out for the day.  It has its own chapel, and the history of the house had a lot of surprises.  We discovered that the last owner called Jenner was related to the the Jenners who have the store in Edinburgh, which I am sure Siew Gin, Alan and her parents must have visited.  We have also supplied hats and garments to Jenner's.

There are lots of gardens and an orchard, swimming pool, and a pond this is a view of the sunken garden.

Blaze Castle

We had a good time at Blaze castle the boys played on the swings and slides and Daniel had a great time in the sand, it also brought back happy memories of when Siew Gin, Tyler and Cody came over and enjoyed it here.

Daniel waiting for us to get our shoes on the mark on his chin is where he rode his scooter into a gate.

Daniel and Barry in the sand

Grandad and Jake playing with the frisbie

Come on Grandad I am waiting.

We also went round the house and it was very interesting made me feel old to see an old washing machine that I could remember from my childhood.  Then we went off for lunch.

Jake's Pictures

Jake had a great time in the butteryfly house and took some good pictures of them and of the months.

Butterfly having his lunch

Close up of the same butterfly

Another butterly they were some times very hard to spot.

Another buterfly

Almost ready to hatch

Moth Caterpillars having a feast

Jake just had to try and photograph him self.

Day at Bristol Zoo

I have't been to the Zoo for a few years and there are quite a lot of improvements and they now have some more play areas for the children.

Daniel soon got fed up with the animals and went off with daddy for an ice cream, then it was off to play on the toys this is a picture of him on the bus.

When Jake discovered that Daniel had been eating ice cream he had to have one as well, I do not think he could get much more on his spoon.

While Daniel and Sarah went off to the play park, Barry, Jake and I went on to look at more animals.

Jake could not resist going into the meerkat area and pretend to be a meerkat he wanted them to come and look in at him but unfortunately they didn't.

Picture of Jake and Daniel playing in the water they had just made a dam and were waiting for the water level to rise.

Daniel had a great time playing in this boat.

It was when I got home I realised I had not taken any picture of the animals.

Gorilla's in Bristol

There are about 60 gorilla's in and arround Bristol all painted with different designs, Jake and Daniel are trying to have their photo's taken with as many as possible this one was outside Bristol Zoo.

Pictures in Jake's Bedroom

These are pictures for Aunty Siew Gin.

Jake loves poster and he is always moving them round the globes on the top shelf are jigsaws made by him with a little help from Dad

A silly picture

Jake

Day Out with Daniel

Went up for a few days to visit Barry, Sarah and the grandchildren, on my first day Sarah decided to take Jake to the pictures so Barry and I took Daniel to the park.

We could not believe that Daniel wanted to go on the swing as he really dose not like them, I think it was because the baby was on there.

When we got fed up with the swings we went to the Mall and visited the toy shops then for a quick game at another play area before meeting up with Sarah and Jake for lunch. 

Sarah took Jake home while we finished our lunch then a quick trip to Toys R Us.

Garden Flowers

We have had a good year in the garden for flowers this year and we are very pleased with the hanging baskets.

Very pleased as we brought on all these plants ourselves.

Last year Daphne sent us these fushias and we managed to take cuttings and bring them on again we will try and save them again for next year because they are different types they come in to bloom at different times.

This rose only produced a couple of flowers last year so we decided it had to go well it must have heard us as this year it has gone made and even produced new shoots.

Patrick was so pleased with this display it is a pity I did not take the picture last week.

Produce from the garden

This year we have grown cucumbers for the first time this is our first straight one we have had a lot of bent ones they taste so much better than the supermarkets and after the first two we were making a profit.

 Now this is impressive our plums are almost as big as an apple and the taste is really great.

We have already picked so many that we have had to give them away you just cannot buy plums like these.

The original tree was planted at least fifty years ago in Patrick's grandfathers garden in Richmond Road Yeovil, he then gave a cutting to Partrick's father who also lived in Yeovil.  From there they gave some cuttings to his brother and sister who lived in Scotland.  As Patrick and I loved the plums Aunty Pat took some cuttings when we visited her and we managed to bring on two trees as the garden is too small for two trees we have passed on one to our friends Val and Graham.

Family Tree

I have gone back in the last month to tracing my family tree and Patricks it is very interesting now that there are more records on line.

I found the passenger lists of when I went to India, Hong Kong and Singapore it was very easy to do, and I have added this information to the family tree.

As my name was Buckland I have traced them back to 1825.

My mothers side was Carey and I have traced that back to 1816.

The Mills I have traced back to 1870.

Patricks side was Bagg traced back to 1855 and on his mothers side Templeman back to 1740.

The large person shown in the middle is Percy Buckland who was adopted by my
 great grandparents his original name was Kiddle.
My grandfather William Buckland is sitting on his right.

My father was quite young in this picture  and Fred Waghorn was his brother-in-law
married to his older sister Peg.

This is a picture of my dad and his two sisters
taken at the Bell Inn Southborough



Grandchildren

Cody having a go at painting.

Daniel at Yeovilton he enjoyed the visit.

Tyler trying out the hotel bed.

Jake showing off his new glasses that he had on Monday.

Westbury Court

While Barry and Sarah were on holiday Patrick an I stayed at their house for a couple of nights.  We could not go away on holiday as I had hospital appointments so we have been going out for day trips, as Patrick is working most Thursdays and Fridays so that we can go over to visit Alan and Siew Gin and the boys at half term.

On our first day we got up early and headed accross the bridge to Wales found a lovely little cafe and had a great english breakfast, the we quickly did a couple of geocaches as we haven't done any for a long time and it was a opportunity to see if we could do them with my new phone and it worked.

Then on to Westbury Court which is National Trust it is based on a dutch garden and has old fashioned vegetable and flower gardens it was really peaceful.

This part of the garden was laid out quite formally I much prefer the cottage garden effect.

This was in the walled garden and had some really old plants here hopping my garden looks more like this next year.

Patrick loves trees and this one was hundred of years old in fact you could get right inside it as the middle was quite hollow you can see how big the trunck is compared to Patrick.

We then headed for the Forest of Dean and had a lovely picnic, then on to a really great place for a cream tea, after a walk we called back for ice creams they were called welsh gold really big should have taken a photo.

The following day we spent a really good time with Sarah's mum and dad, had a great meal in an old Mill the history was really interesting, then Bryan took us to the canal and we enjoyed the walk and saw the road bridge open to let the boats through left camera in our car so no photo's.  Then back to Norah and Bryans for a cup of tea.  it was a very enjoyable day.