Sunshine!

We woke once again to sunshine and went for another early morning walk on the beach. It's officially spring and there was actually some warmth in the air to prove it. Yellow gorse blossom on the hillside added to the brightness of the day.

Somewhere up on the clifftop you can just get a glimpse of a rather fine house. I would love to know what it looks like inside. What a fantastic position, although if I were living there I might well have nightmares about landslips!

All was quiet on the beach front, just a few runners, presumably preparing for the half-marathon that is soon to take place. I was wearing wellies so that I could walk by the shore.

Back at home there were plenty of things to do. Yesterday we had spent a frustrating time trying to track down a product that would stop our steel water bowl from rusting so much. The water had become a dull orange. The birds didn't seem to mind but I did. I wanted a clear sealant for metal and we trecked all about town to one place after another without any success. When we got to Screwfix the young man said they didn't stock it but he would google it and see if anyone did. Why hadn't we done that instead of our wild goose chase? And he got a result! The bowl has now had three coats of sealant and we'll see how it fares.

The spring growth in the garden is bursting into colour. The hellebores have been very good this year, I think that they appreciated the top dressing of compost that they had in the autumn.

In the afternoon we got the deckchairs out!

Two degrees and sunshine.

It is joyful to wake to bright sunshine although difficult to enjoy it fully in our garden due to the heavy shadow from all the neighbouring trees. Dappled sunshine is what we get and we appreciate that.

Some of the trees are tall!

But to get a real blast of sunshine we need to head to the beach. On a day like this, and a weekend, many locals will have the same idea, so we have been down early, joining the regular dog walkers, runners and a few stalwart swimmers. We walked down through the tropical gardens.

The first glimpse and sound of the sea is always joyful. It's calm today and a pleasure to be out, just walking along the shore line. Then it was home for breakfast!

Spring in the garden.

We are experiencing low temperatures but there is enough sunshine to tempt me outside regardless. There are encouraging signs of growth throughout the garden, colourful hellebores and crocus already flowering and the leaves of the bulbs that i planted in the autumn pushing through the earth.

The narrow gravel paths stand out brightly at this time of year.

The temperature in the small conservatory fluctuates wildly, stone cold in the night and hot and clammy when the sun shines on it for a little time in the day. An automatic opener would be good! I've got a number of seed trays in there, not anything that requires constant heat. (Those seeds are cluttering up the kitchen.)

A clear night sky and it's going to be cold!

Kingston Lacy

The last day of half-term and the family wanted to do something together. In the morning the weather didn'tseem to be as bad as had been predicted so we decided to go to walk in the grounds of Kingston Lacy, our nearest National Trust property. We had suitable clothing and footwear for a walk in poor weather but by the time we had reached our destination the weather had turned from poor to bad so we abandoned the idea of a walk and looked round the house instead.

We had a peep at the rain-sodden garden from the windows and were happy to be inside.

The house had quite a different feel from previous visits made in bright sunshine. Today the light level was low and and the rooms were dimly and atmospherically lit by wall and table lights.The library, the oldest room in the house, which had escaped modernisation, looked especially inviting.

Here is a photo of the last member of the Bankes family to live in the house when it was a private residence, Henry John Ralph Bankes, 1902 - 1981. He left Kingston Lacy, it's contents and it's extensive grounds to the National Trust.

There were sufficient volunteers on this visit for the upper rooms to be open for viewing.

The house is crammed with paintings, many of them depicting family members. This charming portrait of a little girl was hanging on a wall outside the tented bedrooms.

After looking round the house we went for coffee and cake in the former stable block, passing the laundry en route. It would be a good place to hang soaking clothes after being in the garden on a day like today!