First day in Devon

Yesterday evening I travelled down to Sussex to stay overnight with Mum prior to setting off to Devon today. We had intended to stop at Abbotsbury Swannery and Gardens but given the weather forecast was for heavy rain we went for plan B, and stopped at Kingston Lacey instead. Whilst we had been here before it had always been raining so this time (as the rain hadn't yet arrived) we had a walk around the gardens prior to having a sandwich for lunch. We will be going to Abbotsbury another day when we can spend more time there.

On arrival I learnt that, although the Swallows aren't nesting under our balcony this year, there are two active nest. One of these has 3 chicks about to fledge. I do hope tomorrow there is a gap in the rain so I can get some pictures of the Swallows and our immediate views!

As we left, the local radio gave out notifications of a "police incident" on our main road - A35; fortunately it had been cleared by the time we got there but we did meet with very heavy traffic. There were also other holdups and the final, but local ones, was when we had to wait for a large herd of cows to cross the road - now that I don't mind waiting for.

I'm having to find my way around an Apple Mac - a voyage of discovery for me, so hopefully this will turn out as I intended. Very strange experience.

We arrived at our accommodation in pouring rain but hopefully, it won't be as bad tomorrow and then, according to the forecast, after a wet(ish) we should have some sun for the next few days. Fingers crossed!

A few pictures of Kingston Lacy on a very dull day. Some magnificent trees in the grounds!