Wet, wet, wet - A typical English Bank Holiday

Up in Essex this weekend and yesterday, I popped over to Hatfield Forest... it was very busy and very bird light... but lovely to see a tern still about (may have been two but can't be sure)

I have finally sold my dSLR which I did yesterday.  Sad to see it go but I could no longer really justify it.

Today we were off to Audley End via a camera shop.  I just wanted to see the weight of a new lens.... (Pete had been extoling its virtues).

I was very tempted but needed time to think.  So we headed off to Waitrose to buy a bottle of vino for later.   This is silly, I thought, I've been considering this lens for a while now and now I've sold a camera and lens.... (needless to say Pete was encouraging me!! )  So I nipped back to the shop before we headed off.

We arrived at Audley and were directed to park on one of the lawns; there was an event going on, and this black Swan was wandering amongst the cars greeting us.

 It was raining gently as we arrived but we decided to carry on..

Lovely to see the cheery colours of the flowers

One of the few horses being walked throught the walled garden..

By now it had started to rain heavily, so after a few minutes we decided to call it a day.

and finally, we left.  I discovered that my waterproop was no longer.... waterproof.... so after some lunch we headed off for a bit more shopping (replacement waterproof purchased) - some of which was holiday related