Making The Most of the Lovely Weather

The last three or four weeks have been filled with fun and laughter, self discovery and love for me, which has, in part, kept me away from the land of blogging once again. But what better reason to be kept away from it? So that you don't think I've gone completely barking mad though, I wanted to share a few photos from my recent travels, but first, let me introduce you to the latest addition to my family - my thirteenth step grandson, Harry, who, despite his perpetually worried little old man face, is now just over three weeks old;



Isn't he a cutie? His sister Scarlett certainly thinks so as I often have to 'pull rank' in order to get her to hand him over to me for a cuddle!

Ian and I have been out and about a little over the last week or so, enjoying the spring like weather which is thankfully beginning to make itself apparent in the UK;



with the snowdrops of spring appearing in hedgerows still adorned with the holly of winter.

In the distant fields of Hampshire, deer graze, safe in the knowledge that even though I'm taking their photo, I'm too far away to pose any threat to them;



While sheep......or are they goats, I couldn't quite make up my mind due to the sheep-like fleeces attached to goat-like faces......walk in single file along paths often trod;



bar this little chap, who seemed so intent on escape he managed to clamber over one of the two wire fences you can see in this photo in order to get to us.



A little way down the road and onto the monthly Farmers Market in Winchester where quirkily decorated Egg stalls like this;



competed with wondrously dressed stallholders;



for the attentions of shoppers passing by. Incidentally it was the cheese from this particular stall http://bookhams.com/ that I blame for my first 1.5lb weight gain at weight watchers (current weight loss just over one stone) because it was just so deliciously more-ish!

Or maybe it was the Pancakes I ate, lovingly prepared by Scarlett on Pancake Day a couple of weeks back;



.....well it would have been rude of me not to have tried one....or maybe three of them, wouldn't it? Just to reassure everyone before I go any further a full 'risk assessment' of Scarlett + Hot Pan was thoroughly undertaken before she was let loose anywhere near the cooker and we did have a child protection social worker in the house in order to ensure no child slave labour was procured in the making of said pancakes....

And so onto my last photos, the first taken at Mother Ludlam's Cave just outside of Farnham at the weekend. You may remember that I wrote about the cave a while back here; http://shadedbower.blogspot.com/2011/05/out-and-about.html
but never actually got to take any photos of it, which was rectified by a visit Ian and I made there this last weekend;



along with a visit we made earlier in the week to the 'Silent Pool' just outside of Guildford. We've often driven past signposts to it but have never actually stopped to take a look at a place made famous by Agatha Christie's mysterious disappearance in 1926; Apparently the pool is;

'a lake of crystal clear water situated at the foot of the North Downs in Surrey, near Guildford. Water feeding the lake comes from springs in the Downs' lower chalk. Natural filtration leaves the water completely clear, with a beautiful blue green colour. Although some of the pool's appearance is due to seventeenth century damming, the upper part of the Silent Pool has a genuinely ancient history. It is not known whether the Silent Pool was a prehistoric religious site - springs were often places of worship - but its deeply affecting clear, still waters have long made people think.'

but unfortunately when we got there it had been drained for maintenance and this was all that was to be seen;



but I did discover this lovely set of tree roots nearby;



complete with it's very own bridge. I like to think that the fairy folk skip over it at dusk when all visitors to the pool have gone home....