Trip to Elvaston Castle

On Friday morning the sun was shining brightly and although Bradgate Park had been front runner, it was Elvaston Castle that won. Jacqui was persuaded to go with Ian & Sandie. The is nothing left of the working farm and the Tamworth Pigs but there is still a lot to see and Mum has come home saying she wants to go again and take me.

MinToE trip to Trentham Gardens

This is an annual outing as far as MinToE is concerned, but mum had booked to go with Nana and when Ian & Sandie asked to stay for a couple of nights then Sandie went too, to leave Ian alone to do a day's work

Foxes eat cheese?

I may be boring my loyal readers with too much of Reynard, but here he is again...

Within a couple of minutes of putting out some grated cheese that had gone mouldy,

this fox was on the job...

...apparently enjoying the unexpected treat

And after the cheese course a bit of scratching goes down well...

BTW - When we had the two foxes in the garden we were speculating whether they were man and wife (dog & vixen) or parent and child (fox and cub) - if you go back to the first picture there may be a clue at least to the sex of this visitor.

Hail, Stone!

We thought they might break the glass they were so big and falling so fast - left us in no doubt why they are called hail stones.

They were battering directly onto the front door and the floor inside the door was covered even though I only opened the door a 'crack' and only for a short time.

Ah well, this is UK weather for mid July...!

Bradgate Park after Fabric Guild

We went to the Fabric Guild to look for material for Bean Bags and Flags for Toddlers' Church and then had a walk round Bradgate Park. Pretty much all we could hear at the start of the walk was "A little bit of bread and no cheeeeeeeese" and obligingly this yellowhammer posed for us on the top of the wall.

There were not as many butterflies as I had hoped for and they did not want to be photographed. This is a Small Heath butterfly according to my researches.

There are 4 heron in shot

This is a skipper butterfly - but I don't see them often enough to know what sort

Just when we thought we would finish without seeing the deer, they appeared

I presume this is a moth ... ?