What a beautiful day it was today.
We ventured over to Wrest Park and took some chairs, a picnic and my art gear.
As you walk into the park you are greeted by an array of colour
Simply beautiful gardens.
After walking through these pretty gardens we headed off to our favourite spot.
We set up our chairs and our picnic with the view of the bridge
I sat, sketched and painted - the first time I have done such a thing
After a while we had to move into the shade - it really was warm today.
Once we finished our picnic and I had finished drawing and painting we packed up, took our things back to the car, and then came back to walk round the park.
These two ducks were busy preening.
Mark & Percy
A 'dinosaur' - well with the stretch of the imagination!
Some views of the park and buildings - quite a few photos to follow...
The folly - they are working on returning the water area that surrounds this to its original state.
Hey, no phones allowed!
That's right, caught you!
I don't often get photos of me, usually being the one behind the camera.
Beautiful butterflies.
A perfect way to spend a Sunday!
What a wonderful post (from my point of view in particular).
ReplyDeleteFirstly photos of you and Mark and Percy of course. What beautiful smiles you have (excluding Percy!).
I had to look up Wrest Park and was astonished to see it was near Clophill. When I was knee high to a grasshopper my Uncle (whom I worshipped until he died about 12 years ago) we used to stay with him at his cottage in Clophill. Of course it was little more than a single row of houses in those days. I can remember Whipsnade Zoo (which even over 60 years ago you could take the car into and drive through the pastures with wild animals long before safari parks were 'invented'. I can recall several other places too but I don't ever recall Wrest Park (although it may well have been a private residence then).
Anyway the gardens are quite spectacular.
I'm not sure that I've ever see a Peacock butterfly on the Island. I've posted pictures several times but always when I was away. They are lovely. I see plenty of red admiral's though.
So glad you enjoyed the post. It really is lovely there and we enjoy our visits each time. We missed going for a few years and the parking layout has changed, but is much better now.
DeleteWrest Park has only recently come under the English Heritage 'umbrella' It was used by the Silsoe Research Institute and before that the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering. The house opened in 2006 - I think we used to visit it before then as I remember taking DS2 there when he first came to live with us, when it was just the park - but then it became difficult to take him out anywhere so we stopped going until recently, so I think the changes were made during that time - certainly we have seen a difference in the work being done when it was still part of the institute to now. I am assuming that EH only had the gardens originally.
It has quite an interesting history.