A country walk

Norcliff chapel on the Styal Estate

I was craving the countryside today, so we packed a picnic and drove to the Styal Estate near Manchester. With Mark still recovering, we only took a short, gentle walk, but it was so nice to get some fresh air and enjoy the beautiful countryside. We had a little picnic in a nearby park and then enjoyed a pretty drive home.

There is a lot more to the Styal estate than we saw today, including Quarry Bank Mill (Europe's most powerful working waterwheel), so we would like to go back there again when Mark is up to a more strenuous day out.

Buttercups everywhere...beautiful!

I love this photo of Tom and Lily.

Big Podling hug!

I found this Bittersweet, or Woody Nightshade, and had to take a picture as I have never seen them for myself before. I love wildflowers.

Shame about the sun glare, but otherwise a nice picture.

Emma loved the bull and was trying to get it to come nearer by offering it handfuls of grass. Looking at his horns, I'm rather glad she didn't succeed! Emma was obviously inspired by the 'cow' and sang 'E-I-E-I-O Moo Moo' several times on the way back to the car (that's her version of Old MacDonald in case you were wondering!)

When we stopped in Tesco to pick up some picnic food, I found this pot of flowers reduced to 45p. I really can't work out why they are reduced, except that they have no label on them. I'm pretty sure that they are Kalanchoe though and since they seem to be one of the few potted houseplants I can keep alive I snatched them up. Since we had them in the car anyway, I thought they would make a pretty centrepiece for our picnic. Here Mark is showing his tolerance for his crazy wife using a floral centrepiece for a picnic!

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