I hadn't intended to be away so long. When we set of to France in early August I packed my laptop intending to blog about my month away from the big smoke. Well the internet connection wasn't working and to be honest we were just have too much fun relaxing and reading and swimming that chasing up a repair just seemed like too much hard work.
And then we came back .....
Our half term holiday was a great success and the garden largely survived my absence. (There was one exception but I will save that moan for another time.) The sun came out and N announced that her feet were happy feet now they were back in her crocs. We had lots of lovely days on the beach but managed to drag ourselves away to visit the magnificent Forde Abbey.
The house was originally a Cistercian monastery and has been added to by the families who have lived there in the hundreds of years since the dissolution of the monastery in 1539. It's a lovely house to look round. There is a wonderful sense of it still being a family home unlike some of those houses which seem to have picked a point in history and preserved it behind heavy red ropes and no entry signs.
There are also 30 acres of beautiful gardens with three huge ponds - one of then dating back to monastic times, and a great letterbox trail which the children really enjoyed. A is nearly 12 now and it's great to see her still enjoying chasing round and rolling down hills with her younger siblings.
I also came away with some serious greenhouse envy. Mr W is worried.
