Bliss. The schoolchildren are finally back to school and we now have all these wonderful outdoors spaces to ourselves. When we started our visit in the morning sunshine it was even too early for pre-school age children. Perhaps their parents/grandparents/childminders were too exhausted after looking after their older siblings for a few weeks? Spare a thought for teachers who have them in their care for much longer periods.
And how we enjoyed Tyntesfield, an ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol.
We didn’t actually see many birds, and I certainly didn’t photograph any, but there were a few butterflies and the flowers in the walled garden and around the orangerie were well worth photographing and recording in a blog.
The only downside seemed to be a strange smell in the air which, we presumed, must have been some sort of spreading of fertiliser. How appropriate was that as the house was paid for by the vast fortune made by William Gibbs, the owner of the monopoly on exporting valuable bird droppings from Peru.
As the ditty of the time had it:
William Gibbs made his dibs
From the turds of foreign birds
Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos 