Lisselan Garden Easter Trail

Today I decided to brave going out with the kids. It's funny how easy it is to get into the habit of staying at home. We decided to go here. It was so gorgeous! We arrived at about 10 am, we went to the office and collected our quiz sheet and to pay our meagre entrance fee and we set off to look around the gardens for clues to the quiz and printed Easter Egg pictures, hidden amongst the trees.

Rebe, of course went in her cat suit (look how short it is on her!).

It was so quiet, just a few golfers on the course next to us. Apart from that we had the place to ourselves. It was damp but full of spring smells, sights and sounds.

Lots of interesting finds.

Buds bursting to life everywhere.

Great hiding places and 'homes'.

The gardens themselves are beautifully kept, with a really interesting variety of plants and trees and there were all sorts of interesting things to discover...

These brilliant bushes; Rebe fell in love straight away and called them Linny and Milly. I can't decide if they are lions or bears. What do you think? I loved their screwed in golf ball eyes!

It was so fairy tale! Wind chimes hanging from the trees.

Statues and little houses to be discovered everywhere.

Fabulous bridges to cross. Luckily there were no trolls under them, but we did tell each other the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff to remind ourselves how lucky we were to be in a troll free zone.

Benny loved the river and the water. I wonder is Gemini a water sign? Any ideas anyone?

Lisselan house was like a fairy tale castle perched above these mysterious gardens.

And to Rebe's utter delight, round the back of the house in a garage we found....

THE REAL CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!!
(well sort of)

And to top it all when we returned our quiz sheets we were rewarded with an Easter Egg! What a place!

We did a bit of shopping on the way home and got in just before the heavens opened. We had a quiet afternoon.

Rebe is determined to start writing and is forming her letters in odd ways. I have been trying to think of ways to 'teach' her the right way, although I hate the idea of any formal sitting down teaching her how to do things. So I came up with this...

You have to stroke the cat from head to tail to form 'c'. I plan to add to this to do 'a', which will be a cat sitting against a mat and 'd' a cat sitting against a lamp post... Haven't thought about the other 23 letters yet, but that'll do for starts. She's flying with reading too, this morning she read 'yellow, sink, little, stop' amongst about 7 other words.

After all this I left Andy in charge and retreated upstairs for a rest. Before I had a doze I finished the little pilot's cap I started for the new baby...

I like it. Now I am again with nothing on the needles, will decide tomorrow what's next. I should probably be practical and do some soakers. I have a little Easter job or 2 to do tonight, but nothing too taxing. Will post about that tomorrow.

I had such a lovely day (and I honestly didn't do too much Bubs). Hope you all did too!