
We have had a fabulous day today. Two friends, Lindsay and Jacinta, sent us a linka while ago about downloadable treasure trails and said they seemed made for us. Oh how right they were.
We browsed the site to pick one today as the sun was shining and we were up for a walk and a bit of fun.

We picked Minterne Gardens as there was a spring trail and it said they had lots of rhododendrons and azaleas. Our original plan was to go to Exbury as it is the best time of year, but we have been many times and something new sounded perfect.

So treasure trail printed, Starbucks in hand, off we set.
It said it was very little known. Well that was true. There were almost no signs until we were right there. Thank goodness for Sat Nav.

The gardens work on trust - well at least they do at this time of year. You simply put your £5 each int he box at the gate. And honest people that we are, we did. I have to say that considering there were NO facilities I think the £5 was a bit steep, but heck, it was a nice day out.

As you can see from the photos sprinkled so far, we were having fun with our cameras. So I am afraid it is a VERY heavy photo biased post today.

Feel free to scroll down very quickly and not admire our awesome photographs! As ever, I was pants at selecting which to use and so have stuck a whole load in.




I think it was a great time to visit as there were still bluebells but so many different azaleas and rhododendrons and because we were doing the treasure trail we had to read everything too which made us look more closely at everything. A good thing for us as we do tend to whizz round places a little.

We had such a laugh trying to take pictures on the i phone - we kept pressing at the wrong time so we had a whole string of us almost crying with laughter - I deleted most of those. It was NOT a good look.


We did both have our proper cameras though - hence the large number of photos, playing with soft focus and macro and lighting
This one was gorgeous - looking absolutely white but with the real blush of pink on the back.

There was also lots of water and a total of 11 cascades.

The ferns were gorgeous too - I love how they are like little pincurls and then unfold and unfurl.






The sun shone all day but there was quite a bit of shade which gave a lovely dappled light that was a nightmare to take photos in. It was very cold in the shade. They have said it is going down to freezing tonight. Not good for a lot of the plants we saw, although rhododendrons are Himalayan based so I guess they can cope.









And one of them had to be picture of the day and we both liked this one as a reminder of the visit as a whole.

So - if you managed to stick with all of that I guess you have earned the usual things seen on a Saturday.
But first for Barb - whose comments each day make me smile from way across the Atlantic -
Barb you asked what CFH stands for. We were warned that having bengals would make us prematurely grey. We were not warned enough. When we had them they earned a nickname within their first few week at home. They were the CFH - Cats From Hell.
First - today I am thankful for
- Lovely days out
- Thoughtful friends who know what makes us tick
- Photography days
- The beauty of the natural world
- Bounty ice creams (oh my goodness I'd forgotten how good)

and my page a day calendar today
One Sunday afternoon, I phoned my brother, who lived next door to Mom after Dad passed away. “Mom refuses to go to church,” he told me. “She said it was a waste of time.”
My five siblings and I were astonished. The positive woman who’d raised us had never missed a church service or daily devotion when Dad was alive. But since his funeral, she attended church only sporadically. Now, not even ten years after Dad’s death, she stopped going to services altogether.
Waste of time? We were concerned. “Do you think Mom really lost her faith?” my sister asked. It was a question I’d been wrestling with myself. I wished that I could know for sure.
Mom continued to do other things she loved, painting landscapes and writing articles for local publications, but on Sunday mornings she stayed at home.
Mom was 95 when she died. It looked as though our questions would remain unanswered forever. Her estate was settled and her paintings and manuscripts were distributed among family members. I had searched, hoping to find something that showed Mom’s faith. But I found nothing. Had Mom lost her faith entirely? I wondered. Did she ever have any in the first place?
One morning, feeling discouraged, I entered my home office and stared at my cluttered desk. Time to get back to work and quit looking for answers where there were none. As I sorted through the mess, I came upon a tattered blue spiral-bound notebook at the bottom of the pile. I’ve never seen that before. I opened it and flipped through the pages. Line after line was filled with Mom’s unique handwriting.
“Heavenly Father, thank You for bringing me a restful night’s sleep. Please watch over John as he travels on business.” The following pages contained prayers for all of us. Some entries were dated just weeks before she became ill.
Father, please answer the prayers of mothers everywhere today.
—ANNETTE MCDANIEL