Tintern Abbey and Ross-on-Wye

Glorious sunshine outside to-day but I need to share some pictures from our journey to Anglesey. From Kent we went to Bristol and stayed overnight which was great for a break
 :-).

EG decided to take the slow roads through Wales and suddenly there was this 'déjà vu': 
Tintern-Abbey

 I had not realised that we were on this road - again. 
In the very very beginning when I fell in love with EG, he had organised a journey to show me 'his' Wales and it all started in London city center where we had met. After a shopping tour at Harrods (for others) he opened me the door into his black Mercedes and the words: 'you are in my hands now.'
His first stop after London was Tintern Abbey. We spent quite a while wandering quietly through the ruins and taking in the spirits from a long gone past, imagining how it might have been when the white monks were living here. This place is unique to us, it has been since he first brought me here and it speaks to me - only places in Wales seem to be able to transmit so strongly something so inexplicable to me.

As we had a lot of miles ahead, we did not go inside this time.

Can this magic atmosphere be felt through the pictures?

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Our next stop was Ross-on-Wye where a small farmer market was held.

This very attractive tea room looked irresistible and we followed the breakfast invitation :-)

The love for detail shows everywhere

Such inviting corners 

I was so tempted to buy these Le Creuset pans

The lovely owner herself

a bit of French 'savoir vivre'

A vintage sewing machine!

the view from inside out

Breakfast at Tiffanys :-)

 

Hunky Dorys mottoes

It was nice to have to wait and get all the details in this tea room whilst breakfast was cooked for us

mmmhhhhhh





After this delightful stop, we bought some wee plants of broad beans and flowers and headed back to the car to continue our journey to Anglesey.

Visit to Godinton

Hello again!

Windows 8 seems to be less tricky than expected, in fact I find it very logical- so far-*crossfingers*. However, autodidacts amateurs like me need a lot of time to find out how things work. Eventually, here are some pictures from Godinton, Kent. We went beginning of April on our way to Anglesey. Leaving home in warm sunshine but once crossed the channel, the sun became more and more rare. This was ok as the chocolate dog has to stay in the car when we are visiting and so he had ideal conditions.

http://godintonhouse.co.uk/

My pictures seem to be all quite ok and it stayed dry during the visit. Therefore, I shall just upload a selection of them as we strolled around the garden and let them speak for themselves.

This part of the garden was at its best right then

entering the walled garden

Nicely labeled fruit trees just started flowering

a lot of lovely auriculus and other delicate flowers were under glass

there were quite a lot of gardeners around - mostly volunteers

Had to take some glasshouse construction details for EG ;-)

Is this birch trunk also spring cleaned by hand as some gardeners do?

loved the nest box

Leucojum, very brave!

It was a great start for our wee holiday and a good timing as it allowed us to have a break during the journey.