a cavern of leaves

 

 

the lodge

 

Just enough room for the two of us ... and Roscoe the dog!

 

rainbow bridge

 

 

Our week's adventure in Devon sees us ensconced in a tiny, but beautiful, lodge-house by the entrance to a National Trust property.  There were lots of rain and lots of beautiful rainbows to mark our time there.

 

 

 

 

 

darling buds

Anglesey Abbey (which, curiously, is nowhere near Anglesey) is bathed in sunshine. The glade of silver birches is stunning, rising above a burgundy carpet of ground cover.

Elsewhere the dogwoods have been cut back, promoting new growth that in due course will lighten the winter gloom. The mild winter just passed has left a dusting of old leaves on the oak trees, jostling for the light in competition with unfurling spring buds.

How marvelous to be here among nature's beauty.

the ghost of christmas past

We return to Packwood House just a few weeks after our last visit. This time we've come to see the House decorated as it would have been for Christmas 1918 at the end of the First World War.

The simplicity of the decoration stands in sharp contrast to the excess of modern-day Christmas. It stands as a poignant reminder of when duty, service and honour stared in the face of the apocalyptic horror of trench warfare.

 

 
Outside, the Kitchen Garden is empty save for a solitary volunteer tending to a border. She too departs leaving us to contemplate the ethereal beauty of nature as it begins its winter rest.