Fairhaven

The Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden is but

a five minute leisurely drive away from the Lock-Up

and I simply adore it.  So much so that I've signed

up for a year's membership at the very reasonable

price of £21. 

This entitles me to visit every day of the

year bar one so what I shall find to amuse me

on Christmas Day when it's closed I really can't imagine.

Hopefully something will turn up.

They call themselves "A garden for all seasons"and

if today's visit is anything to go by they certainly

seem to have covered spring from every conceivable angle.

Drifts of late primroses, shy primula's, the first early

bluebells just starting to burst forth and more randy

nesting chick-a-birdies than you could shake a stick at.

Or should that be at which you could shake a stick.

The King Oak

I'm a bit of a tree hugger on the quiet 

and this place has an oak tree which is reputedly

950 years old called the King Oak.  It's enormous and

I think I will need to enlist some help to give his

highness a right royal embrace.  I wonder whether one

has to courtesy first?  I must look that up in my Debretts.

I don't think they're edible.

There's a sensory garden for visually impaired visitors
complete with Braille panels giving information,
the sinister "ice hole", free open air concerts on Sundays
in July and August, guided evening ghost walks,
boat trips up to the ruined St Benet's Abbey,

a very fattening tea room full of home-made goodies
and Sunday 6th September is Dog Day.
It's already in the diary.