Trentham Gardens

Another freezing night last night, but so lovely and cosy on the boat.  I was dreading the winter as I havn't experienced one since 1980, but I would have to say that I am really enjoying it!  I love walking in the cold and there being no crowds ... which brings us to today's post - a visit to Trentham gardens and play 'spot the fairy'!

I wasn't looking forward to it at all, as I am not into gardens and can take or leave fairies, but it turned out to be yet another brilliant day out in this wonderful little country.  I will now pass over the post to my able assistant, Elaine who will give a more detailed description of the day!

My version would be.....went for a lovely walk around a lake, spotted a few fairies and had a look at some dead gardens ... well it is winter after all.

Oh and we spotted two monkeys!

Elaine's version is.........

Hmmm - that was a very 'boy' version !  Elaine here ... I have been trying to get him to go to Trentham Gardens for days as people had told me how lovely it was - they had also told me about the fairy statues that are scattered around the gardens ... there are 8 in all to find - I think we only spotted 7 of them - not sure where we missed one !  

When you first enter the 'lake walk' you see these amazing swan statues in the water ... 

The lake itself was pretty frozen up - which was quite surprising to us as it is such a massive body of water...

You can see in the foreground how frozen it is 

?? Fairy footprints in the snow ... !

This is the first fairy - bit hard to see but there she is sitting on the branch ...
 

 Here is another fairy taking in the view !

 

 and a fluffy fairy sitting atop a rhino ... as you do !

Second real fairy - in the lake this time ...
 

Third fairy atop a waterfall...

Beautiful walk around the lake ...

Monkeys high up in the trees ... 

Close up of the monkeys - they are Barbary Macaques apparently !  The Monkey Forest itself is closed at the moment but these two were just 'hanging out' inside their fence !  Bombo and Sam thought they were big squirrels - good job they didn't see them close up !

 

Fourth fairy on a gate ...

Two fluffy fairies in a tea cup !

We tested the ice on the lake by putting the dogs on it !!!  (BAD parents!)

 

Fifth fairy flying under a tree ...
 

Sixth fairy - sunbaking !

 

 Seventh fairy - mucking about on a tree trunk ...

 

 

That was it for our fairy spotting (Paul was enjoying it really !).  The 8th fairy was a mystery to us ... we finished our afternoon walk by looking around the gardens - which I am sure would be completely wonderful in the spring and summer !

We stopped for a hot chocolate in the gardens cafe and a little robin joined us ... toooo cute!

Gardens - looking a bit sad - yet still spectacular...

Church in the Trentham Estate ...

View from the Church end (on a temporary viewing platform)

Bizarre sculpture ... made of plastic


One of the old buildings - part of the Trentham Estate - Paul said it felt haunted ...

Crumbly and sad ... needs a fairy on top !

The previous entrance of Trentham Hall - plans are afoot to retain this frontage and make a lovely hotel behind it ...


Paul and Sam trying to break into the Church !


Last but not least we came across a Statue of Perseus hanging out with Medusa's head ... nice!


We had a lovely afternoon's walk - the dogs were muddy and exhausted, which is always a good thing !

As we headed back to the Marina it started to snow - a preview to the big snow to come tomorrow!

When we got back to the Marina we met Roland (from NB Klara) who told us that he had found a working tap on our arm, so he lent us his very long hosepipe and we promptly filled up our water tank!  (The outside water taps all freeze up when it gets icy - so we can't get water to fill up our tanks ...  we were getting worried that we were going to have to start walking over to the shower block for our showers - Thanks Roly for saving us from that!)

Now sitting cosy and warm in the boat :)