A Spring Saturday

Off out for breakfast this morning - at the Secret Garden Cafe in Prior Park Garden Centre. Read the paper until it started getting a bit noisy.

Not before Su and I played taking photographs of each other's phone.  This is her new Nokia, which we have just managed to get talking to her iPad (good for when we are on holiday).

Then, it was off to another garden centre - this one at Whiteways, where we had a look around the garden slabs selection to help us in our plans for reworking the back garden.

There were a couple of unusual designs - "concept pebble", which looks a bit uncomfortable to walk on.

But the most tasteful/tasteless (depending on your point of view) were these identical serried ranks of ammonite casts. Trying to imagine a whole patio with them proved too much for me!

After this, our wanderings continued - taking us to Newton St Looe, a little village I have driven past loads of times and never visited. There is not a single modern building there - the oldest we saw was built in 1840. They have got a farm shop and a pub/club, as well as telecommunications, so not too historic!

In the farm shop, we saw this young calf - just two days old,  standing a bit shakily watched by its mother from the next stall.

Came home and spent some time clearing out the back garden so Su had a boot full of stuff to take to the tip (deep joy!).

The first scooter of spring - skateboards soon?

Took Bella off for a pastoral stroll around the Charlcombe Valley.  On the way, I was struck by the state of these gates.

Bella was very happy, grazing on the lush new grass that has popped up in last few days.

We can see this house across from ours - I think we have the better view (they look at a hillside covered in terraces!).

In Charlcombe churchyard, primroses have popped up.

Sitting in the church garden, way the sun caught this daffodil caught my eye (and the flower's, by the look of it!)

Coming back round hill, this forlorn dead Christmas tree a reminder of a few months ago.

I had been told that this house was going to have some extensive work done on it, but did not expect them to start with a scaffolding masterpiece!

Two doors along, this recently bought property was an impenetrable mass of trees, shrubs and ivy last time I came along.

Also saw this tree in blossom - lots of them spotted today. A real treat when they all come out.

This day a year ago, the news of my voluntary severance from UWE was slowly sinking in. I started my demob-happy phase and went walkabout and played with the stitching software on my iPhone  to generate my first panorama on the blog.  I particularly like the ghostly student effect!