Fanny's Farm Shop - a magical place

Another great day off. A good friend and neighbour suggested we visit Fanny's Farm Shop for our Wednesday walk today. I haven't visited for years and had forgotten what a magical place it is. A lovely place to visit with children and also an interesting place for visiting 'grown-up children'.

Today was one of those lovely cold but bright Autumn days in this part of Surrey - ideal for a stroll. We were chauffeured to our destination by a kindly husband so we only had to walk home after a scrumptious cream tea.

It's difficult to describe Fanny's Farm Shop. More than a tea shop, less than a garden centre - quite unique. The creator and owner Fanny Maiklem obviously has a great sense of humour and I would guess is a bit of a 'magpie' judging by the collection of miscellaneous country-related artifacts scattered throughout the farm. She is famous for her home-made marmalades, jams and chutneys but the home-baked cakes are also worth a mention and today's cream tea was absolutely delicious.

Once again, I had taken too many pictures to choose just a few so have put them together in a slide show. Perhaps you might be tempted to pay a visit yourself . . .

A little slide show - at last!

Finally! I've just managed to put together a little slide show of the boys' pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was very difficult to choose a few shots from the hundreds that had been taken and also try not to include shots of people. I don't think it's fair to put pictures of other people in the public domain without asking their permission first and especially as I don't even know most of the other pilgrims.

Anyway, I managed to choose a few shots from each day so hope you enjoy it.

Garden - by request . . .

I don't know whether it's the Chelsea Flower Show or what that prompted it but I had an email from my brother today saying, 'Nothing on your blog for ages about the garden. Something must be growing surely!'

And he's quite right of course. I must say the garden's not looking at its best at the moment. We seem to have had a lot of cool, wet weather recently and I can't say I've been tempted to go out there and do much about the weeds which are flourishing.

I decided I'd take a walk around our little patch with my camera and just snap at whatever I could find. It's amazing when you look at the results, how much there is growing after all.

Of course at this time of year, lots of plants are putting on a bit of a spurt and there are several things that look quite promising given a bit of sunshine (please!) in the next few weeks.

Plus of course, that's the beauty of photographs. You can edit out all the weedy, untidy bits and make out it's all glorious!

Fortunate too today that Signor Vivaldi was free and able to accompany my stroll with the camera. I know the music's a bit of a cliché but I hope you enjoy the slide show.