At the castle spring is in the air!

 Monday 14th

 Just before bed last night we heard the Owls, I rushed out with the torch, its quite powerful but not a glimpse of them was seen. The Tawney Owl with a ke-wick (female) and responding hoo hoo from the male, went on for for ages and then screeching was heard in the distance. The barn owl perhaps? Anyway I did find out later from the farmer that the Tawny, Barn and Little Owl all nest nearby.

This morning the bleating of lambs became our alarm clock although that Cockrell did a pretty decent job  competing with the noise. I was up early, those lambs sounded really close and I wanted to see how many had been born overnight. The farmer was already out checking, gosh he looked tired, well he would with just 2 hours sleep last night and hardly any the night before, but his mood was jolly and told me to go through the field gate and go meet the newborn. 

Have you noticed how strange those lambs looked? Yep they are all sporting the latest in newborn fashion, plastic macs! Then I saw a wonderful sight. This Ewe had given birth to three lambs and about 20 minutes before I arrived. Don't you just love this time of year?

 

Destination today St Austell. From this farm a mere 90-minute drive away, much to early for us to arrive at the campsite. With Powderham Castle about 5 miles from here, thought we may as well give it a visit, so tickets were booked, and a time slot arranged. 

First impressions as we drove into the grounds was most favourable. We had high hopes of good walks  and looking forward to wandering around the castle rooms. Click HERE for the history of the place. I warn you it's a long read!

Would you believe this place also had a deer park and after the disappointment of yesterday, a welcome surprise. Of course, they happened to be the furthest away from the castle and we couldn't walk through the park to them, but I did managed a few grainy photos anyway.

Fallow Deer

Shelducks

 

Wow the Castle inside was amazing. No photography so you can be pleased I have spared you a multitude of piccies. Room after room all beautifully kept and a good job arrows directed you from one to another because losing oneself was a definite possibility. The cost for this excellent tour was just £8 each (20% off for Heritage members) and I won't hesitate to recommend this as a worthwhile visit.

A half mile walk took us to a Secret Garden. Well what can I say about that garden? Wildfowl and small animals were on display mainly for the children to pet. But today children's questions would have had to be answered by the parents as quite a few of the critters were in the procreation stages! Spring has finally arrived!

She was not going to give in even though her feathers were being pulled out as he tried to stop her from getting away.

Even the tortoise were at it!

10 minutes walk further along the track and we found the American garden. Not sure why it was called that 'cos all we found was daffodils and rhododendrons. 

 

It was mid-afternoon so we decided to head back to MB. A 90-minute drive was ahead of us and we still had to find the camp site. Over the top of Dartmoor we drove seeing a few ponies near to the road. We may decide to stop on the way back later this week, all depends on what else we find to do. Anyway we did find the campsite. Yet another really small and narrow lane which led us through a farmyard. Had we made a wrong turn? Nop there at the end was the site and wow, overlooking the sea, the views were spectacular. This will now be home for the next 4 nights.

Tomorrow The Eden Project visit, we could walk to it being so close to this campsite . The only problem with that is the farmyard. Full of mud and other unmentionables I don't fancy traipsing through that lot. No, MB will have to be our packhorse and endure a good sponging down at the end of our visit.  

 

And wildlife today, the first Butterflies seen this month.