Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire - bliss!

We knew that today was going to be a scorcher, so where better to have a teddy bears' picnic and keep the humans occupied that Wrest Park at Silsoe in Bedfordshire.  This is where we went last September on another beautiful day, but when we got there, Bev suddenly announced that she had forgotten her camera!  Doh!

Not so today - the humans were armed to the teeth with gadgets, including 2 digital cameras, 5 lenses, 2 tripods and a scope!  Which was a good thing, as the weather was glorious and there was lots to photograph, including a couple of swans with 9 incredibly cute cygnets!  The park is run by English Heritage and consists of a main house, a croquet lawn, a river, extensive gardens with a lake, several houses including one built in the style of the Pantheon in Rome, and the most amazing collection of trees!  The gardens are mostly grass with huge trees - oak trees, redwoods, monkey puzzle trees, beech, cedar, etc - and statues, which means on a day like today there was plenty of shade to keep us all cool and lots to look at. 

We had our teddy bears' picnic by the river, in the shade of a massive beech tree where we saw dragonflies, coots and moorhens.

So, here are some of our photographs:

The summer house built in the style of the Pantheon.

A dragonfly, photographed by Paul.

And a gang of cygnets - 9 in total!  Normally under the watchful eye of their parents, the gang managed to make a break for it but were rounded up before they ended up as lunch for some hungry bears!