Gordon, I also have a "foolproof method as far as spelling is concerned, it's called   " Sue",", only my one is called Jill!! The trouble was that I had already uploaded the video before Jill had a chance to watch it, and as soon as she saw the offending caption gave a little squeal and pointed out the error of my ways. I got confused because the word forty does omit the 'u', and I had made a mistake a few year back by spelling it "fourty", so I thought I won't make the same mistake again!! Sometimes you just cannot win...

You're quite right Alfred, I didn't really think it through did I.

BTW, I'm surprised that you didn't mention my spelling mistake on a caption, or were you too polite to mention it?

Thanks Gordon, I do hope that your back is starting to get better.

Last Wednesday we made our way to Nymans, a NT property in West Sussex. This year they are doing a Narnia theme for the garden with various wardrobes, white witches and lions scattered around the place, it was quite magical, It carries on until January 5th, if you get the chance to go I can thoroughly recommend it.

Please enjoy my video of it.

  https://youtu.be/vYI2AWK9Xko

Let us hope that things go as smoothly as possible Gordon - best of luck mate.

Last Tuesday we trundled our way into East Sussex to see how Sheffield Park was doing with all of the autumn colours on the trees. We were rewarded with some beautiful scenes, and not a little amusement watching a young lady in her 60s trying to get to terms with her smartphone attempting to take a picture of a newish garden that the National Trust were landscaping - how we laughed!!

https://youtu.be/AqjWYMv-bGY I do hope you enjoy it.

In the words of the late great, Tommy Trinder, (I do love a good cliché) "You lucky people".

I have not one, not two, but three videos for you to enjoy, hopefully...

Last month we visited our old friend Richard in Gloucestershire, the first time since the pandemic, and he took us to a couple of new locations where we had not been before.

The first one is "Saul Junction Marina" where we enjoyed looking at the brightly coloured canal boats. https://youtu.be/kS6WxDE58qw

The other new location was the "Batsford Arboretum", to see the Autumn colours. https://youtu.be/vbKwzi9bAkk

The final destination was the old favourite "WWT Slimbridge" to watch the wildlife in all its glory. https://youtu.be/gAwLR26CEMY

I hope you enjoy them - around 5 to six minutes long.

Stop it Alfred, you're making me blush!!

Our third visit of the year to our local RHS garden at Hyde Hall. A lot of grasses in this one.
Unfortunately I only managed to charge up a single battery as I was in two minds whether to take the camcorder or not, so I missed out on the vegetable plot and its wonderful display of squashes and pumpkins, they were most impressive. That'll teach me.

Anyway I hope you enjoy what I did manage to shoot,   https://youtu.be/4YcrfaA55Bk

But it reminded me of how much my daughters are opposed to keeping animals in a Zoo.

The trouble is that it's very difficult to assess how much the animals are suffering, if at all. The grey crowned crane, towards the end of the video, for example, looked as though it was attempting to fly away but because its wings were clipped could not take off. Was it in distress, or was it having some fun playing around? At the time of filming it, I thought this looks like fun, but having thought about it I'm not sure if I should be amused at its antics or not.

Thanks Gordon.

We had a lovely day out, and as you say, the weather was perfect, although we did have the odd threat of rain as we drove through the Kent countryside to get there. It would have been good to be able to shoot inside the house, however that was not allowed, and Jill was also not allowed to take pictures. It was a bit of a shame, because there was a fascinating collection of clocks and watches from yesteryear - still you can't have everything, and we did buy a book about them with some nice illustrations.

Sheffield Park in the summer was beautiful and it made a change from visiting it at Autumn time.
https://youtu.be/cE80xgs9LgM

We had a bit of a shock when we learnt that one of the giant redwoods had been struck by lightning back in 2022. It was so sad to see the result. I included some footage of it before the strike, with children clambering all over it having fun. It was the only tree in the park where children were encouraged to climb.

Hope you enjoy the video - just seven and a half minutes long.

Another RHS visit, this time we went to Cambridgeshire for the Wimpole estate. Just a short one this time, less than six minutes.

https://youtu.be/MMITGNmT_dU