Abbotsbury

On Bank Holiday Monday David and I took ourselves out from the decorating and other bits around the house.  The weather wasn't spectacular but at least it was dry.  I used the Tesco Clubcard tokens for a day out here and visited the Swannery and the Subtropical Gardens.  This time of year baby swans (cygnets) are hatching so there are some cute pics of cygnets.

At 12 midday it was feeding time

Never seen so many swans gathered in one place.

Most of the swans were born and bred at the swannery, but there are some incomers coming from as far as Christchurch. The lake is not really a lake at all it drains into Portland and is called the Fleet, and area of water which is fresh and salt water. In the photo above the last one shows Chesil Beach, a long shingle beach that runs from Weymouth.

After seeing the feeding we walked around and found a nest with swans hatching

And also some swans eggs.

We then went on to the Subtropical Gardens.  David and I have visited there before but it was good to go back to and explore again.  There was one area that we hadn't seen before and that was a walk from the Secret Garden which goes uphill (quite steep, really) to a viewpoint over the coast and Chesil Beach and the Fleet behind it can be seen more clearly. The land behind that is Portland, a peninsula reaching out from Weymouth.  The second inlet of water from the bottom is where the Swannery is.

This is looking the other way, towards Lyme Bay in the distance.

Lots of rhododendrons and azaleas still in flower.

 Large Gunnera leaves and tree ferns in the valley where the stream runs through

David standing by the carved tree trunk

Look very closely at the photo above and just behind the  leave in the centre of the photo is a pheasant (female, her colouring seems to merge with the background).

And lastly another birdie pic.  This time as we were enjoying an ice cream this little one was sitting on the chair back eyeing up the tea things to see if there was anything to eat.

All in all a lovely day out.