Harlestone Firs

 

Today J and I took K, Joe and Tia up to the local Firs forest which is on the border of the Althorpe Estate where Princess Diana grew up. Harlestone House used to be a country residence there, and was believed to be the inspiration for Jane Austen's Mansfield Park as she resided there for quite a while and letters have been found written by her from there. (A bit of literary history for you there! If that's what tickles you, more history of the area can be found here) It was a completely impromptu excursion - they normally turn out the best! The weather was lovely and the woods were nice and cool, although they were overpopulated with huge wood ants. Big bitey ones that make huge ant hills out of woodland debris. And because it was an impromptu outing, J and I were were sandals and summer dresses - not the best things to be wearing to journey to the land of the 50 ft ants. Yes, I did get bitten, thank you. Still, we had a good afternoon. Here's K and Joe wearing each other out.

 

 

Tia decided to end it all in a puddle. This puddle only just covered Joe's feet, but Tia is alot shorter and did the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Frog posture (once seen, never forgotten). She stayed there long enough to get soaked through and stinky, and then she trotted after us, looking very smug.

 

 

I love the trees up at Harlestone Firs. Apart from the fir forest, there are some really old native trees there. I feel like I'm in Fangorn there and I expect to see Treebeard bending down at any moment.

 

Tia sometimes finds it difficult to keep up with Joe and K. She's old and a bit overweight and very lazy!

 

There's one part of the forest which looks like an ancient avenue, with really old big trees lining either side. I can imagine it was part of a Royal estate once, and can practically see the horse and carriages charging along, or a Royal Party embarking on a hunt.

 

You may have gathered that I did not kill myself yesterday whilst executing my daughterly duties on the DIY front. I successfully moved several light fittings and fitted a pendant light fitting. Hurray! It all works too! Yay for me! As a reward, Mum gave me one of the old light fittings so now I have a shiny Ikea halogen multi-directional spotlight thingy to replace the crappy broken one in my studio! And I will fit it as soon as the temperature drops a little which I sincerely hope won't be too soon!

By the way, if you would like to enter my Blogoversary Giveaway, you have until 4th August to leave a comment. The original post is here and it gives you all the details of what to do and what you can win. I've had some brilliant suggestions so far; thank you everyone that's left a comment so far. Why not check it out? Good luck!