Spring at Newby Hall

My Facebook memories tell me that a year ago today we spent one of our first afternoons at Newby Hall, the estate just a few miles from us.  It's that time of year again because we were back for the first time this season last week.  It hasn't been as warm as last April yet, but we still had some sunshine, which makes things pretty perfect in England.

There were a lot of monkey calls coming from this tree.

The kids were excited to meet friends to play on the adventure playground.

I liked Ella's face as she caught KJ in the act of sneakily taking pictures of our picnic.

The big news of the day was that the ice cream stand now offers chocolate and strawberry ice cream, along with the vanilla that has been there in past years.  Both of my kids went for chocolate, obviously.

After ice cream we walked toward the Rock Garden, because that is always our favorite, and we saw lots of blooms along the way.  We also heard and saw lots of bee activity.  Spring has officially arrived, and it is wonderful!

There was some pruning work being done on a hedge, so the kids got to walk inside and see what it was like inside.  It was a little more spacious than you might think.