My week at spring harvest ended on the Friday so it was great to get a Saturday off with Robert and even better was that mum and dad were coming to stay for the weekend. So we had a wonderful day out at Ripley castle www.ripleycastle.co.uk . When we arrived in beautiful sunny weather we decided to have our picnic first in the enormous car park. And after 4 hours walking around the gardens (we do take our time) we treated ourselves to the famous Ripley ice cream. It was a lovely day.
The view from the car park

The next three pictures are some of the views from the castle, the first with the dear in the distance.

A part of the castle.

The majestic gate house from inside the grounds of Ripley castle.

The reason we visited Ripley castle at this time of year is because they hold the national collection of Hyacinthus and many variates of daffodils.

Robert with mum and dad having a rest and taking in the surroundings.

This lovely door way lead to the walled garden with a boarder of herbs, veg, fruit tree's, rose's (but they were not out yet) box hedge's.

A lovely row of delicate friterleria growing in the grass very natural.

This is the lane into the village of Ripley opposite is the large car park where we had our picnic.

A lovely display of white daffodils with the old ice house in the back ground and a blue sky.