A busy weekend in Gloucestershire
We’ve just had a good weekend visiting family in Gloucestershire. Saturday was spent at Prinknash Abbey Park, feeding ducks and various other birds, fish, goats and deer. Morgan seemed to love it there, but unfortunately the battery in my camera ran out half way round so we don’t have that many photos of him feeding the animals.
He also enjoyed playing with Kia and Shaun which is nice. We stopped off briefly to find a couple of gecoaches, but were unsuccessful with both of them. The second one ‘A Gnarled Giant’ was near to a huge Chestnut tree known as the Tortworth chestnut which was apparently mentioned as being ‘notable’ in the 12th century, which probably makes it over 1000 years old. The plaque near to the tree suggested that it is only around 900-1000 years old though so it age is difficult to tell. Legend has it that it sprang from a nut planted in 800 AD. Written records go back to the 12th century. In 1776 Peter Collinson, then Britain’s leading dendrologist, described the Tortworth chestnut as “the largest tree in England, being 52 feet (15.8 metres) around.”
It was certainly pretty impressive.
Saturday night was a family gathering with various bits of news and some eating and drinking. Then in Sunday we had a leisurely start to the day, followed by lunch in the garden centre near to Gloucester and a long drive back to West Wales. All in all a good weekend away and not too much in the way of chores waiting for us when we got back.
