We started our walk at Rye House Gatehouse at Hoddesdon.
Rye House Gatehouse dates back to 1443 and is part of one of the first brick built houses in the country.
We started our walk at Rye House Gatehouse at Hoddesdon.
Today is Comic Relief Red Nose Day so I decorate some cakes. I made similar cakes when I first started this blog in 2009 and thought I'd make some more. Previously I used red glace cherries for the noses but unable to find any in the shops I had to resort to Smarties and M&Ms this time instead. Do you know in a tube of Smarties you only get 1 red Smartie???
Today we joined our walking group for a muddy, circular walk of Clophill & Chicksands Wood including a short stretch on the Greensands Ridge Way.
During the walk we passed St Mary's Old Church, Clophill the ruined Grade II listed building and a scheduled ancient monument. In 2010 The Clophill Heritage Charity was set up by a group of local volunteers and successfully raised funds to save the old building from further decay and when we visited it was looking very well looked after.
Today we made our first visit of the year to Wrest Park.
Everywhere was looking lovely and particularly the Italian Garden which this season has been planted with beautiful red daisies.
We spotted the resident heron although on this occasion he wasn't in his usual spot.
We saw several of these plants in the borders and were curious as to what they were Google says it is an Oriental Paperbush (Edgeworthia Chrysantha)
In the meadow we spotted our first cowslips of the year....