A Return to Muncaster

We arrived home from London on Friday evening. Saturday was sunny although it was very cold. Since rain is in the forecast for the next several days, Scott wanted to take advantage of the sunshine. We decided to head back to Muncaster to see what spring had brought to the gardens. We thought we would just take a leisurely walk around the gardens, snap a few photographs, and head back to Whitehaven. This is a bank holiday weekend, meaning Monday is a day off for most people, and Muncaster had a flower show going on, as well as some special activities. We ended up spending the entire day at Muncaster and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Scott and I decided to go on a garden walk with the owner of Muncaster, Patrick Gordon Duff Pennington. As we walked along we were treated to not only the latin names for each plant, but often some sort of personal anecdote about the plants as well. We had a wonderful time listening to his stories about the castle and grounds, and we learned that he has entertained a number of famous folks over the years. He completed our walk just in time for us to see the owl and raptor (otherwise known as "hawk" or "buzzard") demonstration being put on by the folks at the owlry. He did promise that he would be waiting at the back of the crowd after the demonstration for anyone who wanted to venture on another walk in a different part of the garden. I decided to attend a cooking demonstration, but Scott re-joined Mr. Pennington for the promised walk. Although no one else returned, Mr. Pennington and Scott rambled around on the hillside for several hours and ended up back at the little cafe where Scott was treated to tea. What a great experience! By this time, the cooking demonstration had finished and I joined the crowd gathered on the lawn for the feeding of the Herons, also known as "Heron Happy Hour". Here are some more pictures from our fun day at Muncaster.

How would you like to wake up to this view every day?!!

Scott loves to photograph flowers and he captured some beautiful images today! Enjoy!

Here are a couple of pictures from the owl and raptor demonstration.

And a few from the Heron Happy Hour.....

This guy was trying to make himself as small as possible so as not to be noticed by the fellow below.

This Heron did not appreciate all of guests at happy hour. He spent about 10 minutes trying to chase off several other herons. He gets the title, "Does not share well with others!".

All told, 32 herons showed up for happy hour. We were told that this number has been pretty constant over the past few years. Whatever the heron eats in it's natural environment is in short supply in this area, primarily because it's habitat has been cleared out. There is work being done to try and convince the sheep farmers to restore some of their land so the food supply for the herons will return, but it is proving to be a slow process.  For now, hungry herons continue to gather on the lawn at Muncaster at about 4:00 daily and Happy Hour begins at 4:30.