This month will be mine and Laurie’s third wedding anniversary. Each year for our anniversary, we get a present from my in-laws which is unusual but lovely. This year, they have very kindly given us an annual membership to the National Trust.
It’s something that I know will give us a lot of enjoyment. We’re always looking for new places to explore. We’ve already taken Ebony to a couple of National Trust properties, including a beach we visited on holiday in Dorset.
We decided to make the most of the weather this weekend, and head to Lyme Park. It’s only 20 minutes from our house, so it’s perfect for a quick visit. We had to be back in time for the tennis, so decided just to stay a couple of hours.
It’s such a beautiful place. We didn’t look round all of it, but the bits we saw were breathtaking. It’s just so vast. The great thing about having a membership is that we don’t have to worry about short visits - if we’d paid £16 to get into the site, we’d have been disappointed to have to leave so soon.
We went through to the gardens, and let Ebony off the leash (not a real leash, a metaphorical hand-holding leash). She loved the freedom of being able to run around, and ran across the lawns screeching for her daddy. We went over to the lake and sat down. There were huge fish, boat beetles and stunning electric blue dragon flies to see. Or “bee” which is basically what Ebony calls all insects these days. She threw buttercups into the lake to see them float, and find some feathers to play with.
We walked round the lake, through the trees and shrubs, and Ebony attempted to climb a few trees. She’s really into climbing at the moment, and sees everything as a potential challenge so she enjoyed the low lying branches scattered about. 
