We arrived back from the UK in the wee small hours of Saturday morning. After the excruciating 29 hour journey from London (where the weather had been great for the most of our trip - some lovely posts to come), we got back to find that the cattle (and horses) had broken through their fencing and had rampaged through the park devasting many of the trees and the landscaping. 12 mops of Weeping Willow reduced to mangled broomsticks, all of our Horse Chestnuts eaten to the ground, and bulbs ripped out of the ground by the stems never to flower again!
I would have wept over the lost hours it took us to plant all the trees, the sheer cost of the damage, and the 2 years or so that it will take for the less damaged trees to get back to where they were before we went away - if it were not for being so thankful that our family and friends looking after Willowbrook in our absence had managed to protect the majority of the park from destruction.
We also arrived home to find that our Nanny goat, Bramble, had died while we were away, of unknown causes.
So, glad to be home again. More work to do (remedial now as well as planned), and this with my exams and the Christmas season looming. I guess Peter will be a busy boy....
I would have wept over the lost hours it took us to plant all the trees, the sheer cost of the damage, and the 2 years or so that it will take for the less damaged trees to get back to where they were before we went away - if it were not for being so thankful that our family and friends looking after Willowbrook in our absence had managed to protect the majority of the park from destruction.
We also arrived home to find that our Nanny goat, Bramble, had died while we were away, of unknown causes.
So, glad to be home again. More work to do (remedial now as well as planned), and this with my exams and the Christmas season looming. I guess Peter will be a busy boy....
