Willow Sculptures At Lotherton

There were some willow workshops held at Lotherton last year and there's now quite a few willow sculptures situated throughout the grounds. I've discovered that they were made by a lovely lady by the name of Wendy who is twigsandsprigs_ on Instagram, and it was Wendy who conducted the workshops there too.

As you come up the drive there's this cute little deer. I thought a deer had escaped from the deer park at first glance the first time I saw it.

This hare stands about five foot tall and he can be found by the side of the road as you drive round to the car park at the back of the estate. I think he's my favourite of all the willow sculptures.

The penguin is a handsome chap, he's located right outside the entrance to Wildlife World where you can see all kinds of animals and birds. A colony of Humboldt penguins live here and they're fascinating to watch.

The rest of the sculptures can be see on the Boundary Walk. The fox is right at the beginning.

What a fantastic sculpture the archer is. He even has arrows in his quiver. 

You must remember to look up as you're walking otherwise you may just miss something, like this owl perched in the tree at the end of the Boundary Walk.

Apparently, there's also two squirrels but they're rather elusive, we haven't come across them yet but we're on the lookout.

Do you have a favourite?

Persuasion

Thank you to everyone who left such lovely comments on my last post, wishing us well with our house move. Everything went smoothly, apart from being kept hanging around waiting for our keys on the day, and though we're nowhere near straight yet as there's a few small jobs we want doing, we've settled in well. There's still lots of boxes hanging around but they'll get emptied eventually as we tackle each room. We're having new carpets fitted and we've got new furniture on order so it's pointless emptying all the boxes just to have to pack everything back up again when we're moving things around. We've got all our necessities to hand though.

I'm hoping to catch up on all your news very soon as I work my way around Blogland.

Anyway, on to this month's book.

Although I've seen a fair few Jane Austen adaptations, I've never read any of her books. I've had a couple bought for me so I thought I'd start with Persuasion.

"Persuasion concerns Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman, whose family is moving to lower their expenses and get out of debt. They rent their home to an Admiral and his wife. The wife's brother has been engaged to Anne in 1806, and now they meet again, both single and unattached, after no contact in more than seven years. What occurs when they meet each other again is vividly captured in Jane Austen's last complete novel. Persuasion clears the path for many humorous encounters as well as a second, well-considered chance at love and marriage for Anne in her second 'bloom'.

Persuasion is the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen. It was published at the end of 1817, six months after her death."

I had no idea what Persuasion was about so I had no preconceptions whatsoever. I found the writing style quite hard going at first but I soon got used to it and thoroughly enjoyed the story. A will they - won't they love story. There are some great characters in this book and a number of unlikeable ones, but they certainly add to the story. This being the first Jane Austen novel I've read, I have nothing to compare it to, but I think it was definitely a good book of hers to start with.