Last weekend was the fiancé’s birthday, and with the lockdown being slightly eased. Public parks opening and allowing us to go for a picnic, we headed over to Dover to Kearsney Abbey.
It’s place filled with lots of memories for me.
Playing in the river on stepping stones as a child to frolicking around in my teens with groups of friends, with the our lives ahead of us.
The last time I wrote about it was in 2011, how the blog has grown since then.
Almost ten years later, visiting with my own little family.
We strolled under shaded trees hand in hand, waving hello to the ducks and swans as we went.
Glistening sunlight seeping through the leaves.
Over slow flowing streams of river.
Floral Dress // Brown Sandals (amazing Hermes dupes)
Until we found the perfect spot to lay out all day in the shade.
Looking out to views of the river and trees bursting with life.
We feasted on french stick, filled with ham and jam (not together of course), grapes, strawberries, cookies and doughnuts.
We had the best guard on duty to protect us from the gulls flying over head.
It’s a tough job trying to eat all the doughnuts in the pack and calls for a quick rest ^
Blue Textured Shirt // Linen trousers (both on sale)
It wasn’t long before we all got itchy feet and decided to head off to explore.
Be careful not to step on a sleeping swan, you’ll find them all around.
Pollyanna spent most of her time chasing sea gulls away from the ducks who were stealing their food.
Unfortunately the park was swamped with sea gulls who were being quite vicious with the ducks in order to steal their food.
I introduced Pollyanna to the part of the lake I used to love to explore.
She wasn’t quite ready to skip and hop along the river – maybe next time.
Instead I held her in my arms, as the cold running water splashed around my feet. Looking for ducks that may come along to be fed without any gulls in sight.
It wasn’t long before a few found us ^
Happy that we got to feed at least one family of ducklings, we headed back so I could feed my own again.
They had other ideas, and fed Daddy instead.
Trying not to lose their fingers in the process.
Blue Strip Short Dungarees // Hat
Some snoozed, some played, we all cuddled for a fair few hours.
Long into the end of the day.
Little did we know the best was yet to come.
With a big bag bird seeds still left, we gave it one last shot at feeding the ducks.
But we found a trick that we are more than happy to share with you.
Find a swan.
Better yet, find a swan with little ones.
The sea gulls, don’t dare go for the swans food. Think of it like bird hierarchychy.
We perched down on the edge of the river bank and threw handfuls of seeds to the swans and the babies while the gulls stood around and watched.
Not once coming close to steal the food.
We even managed to feed the ducks which came up and ate from our hands.
Bird seeds gone, it was time to head home.
Content that our job here was done.
I don’t think a lock down birthday picnic could have been any better.
