A grand day out

Taking advantage of the better weather, longer days, and a long weekend, we had a trip up to Sizergh Castle yesterday. We hadn't been there for some years, and there was little in the way of active renovation work going on this time. They have not long since completed major roof repairs, and the castle can be seen in its full glory.

This was also a good excuse to give our new-ish D-SLR camera (Olympus E-420) its first proper outing. Apart from a little cropping on a couple of the photos, and resizing, they have not been edited. I'm really pleased with the quality of picture, and so far I'm only using the basic settings. It's a world away from our compact digital, which does take great photos, but is necessarily limited in what it can achieve.

Click on the photos to see an approx. 1024x768 px size version.

Sedum growing on moss in a dry stone wall, just outside the new visitor centre building.

More of the wall.

Fern growing in more luxuriant moss on a tree, at the entrance to the limestone garden.

Small waterfall running into one of the pools, you can see Spring is well underway.

Taken from the top of the limestone garden, towards the castle.

Bog-dwelling member of the Arum family, I suspect!

Lovely reflections, even on an overcast day.

Looking into the Dutch garden.

This wall is a riot of colour and greenery in summer, I love the texture of the brick and the stark contrast of the bench.

You won't see this glorious green mossy roof soon, when the leaves unfurl.