Winchester.

Situated amidst the chalk downs of Hampshire, in the green valley of the river Itchen is the City of Winchester.At the heart of the City is the Norman cathedral. For hundreds of years pilgrims came to the Shrine of St Swithun.Also in the city is are the remains of Wolvesley castle and the house where Jane Austen lived the latter part of her life, she is buried in the Cathedral.There is so much history to be seen in this city and we spent several hours exploring it today. Although Winchester is only 20 miles away we had never really spent much time exploring it. it is a place we will be sure to go back to and explore some more of its interesting history.
Mattie loved it just as he loved York on his last visit.
I am having a little trouble posting photos tonight so maybe I will come back and edit this at a later date.
(Winchester also features in the book The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd)

King Alfred's statue is made of bronze and raised on two blocks of granite. Erected in 1901 it commemorates the death in 899 of the great Saxon King Alfred the Great. Winchester was Alfred's capital. 

The Ancient High Street. Down this street have walked Roman soldiers and in medieval times pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St Swithun.

 

City bridge and Mill. The present city bridge and milldates from 1813 but an earlier bridge was built by St Swithun bishop of Winchester (852-862) The river Itchen made a natural defence here for the Roman city wall.

 

Wolvesley Castle begun in1130-1140by Bishop Henri de Blois it was largely destroyed in1645 when Winchester was captured by parliamentart troops during the Civil war.

 

St Swithun Upon Kingsgate is one of the few remaining examples of a medieval church above a gateway and it is stilused as a place of worship

 

Winchester Cathedral was started in1079, nine years after the Norman Conquest. The medieval tiles are the largest surviving set of medieval tiles in England.They have recently been conserved with replicas replacing the missing areas.

The Hampshire Hog is a life size bronze sculpture by David kemp abd adopted as the insignia of Hampshire County Council. It stands in front of their offices near the Westgate Winchester. 

Mattie arrives

Well we left home this morning to drive to Heathrow and despite a few traffic jams we got to Heathrow just 10 mins before Mattie emerged feeling pretty tired after a long flight and although it was 11.30 am here it was3.30 am in Vancouver so he has gone for a nap whilst we took the dogs for a walk.
I will be updating you on our adventures as and when I have time over the next three weeks.
Ps Although it is still cool Mattie brought the sunshine with him as promised!

Mattie is here at the airport. 

This little boy is looking at us 

Pigbush 

Pigbush 

Missy cools down 

Missy 

John at Pigbush 

Images on Flickr explore.

My creation
Originally uploaded by Missy2004.

Bluebells , Goslings, and even some sun.

Today we went down to High Corner Inn, to walk. behind the Inn there is a bluebell wood and although the bluebells are beginning to go over there were still some pleasant blue patches and their fragrance scented the air. The forest is very green after all the recent rain and there were plenty of muddy puddles for the dogs to play in. On the way home we stopped off at Cadmans Pond and finally found some goslings to photograph. These ones are several weeks old so I don't know where they have been hiding when I have stopped the last couple of times. Maybe they were sheltering from the wind and rain, but today we had a little hazy sunshine and they were all very visible.

Missy and Raffles pose in the bluebells.

Bluebell woods 

Missy and Raffles in the bluebells. 

The forest is very green after all the rain 

A nice place to sit. 

The bridge at High Corner.