Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire begun in the 1300s was the last stop on my Aunts stay up here in the county of Lancashire. She has been really surprised that we have such a wealth of old building and interesting towns, having mostly on previous trips, toured the southern half of England.

Its rumoured that in the late 1500s Will Shakespeare himself was part of a company of 'players , that were paid to put on shows here. It certainly does have a very fine old great hall that would have suited theatrical shows!

She is now down on the second phase of her holiday and has a full itinerary planned with visits to bath, Wisley Gardens and Waddesdon Manor.

It was a lovely 10 days and we all enjoyed our selves very much.
I have been taking photos of scarecrows I keep finding so far this is the scariest

Chester is a beautiful City to visit on any holiday. It just has so much to offer ,with all the wonderful old buildings and streets filled with great little shops to easily spend all your money in! Then there are no shortages of good restaurants and art galleries and museums.
We went into the Cathedral refectory for a lovely coffee and cake and I took the picture of the bright and cheerful stained glass window while we were there.

This past week I have been showing my Aunt from America the tourist 'hot spots of the North west of England. The weather, although not the nicest May weather we have experienced has been fairly good to us and not rained on our days out.
Tatton Park in Cheshire was one of our first visits , we looked around the house but first took a stroll in the gardens , stopping to admire the beautiful Rhododendron which are at their best right now. My favourite part of the gardens has to be the Japanese Water garden it is just so scenic and so tranquil.
The other few photos are of our time around York. We had two packed days there and enjoyed every moment.

Last Saturday we went into an English haven, a Bluebell Wood! A sea of blue carpeted the ground and the air was softly fragranced by wonderful woodlands scents, insects hovered and birds sang from the treetops. It really was quite magical to walk through on that lovely spring afternoon in the sunshine. We were out on the boat,coming back from a little trip up to Garstang...the new Booths there is coming along nicely] and as I had my camera with me I took a few snaps along the way.

As you can see the canoeists were also making the most of the lovely day too.