Bank Holiday weekend was spent watching my son play football at a tournament, but my daughter Breesha and I managed to get away for a few hours and visited the wonderful National Trust property Arlington Court in North Devon.

The weather was perfect and the surrounding woods, fields and gardens beautiful.

I don’t know whether it was by design or by nature, but in the photo above can you see the water buffalo we found when we arrived at Arlington Court? With the rootball providing the head, nose, eyes and horns and moss covered trunk creating the body, this water buffalo seems to be taking a dip in a lake of bluebells.

All the surrounding land provided wonderful images that I am sure I’ll use as inspiration at some point, from the distant….

….to the close up…

 After a few idyllic hours spent wandering around the grounds and looking at the collections in the house, Breesha and I tootled off for an hour on Woolacombe beach. It was sunny, yet cold and people were wrapped up warm, but it was busy and we took this photo which I think sums up a typical day on a British beach…