The Easter Holiday

First of all, I would like to say that I am really enjoying this break. I feel very happy and have been having a lot of fun. I mean, family members have told me that yesterday I was grumpy--and I believed them after several mentioned it--but I don't feel grumpy. 

We relaxed a bit on Saturday morning. (Pictures here from our garden, including the blue bells (I think) that are just popping out.)

 

Then we headed back to Ham House for the National Trust tradition of an Easter Trail--a hunt that is rewarded by a chocolate egg. 

Getting to Ham House requires a long, lovely walk by the river. 

And the Easter Trail required a lot of romping through all of its large gardens. Wisteria just coming out above. And espaliered apple trees (and apple trees formed as boarders, not pictured) just blooming.  

The boys liked the Easter Trail. We picked this one because it was rooted in the English Civil War--and it turned out that it was about spying, which the inhabitant of this house may or may not have engaged it, which was even better. 

An English tradition that I haven't noticed in the U.S. as much--flowers on benches, presumably for the person the bench memorializes. 

I've seen this frequently here. Francisco says benches are the new graveyards. 

And, indeed, Phil's view is lovely: 

We went to mass in Richmond before heading home. These pictures were all around the walls of the church--they were the Stations of the Cross on one side and more scenes on the other.