Every school holiday a friend and I make sure we go out together either for the day or an afternoon. We both lead similar busy lives, we work at a residential special needs school but this year on different living houses so we don't see each other at work much, maybe for 5 mins during the week. We both live with our elderley mothers and we both have children and grandchildren, I have a daughter who is not so well and she has a daughter-in-law who suffered a very serious brain tumour and although is ok now, well who knows what the future holds.
So a couple of days ago it was lovely and sunny so we went to visit Pashley Manor Gardens in Ticehurst
http://pashleymanorgardens This is the front of  the house which has a Tudor Facade.

Front of the house.

There has been a house there since the 1200's but this  is from the 1500's, however as it is a

Rear of the house.

family home it is not open to the public, but the gardens are beautiful and well worth a visit or several.
  The garden lies ammongst some of the rolling countryside on the Kent/Sussex Border and the vistas are
wonderful. There is also a lot of statuary and wood carvings and as you walk throught the different areas you suddenly come across them and I went a bit mad photographing lots of the wooden faces, If you would like to see all the photos I took please feel free to look on my Flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14732552@N03/sets/72157629434579060/
To the left is one of the first statues we saw (apart from the one coming down the drive and I was so surprised because it is different and so full of life To the right is a sample of the carved faces. this is probably not the best, but I liked it because it reminds me of the old fashioned pictures of the wind blowing. Below is a picture of a black swan which we saw to our great surprise as we walked aound one of the lakes.
Later we saw another and under the foliage at the edge of the lake first one and then another cygnet.I have never see black swans before and we heard the (we assumed) mother calling too.
All in all we had a lovely time pottering in the sunshine and they have a nice cafe where the cakes are huge! It doesn't come any better.