Gorgeous gardens.

The sun peeking through the clouds got me out of bed and after breakfast I did a little work in the engine hole. I checked the fuel tank for signs of water using water finding paste and found nothing visible. I then checked the primary fuel filter. there was no sign of water and very little sign of anything else either. There was a little bit of debris in there but after cleaning that out I am confident that the fuel is clean and wont get stirred up once we get out on the estuary tomorrow. To check that all was well we ran the engine and so put the washing on and soon had it on the line to dry over the afternoon. After lunch we walked into Frampton for their open garden event run by the Rotary Club.

On the way we passed this restored 17th Century tithe barn.

There were many people milling about by the time of the official start at 1330. After buying our tickets we headed to the north of the village intending to work south towards the boat.

Frampton Manor had a lovely garden and the house was special too. It is owned by the Clifford family.

The Manor looks a lovely house and is obviously very old.

Frampton Court is also owned by the Clifford family. In fact a lot of the village is owned by them. The Clifford family have lived in the village since the Norman Conquest. Although it seems that a lot of the houses etc are for rent.

These pigs were enjoying themselves. There were lots of allotments and vegetable gardens and the roses were at their best I think.

These roses had a lovely scent.

Some of the smaller gardens were the nicest to sit in and the owners obviously had great pride in them and enjoyed showing them off. We stopped at the village hall for a cream tea with the WI. We were very disappointed that the scones seemed to be shop bought. We should have gone for the large slices of cake as they were home made by the members.

This was my favourite bit of all the twenty gardens. I loved the fish 'swimming' through these grasses.

We were back to the boat after 1600 and soon set off after bringing in the washing. We had to get through the four bridges before 1900 as the bridge keepers go off duty and the bridges remain shut. We stopped at Shepard's Patch Bridge near Slimbridge to drop the rubbish off and then headed down to Sharpness. We went to the tap to fill up again and then went to moor ready for the morning. We had a little good news as the Sharpness Pier Head staff called and put the low level bridge opening back until 0630, so an extra 30 minutes in bed.