Christchurch Priory - 22 June

This afternoon we went and wandered around Christchurch. On our way down the High Street we stopped and bought duck food to go and feed the ducks on the quay, and then went into the Priory. I could wander around old churches for hours. I love reading tombstones (oddly!). They say the most amazing things about people. I wasn't able to read as many tombstones as I would have liked today, I was too busy trying to make sure that Nicholas didn't blow all the votive candles out!

 

Nicholas was completely uninterested in the Priory (which is gorgeous) and just wanted to know where the ducks were.


The thing is, it's not just ducks. There's always swans on the quay in Christchurch, and I knew that the kids had not seen swans before. And when we got there, they swarmed us!  I had the bag of bird food in my hand, and swans were biting at me trying to get it! You don't want to mess with swans, so I warned the kids to try and stay away from them, and then we got on with throwing bird food around and causing general mayhem. Nicholas was a very over-enthusiastic feeder of birds. It was not a sedate or quiet experience, like you would think feeding ducks should be!

Kate was just running around hysterically, running away from swans in all directions. At one point a swan got very close to Kate and Nicholas, and Nicholas ran away from it yelling 'Eat her! Eat her!' and pointing to Kate. Way to throw your sister under the bus.

Kate pulls the funniest faces, which I rarely catch on camera, though I've spent months trying.

See here for an example

In the gardens we found a little statue that looked exactly like her funniest face.

Of course she was too giggly to be able to pull her funny face... which is always what happens!

We finished the afternoon in the castle ruins. Hopefully they'll get to see a castle that is not in ruins on this trip at some point!