Ok, I know you’ve already had a Bourne End blog off me for Spring where the weather was delightfully warm and sunny, but bear with me.

Last time, I did not visit the beautiful gardens at Old Thatch because they were closed. During our last walk my good friend, Catherine, has said that she would quite like to see the gardens of Old Thatch when they were open.

Always keen to know when I can next visit Bourne End and Old Thatch, I needed no persuasion to take Catherine back to visit the gardens. We chose a Thursday afternoon – perhaps a surprising time, but a perfect time to go when there are not lots of people milling about.

When the Thursday (23rd May) dawned wet and miserable, my first thought was to check with Catherine that she wanted to still go, and she was game. So we beetled over to Bourne End in my little car and parked in the little carpark just past the Spade Oak.

We knew that we were going to get wet, with the showers sometimes being short and sharp while others were lengthy and drizzly, but nothing could put off the excitement for me. I fell in love with Bourne End and Old Thatch in 2011 when the Enid Blyton Society had an Unofficial Day out there in place of the Enid Blyton Day.

So take a look at my raining and shining photos and see what you think.