fun and flowers at Burnby Hall

Yesterday was lovely. It was madam's Fairy competition at Burnby Hall Gardens in Pocklington and we had a great day. The weather held out and we got a chance to look around the rather stunning gardens.

The gardens also hold the national waterlily collection (who knew the nation even had one?) and they were pretty much all in bloom. They were all different colours and looked just beautiful.

There were a few fairy activities for madam to take part in and we started by being given a little collection bag so that we could gather up any leaves, twigs, feathers, etc. that we might find so we could use them to make a name plaque. 

All around the gardens were signs telling us about the various types of flower fairies and when we might be able to see them. Our favourite part though was hunting for the fairies up in the Stumpery (which is in the woodland area). And it was so sweet. There were lots of little doors dotted around on the trees and all around the glade were things for us to spot, like a washing line, a swing and a fishing rod.

a tiny door!

And madam was convinced that if she knocked on all the doors eventually a fairy would answer her ;) 

We found a picnic table (of which there were many) and settled down for a picnic before heading back with our finds to do some crafting. There were pictures to colour and fairy houses to make. We just stuck to making madam a name plate. But, sadly, the glue wasn't really sticky enough to cope with madam's twigs so we agreed to take it all home and let her use the PVA glue to finish it off with. 

And then it was time for the fairy and pixie parade. The fairies outnumbered the pixies by quite a large amount, so fairies went first. There was only one other little girl in a homemade outfit. And she was much littler than madam with the most enormous frothy tutu confection on. So, so cute. She won the competition, which wasn't that much of a surprise. But I was really glad they recognised the effort someone had put into making it. Madam got a few comments on her costume too, and many were amazed it was homemade.

We had to leave after the parade as my mum and dad had to go round to my younger brother's place and help him with something. But I really want to visit again. It was just such a lovely place to while away a few hours. I'm hoping we'll go back for the pumpkin festival in October.

And mum saw an "Elf Training Camp" day in December too...

So yeah, if you're in the area ever and want a nice afternoon wander (the cafe looked rather good, too) it's worth checking out. Oh, and the Stewart Museum holds some things brought back from the round-the-world trips the owners made in the early 20th Century. Might be worth a look too...