Easter Egg hunt @ Fenton House

Today was day #2 in London.  We recovered somewhat from the jetlag (our daughter slept on my lap through Easter Mass @ Westminster).  After Mass we made our way to a local Easter Trail sponsored by Cadbury's.  The Trail was held at the historic Fenton House, a 17th century merchant's home with a spectacular walled garden that contained about a 16 apple trees and assorted gardens.

Side view of Fenton House exterior.

Small apple orchard

The Easter trail was a matching matching game for kids where they had to find and match chicks to their hen mothers.  When Riley found all the chicks, and matched them to their mothers, she received a HUGE chocolate egg from Cadbury.

Riley and her dog Boo, matching the chick with its mother hen.

If you can't tell by the heavy coats and gray skies, it is FREEZING here right now.  Unseasonably cold, and with the wind chill, was about 30º F.

The grounds were starting to pop some flowers and veggies, but there wasn't much in bloom.

I really loved these wintering pots for their Rhubarb.  I'd love to bring a few dozen of these home with me to resell!

There was also this really cool tin and concrete water basin.  It was frozen over until some kid, not ours, stuck his hands inside.

Cool small door in the walled garden that led to the caretaker's home.

The grounds were full of espalier fruit trees, I'd love to see the gounds in full bloom with fruit growing! 

There was also a very cool antique lawn roller, they may even still use this thing to even out the lawn.

Another shot of the water basin

They had some rhubarb left, the rest had been harvested a few days ago.

This family was VERY wealthy, they even had a running water fountain in the garden.  Very posh for the time!

Overview of the garden and caretaker's home.

There also were a ton of spent garden snail shells.  In France, this bad boy would have been turned into some delicious Escargot!

I really liked these wintering or frost jars. If only shipping some home wasn't an arm and a leg!

They even had a face painter on duty for all the kids that were interested.  Now, our daughter cannot pass up a face painting like I cannot pass up a peanut butter sandwich.  She pretty much jumped in the chair and told the painter that she wanted to look like a bunny princess.  She's great at staying still for something she wants, but try getting her to stay still for anything else, IMPOSSIBLE!

The finished product!  Complete with Bunny ears. The painter loved it so much, she took a picture for her portfolio!  Riley was such a darling, the painter gave her bunny ears to keep!

More to come in the next week!  We hit the Newark Antiques Fair in a few days!

Happy Easter!!!