Batman's in town

Tonbridge has a Christmas light festival at the castle this year and they're practicing this evening.

Tonbridge Swans

 Some of the local swans have had some more babies.  Here they are opposite the castle.

Tonbridge velodrome is coming along nicely

They had a mini digger in Tonbridge Castle moat yesterday. They've cleaned it up well, must have used a pressure washer.

Bank holiday trip to a castle

 Hever Castle with school friends of Flo.

Sunday

 Sunday was very hot in Tonbridge, I had a look in the shed but couldn't find our paddling pool.  There were none we could click and collect at Argos but luckily Waitrose had a few we could choose from.  April chose this massive one.  We've got hot and cold taps in the garden for washing the dog so it was like a big bath.

We also went to a local fair at the castle where the kids got their faces painted.

April and another mum from Flo's school dancing in a very hot tent!

Concert at the castle

 Last Friday we went to a concert at Tonbridge Castle.  The Skatonics who we'd seen a few times before were supporting Madhen.  It was a good night out with some friends.  Skatonics were fun.  What ska band isn't?  And despite my concerns, Madhen were fun too.  I think the amount of wine i'd drunk helped.

Fireworks at the end

Fun times

Pretty skies

The gang

Wine o'clock

First picnic of the year

 10 of the Tonbridge Massive ventured out to Tonbridge Castle on Sunday afternoon.  Not as warm as it had been over the previous week but it was nice.

Florence letting Lesley play with her new bunny

The new bunny

Arthur loving Florence's rugby tots ball.  Me in the background receiving a Hail Mary

New office!

 With all the work going on in our house (the extension starts on Monday) we've decided to rent two desks in a shared office.  Yesterday was our first day and we were the only ones in. We're right next to the castle so only a 2 minute commute!

A week and a bit later

We've been spending a fair amount of time on the castle lawn recently

It's basically on our doorstep (300 ish meters) from our front door.

Flo gets to run around like a loon and we get a bit of piece and quiet from the building works next door.  Hopefully things will quiet down on that front soon as they've finally taken down the scaffolding.  Now all they need to do is repair the our side path which has been fucked over and replace the fencing which is looking terrible since they torn down the existing panelling.

Beautiful day

We're very lucky living so close to the castle. We thought we'd make the most of the spiffing weather and have a picnic on the castle lawn. 

Photos to send

Some photos to send to April's Dad

The garden

Here's the garden and sheds. Pretty low maintenance which is what we like. There's actually part of the castle wall in one of the pictures.

I'm a little teapot

The only way to drink out of a house of lords beer holder.

How the Lord's do it

We found a house of lords pen holder at Roslyn Castle which made for quite a nice beer can holder.

Chateaux visit

Here we are at a stately home which the French insist on calling a castle. This one has it's own kennels for the hunt.

First day trip

We drove to Saumur on Monday, which was about a 30 minute drive from our gite. Here's some pictures of the castle.