To the Lakes and beyond, starting at Southport

Tuesday 6th June 2023

We set off today for the lakes and decided to go via Southport Botanic Gardens, so that was out first call of the day.

It's got plenty to offer, but probably more of a nice park, rather than what you think of as a botanical garden.

Most interesting was the Victorian Fernery which was quite impressive with a large variety of ferns, tree ferns and semi tropical plants.

There is also a stumpery garden, but not so impressive after recently visiting Biddulph Grange Garden and there very well made stumpery.

The stumpery

The plant prices in the garden center were very reasonable, but we didn't buy any.

Next stop was our parkup for the night, at the nearby Marine Lake.

Marine Lake parking for the night

The smallest pub in Britian, I don't think so

It's a excellent place for the night for the princely sum of 4.50 for 24 hours.

Next to us what claims to be the smallest pub in Britain, I doubt that but it seems quite popular with the locals.

This afternoon we headed for Lord Street shopping, particularly M&S, and Boots to buy all the stuff Sue forgot to bring !

After purchasing all required merchandise we sat on a bench for five minutes.

Only when we got back to Ed the motorhome did Sue ask where her carrier bag was, like I'd know.

Yep, you guessed it, it was left on the bench.

So tomorrow, we have the pleasure of re-purchasing all the stuff we bought today.

After that I needed alcohol.

Lord Street

Followed by an evening walk around the Marine Lake. The pier is closed for some reason.

And of course, Southport being Southport, we never got to see the sea.

It was much too far out.

The Pier closed sadly

Blackpool Tower in the distance, but no sea

Walking through the gardens though, it did bring back happy memories of when Lauren was just a baby, about two months old I think, just beginning to smile and chuckle.

Probably her first visit to the seaside, we sat on the grass with a picnic in the sunshine, much like today.

It's really suprising how dried and brown the grass is here, it looks like they've had no rain for weeks. In fact it looks more like a long hot summer in August rather than at the very start of summer.

It's a lovely sunny evening and I'm hoping for a nice sunset later.

Edit, sorry if the photos are a bit grainey, I reduced them in size too much