Black poplar bark

We had another lovely day out.  We've been very lucky with the weather this week - often overcast, but very little rain.  Last night, I suggested that we might get rain, as we were planning to visit some Open Gardens.  In fact, today was positively hot and sunny.

As we were digesting breakfast and contemplating setting off, our landlady discovered that her car had been stolen from the street in Boxford - quite upsetting for her.  We were able to give her a lift to her job, before going on to Chelsworth.  Only a short journey, but our sat nav (we've recently come up with the name Claudia for her, as she was one of the wives of Nero) took us down an incredibly narrow road with almost no passing places - fortunately we didn't meet anything coming the other way.

The gardens in Chelsworth were nice, but most did not inspire.  But one, mainly a meadow with a lot of trees, was lovely.  One tree in particular caught our attention - such lovely bark.  With the help of a local, we identified it as a Black Poplar.

There was also a lovely old ash tree - see extra.

Chelsworth is a very picturesque village, but there was a lot of passing traffic on the main road through the village - I gather from one of the websites I browsed that it is something of a rat run - such a pity.

On the way back I suggested we divert into Kersey, another very picturesque village, complete with a ford over the stream on the main street.  Our drive through there was enlivened by some very badly parked cars - W had to get out and guide me through a very narrow gap.  It's a good job this street isn't as busy as the one through Chelsworth.

Another quiet evening.  Home tomorrow :(