Still on a mission to do ‘something different’ with Ellen, we suggested that it might be a nice idea to return to Waddesdon Manor today, look around the house (which was closed last time we came) and have a picnic in the grounds. To compromise a bit, we suggested Ellen could have McDonalds en route; whilst we picked some edible food from the supermarket. Part of the plan was to get a pudding for Ellen, so that although she had had already eaten her favoured food, she would still be included in the picnic.
Oh the best laid plans…
After we had parked and walked up to the welcome desk, we were greeted with the news that the tickets for the house were already sold out for the day. Problem 1.
Problem 2. Rich had forgotten to buy Ellen a pudding.
Problem 3. He’d picked up sparkling water by mistake too.
Problem 4. It looked like it was going to rain.
It turned out that none of the above really mattered to Ellen. Sure, she wanted to look around the house, but she was pretty happy looking at the aviary instead and was even more interested in the fact that the statues, which had been wrapped up in January, were now uncovered. Picnics with a view? Nah, much more fun to try and squash any ants which dared to try and crawl onto the picnic rug and then make up a rather morbid song about their demise. Plus, she managed to bags the back seat on the bus back to the car park and it didn’t rain until we were driving out.
Even better, we’ve got a reason to go back. Having failed twice now to look inside the house, perhaps it’s third time lucky, I might even try and be organised and book online.
Outside the ‘house for birds’
ellensdays 
Wonderful to read that Ellen was flexible with all the problems. That’s success in my book.