Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle is situated in Maidstone, Kent, South East England.

The first castle was built in the XIIth century by a descendant of William the Conqueror, later it passed in royal hands, being held by medieval widowed queens. Queen Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII lived here and Elisabeth I was imprisoned in the castle before her coronation. Later the castle passed in private ownership, the last owner of the castle was Lady Baille, who established the Leeds Castle Foundation. It was opened for the public in 1976.

View of the Castle from the hot-air balloon... yes, I was flying up there... :-)

The Castle is a gem: it is beautiful, elegant and friendly with amazing rooms, beautiful decorations, interesting paintings and lovely flower bouquets in the windows. You can see different epoques as you go around, starting from the Norman wine cellar and going through the old castle and than passing to the new castle, ending with the last owners drawing rooms.

The moat

Inside the castle

There is a beautiful park surrounding the castle, with interesting plants, trees and flowers.

In the garden

As Lady Baille loved the birds, she asked garden designers to create a duckery where now hundreds of wild birds live, as white swans, Canadian geese, ducks and black swans, the symbol of the castle, imported from Australia by Lady Baille.

Swans

The Aviary house different species of exotic birds, as parrots, toucans, ibises, cranes...

Parrots in love...

You can also see a falconry display, with majestic predator birds, like vultures, falcons, owls, eagles and hawks. The demonstrations give a fantastic insight into these wild birds life and behavior.

I got it!

Beautiful eyes...

You can also try to get lost in the maze and the grotto or to see the dog collar museum or the vineyard or just walk along the pathway and enjoy the sight of the small stream and the giant rhubarbs...

Giant rhubarb

or to admire the smell of the the giant magnolia...

Giant magnolia

or to follow a duck family swimming and to see the reflections of the sky in the lake ...

Reflections in the lake

The white sparrow - A fehér veréb

Finally! I took pictures of the white sparrow. I was watching it all the winter, and now, here it is, hiding in the bush. It was tricky to take the pictures, when I was approaching the bush, all the sparrows moved to the other side of it, as I walked around, they moved forward. So we were going round and round the bush for several times, I was chasing them, they were hiding and laughing at me. It seems that they don't like paparazzi. At the end they flew up to a balcony and then vanished from the sight. But I succeed to catch it twice.

Végre! Sikerült lencsevégre kapnom a fehér verebet. Egész télen lestem, és most, íme, itt van, bújkál a bokorban. Elég nehéz volt lefényképezni, mert ahogy közeledtem a bokorhoz, mind átköltöztek a túlsó oldalára, ha meg körbe mentem, akkor ők is mentek tovább. Így kerülgettük a bokrot néhányszor, én kergettem őket, ők meg bújkáltak és kacagtak rajtam. Úgy látszik nem szeretik a lesifotósokat. Végül felszálltak az erkélyre, majd eltűntek a szemem elől. Azért sikerült kétszer lekapnom.