I always leave Hidcote wishing that it was pretty much on my doorstep: I’d love to visit more often so I could watch this oversized, hundred year old cottage garden move gracefully from season to season.
A fine reward: Trillium recurvatum
If you follow my blog, you’ll be aware of my weakness for shade plants. I don’t mind at all that their flowers are rarely flashy: demure beauty is fine by me.
I’m from a part of the world (Lancashire, England) where wandering in the woods – I was going to say ‘is a commonplace experience’, but nature rarely offers that, so far as I’m concerned, so I’ll make myself clearer. At home, we walk in the woods for pleasure, exercise, fresh air, to enjoy the season: it doesn’t normally involve risking many dangers.
Weekly photo challenge: dawn daffodils
It was suggested that the most appropriate image for this week’s photo challenge: early bird would be a shot of the tousled hair I’m sorrowfully sporting most mornings when I awake, but I decided to spare you that.
Instead, here are some rain-soaked daffodils: a lovely cultivar I haven’t seen before with flowers in soft shades of cream and white. I was so excited to have the chance to enjoy a behind-the-scenes visit to this historic bulb nursery when the plants were at the peak of flowering that I was hopping amongst the daffodils before the sun had fully risen. Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: dawn daffodils”
Easter greetings
I’m celebrating the season by sharing these pictures. The first shows Narcissus poeticus Pheasant’s Eye – a lovely, historic daffodil which has a reddish rim round the cheerful yellow cup and a powerful fragrance.
If you look closely you’ll perhaps be able to make out a sun-faded plastic flamingo trying to get in on the act in the background – an Easter chick for grown ups?
Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend, wherever you are.
The first gardeners?
Today’s photography assignment (glass) is a challenge in more ways than one. I’m travelling, and posting from my phone for the first time – fingers crossed it looks OK!
I wondered about sharing more bottle tree pictures then decided a gallery might be pushing my luck. Instead, this is part of a large stained glass window at the Garden Museum in London. I understood it is supposed to represent the first gardeners, Adam and Eve. Continue reading “The first gardeners?”
A living window frame
Isn’t it amazing what man and nature can achieve, hand in hand, when they try?
You wouldn’t think this climber would grow at at all, planted so close to the wall of a classic, sandstone terraced cottage, let alone form a wonderful living window frame. We found it in The Cotswolds, on our way to Hidcote Gardens. Continue reading “A living window frame”
Rode Hall and Gardens | Snowdrop Walk
My reward for waiting for finer weather? A blissful walk among some late February snowdrops, dancing on the wind at Rode Hall in Cheshire, North West England.
Susan Rushton 