Back to Biddulph

I know that I've blogged about Biddulph Grange Gardens more than once* over the years, we usually visit once or twice every year, so I hope you'll forgive me for taking you back there again.  The gardens are our nearest National Trust property and are often our first visit of the new season.  Of course, things are way behind this year in the gardens because of the weather, there were still many snowdrops around and the daffodils were just emerging but we also saw the first rhododendron flowers of the year too.

 

When we arrived there was a slight mist in the air and a few droplets of rain spattered across the car windscreen and you will see from some of the photos that it was quite a dull day but halfway though our visit we felt the air change;  it suddenly felt warmer and then the sun peeked through.

 

In the car park there was much building activity.  We wondered if they were making a new reception area because when we got up to the house the room next to the shop, normally used to receive visitors, now had tables and chairs and was being used as an extension to the tea rooms.  Normally we just wander through and out into the garden but this time we stopped to look and took a couple of photos of the interior, it is rather beautiful!

You can see the other half of the room reflected in the mirrors

Out in the gardens everything was looking well-tended, the were hedges clipped very neatly.

We followed the paths around the different areas of the garden - the tree root walk is one of my favourites!  Left or right? 

 Right leads you to the Chinese garden which I've shown you  in previous posts.

We wandered through the tunnel that leads from the Chinese garden to the Glen and round to the large area at the back.

Here we sat and ate our lunch of cheese and chutney rolls, grapes and coffee.

Opposite our seat was a newly roped off area which looked as if it was full of  daffodils.  After lunch we went over to investigate.

Ah, it is going to be a daffodil maze - when the flowers finally bloom it will look wonderful - I bet the gardeners had hoped this would have been ready for the Easter weekend.

I see Mr Mole has cheated and gone underground to find the middle!

After lunch we walked up the Wellingtonia Walk, around the woodland walk  and had a browse in the second hand book shop as well as the geology gallery - unfortunately this is still in a state of restoration and the fossils had still not been returned to their place in the walls.  The volunteer on duty in there told us it would be a while yet before they would be replaced, possibly by replicas so that the originals wouldn't be damaged any further.  Below are some more photos I took on our walk around the garden.

A lovely reflection in the fish pond

Monkey Puzzle Trees in the Arboretum

This huge urn stands at the top of the Wellingtonia walk

We saw three different cats around the gardens and thought that they must belong to the people who live in the appartments in the house.  What a wonderful back garden they have to play in.

*I've just had a look back at my previous posts about Biddulph Grange and I've written about it five times before so  I've tried to include some different photos this time.