Plas Brondanw

 I've written about this garden a few times over the years so apologies if I am repeating myself.  It's a lovely place and a firm favourite.  We just visited the garden this time.  By the time we'd had lunch - soup and a roll as it was quite a cool day - the rain had stopped.  The garden looked wonderfully green with a strong earthy aroma in the air and mist still hung over the mountains in the distance.  As we walked the sun was filtering through the clouds.

Above the view from the car park.

Plas Brondanw was the home of architect Clough Williams-Ellis best known for his Italianate village of Portmeirion which is just a few miles away.

I'll let the photos show you what it is like - small but beautiful and completely at home in its wilder surroundings.

I'm usually happier with flowers in softer colours - pinks, whites and lavenders - but I'm really liking the combination of the orange and blue.  I've seen it in a few places recently.

Plas Brondanw website - link.

Five Little Things

 We've been watching the Great Crested Grebes on the lake for the past few weeks.

Nest building

Sitting on eggs

Catching Food.  Lets hope we see some chicks soon.  I love their stripey, humbug appearance and the way they travel on a parent's back. 

Family History

I've been finding more family history on line.  I knew about this family but didn't have details of where they lived in- between my great great grandfather Alexander Young being born in Loughborough, Leicestershire and later census details of the family in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.  It seems he married my great great grandmother Rebecca Webb in Lenton, Nottingham.  They married on 1st March 1857.

On the 1861 Census the couple are living at 145 Little John Street, St Anne's, Nottingham.  Alexander was a tailor and you can see from the other entries that most people worked in the textile industries in Nottingham famous for both lace and hosiery.  Alexander was the son of John Young who moved to Loughborough from Kirkaldy, in Fife, Scotland some time in the 1820s.  John, my 3x great grandfather, married Maria Parkinson, my 3 x great grandmother, at All Saints Church, Loughborough in 1826. Ten years later they had  five of their children, including my great great grandfather Alexander, baptised at the Dead Lane Primitive Methodist Chapel in Loughborough on the same day.

In the garden the sweet peas are doing well, as are the strawberries.

Also in the garden a very relaxed fox.  

They visit early morning and late evening.  We thought they only had one cub this year as they were bringing one cub at a time into the garden but last night both parents arrived with two cubs.  Apparently they do separate the cubs to keep them safe from predators when they are very young.

It was too dark to take any photos of the cubs but it was a joy to watch them run and play around the garden.

As well dabbling in family history I've been reading.  I took these two books back to the library this morning.  Both read and enjoyed.  I did wonder about the new Elly Griffiths and if I would be able to read it as it has a time travel theme and I don't usually read anything that is time travel, fantasy or science fiction but I stuck with it and did enjoy it in the end as the writing is so good.

After leaving the library we popped into the Emma Bridgewater factory shop for coffee, the garden at the side of the factory was looking lovely.

There were some beautiful roses and the ones below caught my eye.

So pretty.

Well I think that is more or less a Friday five.  I'll be back in June.

A Garden Visit

 On Friday we met up with friends at Wollerton Old Hall Garden which is near Market Drayton in Shropshire.  It's about a forty minute journey from home.  We'd visited a couple of times before but not recently.  

It was a birthday celebration for one of our friends so as we arrived close to noon it was time for refreshment before the small tea room got too crowded.  Lunch was lovely.  We had Hummus and pitta bread with a couple of different salads. Friends had Gardener's platter.  All very fresh and well presented.  Sorry no photos as we were too busy chatting and catching up on news.

After lunch we had a wander around the gardens. 

 'When Lesley Jenkins moved back to her former childhood home of Wollerton Old Hall in 1983 with her husband John, she quickly discovered that the great age of the site demanded formality in the gardens design. She created three north-south and three east-west vistas. The resulting linearity of these vistas together with the hedges, walls and paths resulted in a collection of separate gardens, with each one having its own style and ethos.'

I've copied the above from the website (link at the top) to explain the history and layout of the garden.  It was very sunny so I didn't take too many photos as the light was too bright in places.  Just few photos below of those I did manage to take with my little camera.

The scents and sounds were wonderful - especially the Wisteria.  In the wilder area at the bottom of the garden there were butterflies and damselflies flitting around under the trees amongst the cow parsley.

There were plenty of seating areas in quiet places.

After that it was time for tea and cake before heading home.

Mount Pleasant Gardens

On our way to Mount Pleasant Garden and Sculpture Trail we passed Paddington Bear on his hill at Snugburys Ice Cream farm just outside Nantwich.  We waved to him as we passed by on the way to Tarporley and stopped in a layby opposite to take a photo on the way back.

Nearly every year Snugburys make a huge sculpture for the hill which can be seen for quite a distance around.   He stands fifty feet high and is made from metal, straw and woven willow.  Here is a - link - to more about the sculpture.

 

 

We'd never visited Mount Pleasant Gardens before so didn't know what to expect but we spent a delightful couple of hours there finding all the different areas of the garden and following the sculpture trail.  The garden is ten acres in size and has both garden and woodland, some areas are steeply terraced with views over the Cheshire countryside.  There are specimen trees, four ponds, a Japanese garden, bog garden, vegetable garden and a stumpery with tree ferns.  There is also a sculpture workshop, tea room and plant sales.

Above is the chariot and horses placed in the centre of the wildflower meadow.

You can stand on the chariot to have a photo taken if you want.

It look wonderful in the bright sunshine.

I took many photos so below are just some of them. Apologies in advance for the photo overload.

 

We stopped for a cup of tea and piece of cake.  The courgette and avocado cake was delicious and such a huge piece that I had to take half of it home for later.

All for now.