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.

Scenes from a very wet garden

On Saturday it rained and rained and didn't stop until early evening when a watery sun appeared for a short while 

Above and below photos taken from the bedroom window on Saturday morning.

There is still a bit of colour in the garden, but it is looking very Autumnal now.

I did venture out later in the morning to take more photos of the garden at the side of the house.

It was wet and squelchy underfoot.

The pond was overflowing

Puddles all along the paths.  We've had to abandon the work of lifting the pebbles and taking out the weeds.  I'm not sure if that will get finished this year.

The grass is covered with leaves and they  will have to stay there until it is dry enough to rake them up.

Sunday was a brighter day and we took next door's little dog for a walk.  Neither of its owners can do that anymore as one is suffering from multiple sclerosis and the other from motor neurone disease.  We took him as his regular walker was away for the weekend.

Yesterday we woke to bright sunshine which was lovely after a very dismal weekend.  I glanced out of the bedroom window and spotted this pair enjoying the sunshine under the trees in the school's little nature reserve just over the hedge. Paul took the photo as I had just taken the batteries out of my camera to charge them.  It was hard to capture them through the glass and at a distance but they stayed there for ages.

Later that day the last of the dahlia flowers were cut for the house and the tubers taken up and placed in the greenhouse to dry ready for next year.

Late last week we had a visit from the badger.  I took the photo below out of the kitchen window at about 8.45p.m, not a good photo but at least you can see what it is.

I seem to have been taking photos of pumpkins over the last couple of days, I'll share those with you on Thursday.

Recently

Recently I've been walking.........

by the River Derwent at Cromford between Masson Mill and Arkwright's Mill.....

and along the Cromford Canal as far as the Leawood Pumping Station.

 

Enjoying.....

The last of the Dahlias in the garden.

Reading........

about Rain whilst it has been raining non stop for the last couple of days.  It's a lovely read, not one hundred pages long but full of wonderful prose and information. 

Four walks across four seasons, three in places I know or have visited. All in the rain.

Spotting signs of Autumn.........

In the trees

Loads of Sweet Chestnuts on the trees

but most small and unformed 

and falling to the ground

leaves on the path, blowing in the breeze.

Lords and Ladies plus lots of different fungi.

We had a quick walk around the lake this morning starting out in sunshine and blue skies. We watched the Martins swooping over the lake catching the last of the flying insects.  Halfway round it started to rain, heavy infrequent drops which soon turned to a short, sharp shower as we left the gardens.  As we drove home we spotted a rainbow so delicate it disappeared no more than five seconds after we had spotted it.

Back Home

Last week we sneaked away for a few days break.  We don't like to go away for too long even though our wonderfully kind neighbour doesn't mind looking after our very elderly cat Max it doesn't seem fair to leave her with the responsibility of giving medications and etc for too long.  

Here are a few photos taken whilst we were away. 

 We walked on a few beaches

Tuesday was very, very wet.  We travelled on the West Highland Railway past the pounding and swirling high river in the Glaslyn valley.

 Fields and roads were inundated

River banks were swollen, there was nowhere for the water to go.  The mountain tops were shrouded in mist.

The next day the sun came out and all seemed well with the world again.

 We went beach combing along the beach at Llanbedrog

 We walked some of the coastal path .....

.... and came across some unusual sights, this tipi style marquee was being erected for a wedding later in the week.

 A walk and coffee and welsh cakes at Borth y Gest

The harbour at Abersoch

where it was finally warm enough to do seaside things - rum and raisin on the left and mango and passion fruit on the right. 

 I'll be back later in the week to report on a visit to a very special building which was open yesterday for the Heritage Open Days weekend.

The Rain it Raineth Every Day

Yesterday our garden was inundated with water after a storm of heavy rain, thunder and lightening.

 All we could do was watch it through the windows as it gushed down from under the hedge which backs onto school grounds, ran across the garden and out onto the street.

 Taking with it the contents of the pond and all the gravel which is now spread across the grass.
 

 The step ladders were popped into the greenhouse when the rain started to keep them dry!  They were being used to cut one of the tall hedges.  The bags full of leaves which wouldn't fit in the garden wheelie bin were floating near the new fence.

  There is a lot of clearing up to do today. 

Two newts from the pond which were rescued and put back there.

Sorry no Five on Friday post today after the events both local and national yesterday but I'll give you a link to one of my favourite parts of one of my favourite films.  I'm not sure how to put this on here so follow the link to see Sir Ben Kingsley singing The Wind and the Rain from Trevor Nunn's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.