Tuesday 29 August 2017

On our Doorstep - Newton Regis Open Gardens



Hi there everyone

It always amazes me how much stuff goes on right under our noses and on our doorsteps, especially through the Summer months. If you keep your eyes peeled whilst out driving about you can often find out about local events that it would be a shame to miss.

Back in July Martin and I managed to spend a lovely afternoon, mooching round the open gardens in one of our prettiest local villages, Newton Regis.

The timing was perfect, as it fell just after we'd had all of the new hard landscaping done in our own garden, and we were on a hunt for inspiration.

For the cost of £4 each we were able to visit a total of 18 gardens and whilst we didn't manage to visit them all, it was money well spent.

We were blessed with a lovely sunny afternoon and managed to park at the front of the church, which is pretty much smack bang in the middle of the village and placed us well for the start of the trail.

Garden Number 1 was a small, but beautiful, front garden. The planting was abundant and we were really taken with the use of all of the 'greenery'.We were particularly impressed with the 'Brunnera', which is the white and green heart shaped leafy plant topping the stone edge.
The combination of the roses with clematis was also something that we really liked and will definitely be trying to incorporate in our own garden.

Garden Number 2 was another walled front garden with the very best use made of ferns ...
We loved the way that the pots had been positioned, creating a feeling of lush greenery. We have a very shady patch under the trees at the bottom of our garden, where it is difficult to grow anything other than self set violets and forget-me-knots. We are hoping to include some larger plants in pots, and chimney pots, within the border, along with some ferns to see if we can get this same effect.

The front of the property of Garden Number 3 was all about the hydrangeas. We haven't had much luck with these in the past, but I think its definitely time to have another go. They give such an explosion of colour, though the purples and blues would be more my thing ...We then carried on along the lane, where self set verbena was growing like crazy against the wall ...

Garden Number 3 looks out over open countryside and was all about the view ...
... and the vegetables ...

It was then back along the lane and into the Main Road for Garden Number 4. One of the things that we love about visiting open gardens is that you never know what you are going to find behind that garden gate.

We ducked under the 'AIR RAID WARDEN' sign to enter Garden Number 4 ...
... and found a lovely long old garden, backing on to open countryside, full of treats and surprises, with the loveliest of views looking back towards the house from the bottom of the garden ...
We loved the old brick path and we also really liked the idea of growing something in an old bird cage ...

Garden Number 6 had some beautiful water lilies on display ...... but it was this rusty flower sculpture that we really fell in love with ...
In fact, we loved it so much, that we have already found something similar and have it installed in one of our own borders ...

Garden Number 7 was one of our absolute favourites. It was just a front garden, but it was so beautiful and tranquil that we could have sat there for ages.

There was so much going on. The raised brick beds were jam packed full of planting and there were lots of pots filling in the gaps, with interesting bits and pieces to see everywhere you looked ...



Garden Number 8 seemed to be never ending. A winding path led through trees to greenhouses and an orchard beyond, but lots and lots of work needed here to restore it to its former glory.

Work is under way and has started close to the house, but they do have a huge task on their hands here.


We did then decide to skip a few gardens and instead made our way to the church to look at the flower displays, all of which had a summer theme ...


We found more inspiration for our own garden in Garden Number 11. We just loved the black stemmed hydrangeas ...
... and this purple rose involved us making a return visit, just to check it was definitely a 'Rhapsody in Blue' as we just had to have one for our own garden ...
We have already been out and bought one, which we have planted in the new raised bed. It looks nowhere near as impressive as this one does, but we do already have a couple of blooms showing. We are hoping for a good show next year ...

Garden Number 12 was the last for us today and it was a real treat. Behind a very unassuming house there really was a surprise around every corner, including a Karaoke bar right down at the bottom.

It's a really long and narrow garden and the space has been divided up really well to give lots of different areas to explore and to relax in ...

There are lots of strategically placed mirrors which give a real different perspective ...


We'd spent a lovely and inspiring afternoon mooching round people's gardens and we'd loved it. We'd had a good walk and came away with lots of ideas for our own garden.

If you get chance to visit open gardens I would definitely recommend it. You never know quite what you might stumble across through that back gate.

Thank you to all the people of Newton Regis for putting on such a show.

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Beautiful Britain - 3 Castles in One Day, Aberdeenshire (Part 3)

Hi there everyone

Well, here we are at the third and final castles of our 3 Castles in One Day big day out.

We'd spent ages in the gardens at Crathes and Drum Castles and now it was time to hightail it to Craigievar.

It was quite late in the day and we were all pretty shattered but were all excited about seeing this last castle of the day.

The National Trust for Scotland website says ...
"If fairytales were real, all castles would look like Craigievar."
As we got closer we were all eagerly looking for the first glimpse of the castle. We were not disappointed ...
... It really did look like a castle from a fairytale. A dusky pink, nestled amongst every shade of green we could imagine.

We stopped for more glimpses through the trees on the driveway and were getting more excited by the minute ...
Again, we'd timed our visit when the castle was closed, but we were still able to explore the grounds and we followed the short footpath from the car park to the castle. eagerly awaiting the big reveal, which was never going to be anything but a sheer delight ...
From here it was simply a case of oohing and aahing at every angle - it just looked lovely from every direction ...


Apologies to anyone who was hoping to see anything other than photos of a pink castle, I just couldn't help myself ...

That was really all we had time for, though of course there's always time for a quick selfie ...
It was soon time for us to be on our way, we'd had a really long, but fabulous day, and we had an appointment with four fish suppers back in Ballater.

I still have a couple more posts to share from our trip to Scotland to share with you, but may have a look at something different next week, hope to see you back here 😉

Monday 14 August 2017

Beautiful Britain - 3 Castles in One Day, Aberdeenshire (Part 2)

Hi there again everyone

Welcome to Part 2 of my 3 Castles in One Day post. Last week I shared our thoughts, and lots of pictures, of the beautiful gardens at Crathes Castle. I still want to share our visits to Drum and Craigevar Castles with you, which were both very different, but equally as lovely.

From Crathes, we made our way, just a short way along the A93 towards Aberdeen, to Drum.

It was a Wednesday and, at the time of year we visited, the castle was actually closed, though the grounds and gardens were open.

We did have a wander through the courtyard and the entrance of the castle, where we availed ourselves of the poshest toilets we had ever seen, as well as picking up some more inspiration for planting back at home.
The weather was pretty grey and miserable whilst we were at Drum, but there was still plenty of colour to be found from the planting and, again, I apologise for the volume of photos of plants, but I know I am going to struggle to thin them down.

We were heading for the Historic Rose Garden and made our way from the castle courtyard, down through the woods, where the candelabra primroses were putting on a great display. We have got to get some of these for our own garden.
As we came out of the woods we were presented with the most spectacular display of lupins, just seemingly growing wild across the meadow. It was a real sight to behold ...
Through the meadow we came to, what appeared to be a bit of a cut flower garden, again absolutely abundant with blooms and bright colours. We were all blown away with the show and we hadn't even reached The Rose Garden ...
It was a nice walk to The Rose Garden, which is entered via an unassuming looking gateway and surrounded by high old stone walls to protect it from the elements.

Entering the garden, we didn't quite know where to look or where to start, there was just so much to catch the eye ...
We decided to start with the viewing platform, which is just to the left as you go in, and gives a good overall view of the garden, which is laid out very formally ...
Beneath the viewing platform is a bit of a stumpery, gradually being overtaken by ferns ...
Although it is an historic rose garden, which is divided into quadrants showing how roses have been cultivated across the centuries, the real showstoppers on our visit were the perennials.

There were a fair few we hadn't come across before ...
As well as some old favourites ...
As usual, the allium featured very highly in my list of favourites ...
It wasn't quite all just about the flowers, the garden overall is really pretty and nicely laid out with archways ...
... and some nice spots to sit and rest awhile ...
Sad as it was, we couldn't linger in The Rose Garden any longer and we made our way back up through the wood, round the back of the castle, through the arboretum and pinetum, where it was all about the Rhododendrons ...
By now time was getting on and we were still hoping to make it to Craigevar, our third castle of the day, so we hightailed it back to the car and were on our way.

We will definitely try and come back to Drum Castle, when its open and when we have more time, I'm sure we've only scratched the surface.

Thank you NTS for another lovely visit. Keep up the good work 😀