Monday 7 May 2018

A Big Day out - Coughton Court - NT

Hi there everyone πŸ˜€

It is feeling positively summery here at the moment. We have actually had sunshine for four or five days in a row and the forecast is looking good for the rest of the week 🌞🌞🌞

For the last few years we’ve started to steer away from exchanging birthday gifts with friends. Instead we've been drawn more to spending time doing something together by way of celebration. Sometimes it will be a curry at our favourite Indian restaurant, other times we might meet up for breakfast or an afternoon tea.

Last week we had a real treat and managed to spend a whole day out, on a week day no less, with our good friends Jackie and Phil.

We had a National Trust visit on the cards and were off to Coughton Court in Worcestershire. It was somewhere none of us had visited before and it looked like it would make for a good day out, with a nice pub close by for dinner on the way home.

It only took us about 45 minutes to get there and, as we were there before the gates were open, we just had time to pick up a few Geocaches nearby before we started our visit.

Having checked in at reception and booked timed tickets to explore the house at 2pm, our first stop was the restaurant. We'd all skipped breakfast as we thought it would be nice to have something here, ahead of calling at a pub for a meal later on in the day.

The weather was glorious, blue skies and warm sunshine, and we managed to take our refreshments outside sitting at a table in the stable yard, which was a real treat.

After a good look at the map we decided that we would head for the bluebell wood first as we were visiting just at the right time to see these in full bloom were hoping get some decent pictures.

I would say it's about a mile walk to and from the wood. There is a really interesting trail through the woodland telling the tale of the property’s involvement in the gunpowder plot. I guess it's aimed at children really, but we found it really interesting.

The bluebells were definitely worth the walk ...


And it wasn't all totally about the bluebells. There were plenty of other wild flowers to be seen too and the air was just filled with the scent of the wild garlic ...
There were also a few bits of wood sculpture ...
This one was the perfect selfie spot ...
From the woodland we took the gentleman’s walk along the back of the lake and the bog garden.

Now, I’m not normally that enamoured by a bog garden, but this was pretty impressive, there was some really interesting planting and still lots more to come later in the season.

From the bog garden we wandered past the vegetable garden which, sadly, wasn’t open on our visit but there were some good views of the church through the apple blossom.
We made our way round the back of the vegetable garden ...
... not knowing what to expect as we walked through into the orchard. It was a real delight, two rows of fruit trees, all in flower, with tulips and camassia growing in abundance below ...
Camassia is one of our favourite plants. We stayed in a holiday cottage in Pickering a number of years ago and it was our wedding anniversary. The cottage gardens were beautiful and we were admiring the camassia, not having seen it before or knowing what it was. The owners very kindly dug us up a clump to bring home and it is always in flower on our wedding anniversay. Up until last year we had it in a pot, but we have moved it into our new raised bed and it is looking good ...
There were also some striking sculpture ...
... some very protective new parents ...
... and more great views of the church ...
From the orchard we made out way into the walled garden. It was a bit early in the season for us to see much in flower, but I’m sure it will look amazing in another month or so ... we are definitely going to have to make another visit.

Coming out of the other side of the walled garden we were greeted by the most glorious display of tulips in front of the house.

It really took us by surprise, but we found this property very good for that. The gardens are laid out in such a way that you never really know what's coming and there is a treat round every corner.

We just had time for a quick detour round to one of the churches on the estate before it was time for our visit to the house ... but not before loitering around for a fair while, trying to get some people free photos of the tulips, which was pretty tricky.

I took lots of photos, the tulips were really stunning so apologies for photo overload but I have slimmed them down, I promise ...
I would say we spent about an hour in the house and if you know me well and follow my blog regularly you won’t be surprised to find that I have far more to say about the gardens of this kind of property than the property itself. We did enjoy our look around inside, there was plenty to see, but I think the best bit for me was the view from the roof, which was definitely worth the effort of the spiral staircase ...
... and the only photo I took from actually inside the house was looking at the tulips through the window ...

Coming back out into the sunshine we were starting to flag a bit, so we finished off our visit looking at the last bits of garden ... 
...   before heading back to the stable yard for a mooch in the gift shop, the book shop and the plant sales.

It was then back to the car and a short drive to the Throckmorton Arms for tea, before heading for home ... but not before a quick drive through the ford ... we just couldn’t resist.

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We had a fab day out and can't wait to go back at the end of  June when we are reliably informed that the walled garden will be a sight to behold. I'm looking forward to it already 🌷🌸🌹🌺🌻🌼

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2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. They were absolutely stunning Elena, and in my favourite colour too πŸ’œ

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