Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens in the Autumn

Hi there everyone 😀

In the few weeks we were home in between our Isle of Wight and Peak District holidays we managed to grab a sneaky day out for a local garden visit and afternoon tea.

Managing to use our Gardeners' World 2 for 1 card and an afternoon tea gift voucher, that we'd had for a couple of years and was very close to expiring, we headed for Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, which was about a half an hour's drive for us. Neither of us had ever visited before and other than seeing other friends' photos on Facebook, we had no idea what to expect.

The gardens are not in the usual kind of spot where we would expect to find a pretty 18th century walled garden to visit ... tucked away on the edge of a residential area, within spitting distance of the M6 and just under the flight path for Birmingham airport.

Saying all that, we were pleasantly surprised to find a charming walled garden, with plenty to see in spite of the time of year and feeling quite peaceful, apart from the hum of planes overhead as they were coming in to land.

We entered the garden via a small cafe and courtyard ...
We decided that we walk round the garden in an anti-clockwise direction and headed through a gate into the courtyard bringing us into a pretty small walled area, with plenty of interesting bits to catch the eye ...

We headed for the orangery ... the red brick of the old walls of garden were really popping against the blue sky, which was more than we had been hoping for from a weather point of view. It was a glorious Autumn day ...
Of course, we had to have a peak inside ...

Back out into the Autumn chill and we carried on following the old red brick wall ...
... until we reached the archway leading outside the garden walls ...

We decided to head through the archway and explore the areas outside of the garden walls, which have been cultivated to encourage wildlife, with ponds, flower meadows and an orchard ...

There were also signs of Halloween shenanigans to come ...
We came back into the garden not far from the summer house and headed to the West Lookout where we were surrounded by vibrant Autumn colour ...

Having taken it all we headed into the maze ...

... where we got a few steps in meandering through the holly ...

We finally found our way back to the gate for a fabulous view looking right down the garden ...

From the maze we made our way to the vegetable garden, where there wasn't a lot to see but this sight  did give us both a quiet chuckle ...

... as did this little fella ...

We were now by the Summer House, so about half way round the garden ...

I think I caught some of favourite shots of our visit in this half of the garden ... vibrant pink cosmos, still with plenty of life ...
... and some seed heads which looked striking silhouetted against the blue sky ...

We were now on the last side of the garden which brought us back up past the Hall, which is the hotel where we were to be taking our afternoon tea ...
... and our last views of the garden ...

We were a bit early for our afternoon tea so called into the cafe for a warm up before making the short drive round to the hotel, for what ended up being a very eventful visit 😲
Who would have thought that this little flower bed ...
... could cause quite so much damage 😧 ...
All I can say is ... I am glad I wasn't driving, as I would never had heard the last of it.

It did take the shine off our afternoon a bit, but we did still manage to enjoy our afternoon tea treat ...

We'd really enjoyed our visit to the gardens and I'm sure it's somewhere that we will visit again at another time of year ... not sure that we would go back to the hotel though ... not through any fault of their own.

As a footnote ... DirectLine Insurance were absolutely fantastic at getting us all sorted and back on the road. I literally had to make one phone call to register the claim and that was it. Car collected, hire car provided, car repaired and returned, with the absolute least of fuss and no chasing required at all ... we were both very impressed 😁

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Joy in the Everyday Ordinary - November, 11-20

Hi there everyone 😀

We are just back from the loveliest relaxing week holed up in a cosy holiday cottage, very close to a very swollen river, in Ashford-in-the-Water in The Peak District.

Though we arrived to sandbags at the front and back doors, we had missed the worst of the rain and actually got quite lucky and even saw some sunshine. We got out and about and visited a few new places and got to see Chatsworth for Christmas and the Christmas markets which were a real treat.

We were thrown right back into the swing of things with the first of our Christmas craft fairs the day after we got back and we have a couple more over the course of the next couple of weeks so November and December are shaping up to be just as busy as predicted, so I still have plenty to share with you but ... for now, here's what we've been up to so far ...

Day 11 - A very productive craft day ... it seems to have gone a little crazy with orders over the last week, which is very exciting. I made up a batch of William Morris bookmarks to go with the cards I'd previously made and I love how they've turned out.

Day 12 - A morning at the hair dressers, just chilling whilst getting the Christmas colour done and a big Christmas order all ready and packaged up for the off 😁

Day 13 - Last day of crafting before we head off for our week's holiday. We don't seem to be able to make these beeswax wraps quick enough!

Day 14 - After a morning at school, carrying out Governor duties, I spent the afternoon catching up on blogging ready for while we are away. It was lovely to browse through Isle of Wight holiday photographs of our visit to Brighstone, with glorious sunshine, whilst tucked up inside listening to the rain hitting the windows.

Day 15 - All the crafting orders done and posted, shopping done, cleaning done, packing done ... just one thing left to do before heading off tomorrow and that was to sit down with pizza and chips for our last evening at home for a week.

Day 16 - Lunch at the Chatsworth Garden Centre en route to Ashford-in-the-Water and yes, it tasted every bit as good as it looked 😋

Day 17 - The view from  bedroom window for the next week and yes ... the river is very high!

Day 18 - Today was my 55th birthday and we had one of the loveliest of days. After lots of rain in the area, the weather did us proud and we had a lovely bright, dry day with lots of sunshine. We spent it exploring a few new places ... Padley Gorge, Owler Tor and the Derwent and Howden reservoirs, all of which were just stunning and I have lots of photos to share with you over the coming weeks. This view though ... just near took our breath away. We'd driven as far as the road allowed up past the reservoirs and came to this spot where the water was dead still and the sun was just about to set ... another 10 minutes and all would have been dark ... the reflections were absolutely amazing ... it was the perfect end to one of the loveliest of days 💜💜💜

Day 19 - Apart from the fact that it was dry, the weather couldn't have been more different from yesterday. We woke up to a really heavy frost and the temperature had took a bit of a nose dive. We wrapped up warm for our annual Christmas day out ... this time to Chatsworth. We started with a walk round the gardens, followed by lunch, Christmas markets and a wander round the house, which was all decked out for Christmas around the World. Another lovely day out.

Day 20 - After a couple of very 'full on' days, we slowed it down a bit today with breakfast at the Hassop Station Cafe, followed by a wander round Bakewell for some Christmas shopping and a quick pitstop at the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop. This mug caught my eye in one of the quirky little shops and really made me smile 😀

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Isle of Wight Holiday Diary #4 - Exploring Brighstone

Hi there everyone 😀

When this post is published we will be hunkering down in Ashford-in-the-Water in Derbyshire, hoping that the floods of this last week or so have subsided so that we can get out and about ... though I think, secretly, neither of us will really mind if we have to hibernate for a week. In fact the idea actually sounds quite appealing😀

For now though, we are back on the Isle of Wight ... and yes, we are still exploring the west of the island ...

Day 6 - Thursday

Today our plans were to actually park up and have a look round Brighstone. It's a pretty little village that we'd passed through a couple of times on our excursions so far and looked like it would be definitely worth a stop.

There is a small car park, which was full when we were trying to park but we managed to find a spot on the road, opposite the church hall ...
We couldn't have planned it better ... Thursday was craft market day ...
That was our first stop well and truly sorted and it was a real delight. Whilst we didn't actually buy anything, every single stall holder was so friendly and we spent a good while just generally chatting about the village and what we must make sure to see.

We mentioned that we'd had a quick look at the information board outside and it did look like there was more to the village than first appeared and were presented with a leaflet which included a map and two 2.5 mile walks around the north and the south of the village ...
Whilst we didn't feel quite up to completing the full walks we did want to have a bit more of a look round and headed up North Street, which was the prettiest of streets, housing a small gift shop, the village library and museum ...
We did just a short loop around the north of the village, heading left at the top of North Street onto Upper Lane and then cutting through and over Buddle Brook ...

... before heading back down Moor Lane and back on to Main Road and back into the heart of the village, passing some of the prettiest thatched cottages ever ...

Back in the heart of the village is a newsagent, pub and village shop, which had a fabulous display of fruit, veg and all manner of bits out front ...

From here we headed to the church ... we were on a Geocaching hunt and spent a good while looking round the churchyard for information that we needed to complete our quest ...

 

Having found all that we needed we headed off to complete part of the walk to the south of the village, doing another small loop which took in the ancient oak known locally as the Dragon Tree ...
We carried on down as far as Brighstone Mill before beginning to retrace our steps ...

... across the fields ...

... passing more pretty chocolate box cottages ...

... to bring us back to where we started.

I can't remember how long we spent in the village, other than the fact that it was a lot longer than we were initially expecting. If you visit and feel up to doing both of the walks and taking in a lunch stop, you could easily spend the best part of the day there.

We loved it and found it totally charming. Everyone we passed smiled and said hello, it was a really friendly and welcoming place to spend a few hours.

We decided to head off and try and find a nice spot somewhere for our picnic ... we really were making the most of the glorious weather.

We ended up at the car park for St Catherine's Oratory, where it was just a little bit breezy, but the views were fabulous ...
Lunch done we weren't quite ready to head back just yet and decided to take a drive along the Old BlackGang Road and have a look at the impact of the landslides, which have occurred over the years.

It's a very narrow road leading to a parking spot on a very windy and exposed part of the coast, but it was definitely worth a look ...

Seeing it today, looking beautiful with the blue sky and sunshine and vegetation claiming back the land, it was hard to imagine the devastation that would have been caused at the time, with houses and a great chunk of the coast lost forever ... It was quite sobering ... and on that note it was time to head back to Bramble Cottage for the evening 😔

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