Sculpture at Hidcote

Hi there everyone 😀

If you’ve followed my ramblings for long you will know that I love outdoor sculpture, I love a garden visit and I love autumn. Add a couple of really good friends and a nice pub lunch into the mix and it’s a real winning combination.

A week or so ago we managed to find a gap in the calendar, among the appointments and other commitments, that coincided with a gap in Jackie and Phil’s. A big day out was on the cards.

I’d seen that there was an outdoor sculpture exhibition on at Hidcote, running till the end of October. As it’s one of our favourite gardens to visit and Jackie’s birthday falls mid month the decision to visit was a very easy one.

It took us about an hour to get to the garden and we were keeping our fingers crossed for one of those perfect autumn days … a bit of sunshine, a nip in the air … but no rain … and we ended up being blessed with perfect weather …

We started our visit, as is tradition, with a visit to the cafe, where pasties and sausage rolls went down a real treat. It also gave us chance to have a good look through the leaflet, where we found that all the sculptures were actually available to buy. We hoped we weren’t going to be making any expensive impulse purchases.

There were actually 227 sculptures listed to see and we really did our best to see the very vast majority. As you can imagine … I took lots of photographs so I will just share my favourites with you …

There were, of course, a few selfies too …

There was still plenty of colour to be seen in the garden and we spent a good couple of hours just mooching round, enjoying the sculptures and the fresh air …

It was definitely worth a visit and so lovely to see the garden from a different kind of angle.

We finished our day with a quick call in at a local garden centre before getting settled in a cosy country pub for a late lunch.

We’d had a lovely day and … I know you will be curious to know … we didn’t buy any sculptures 😜

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A Week in Bude #5 :: Port Isaac, Crazy Golf and a Very High Tide

Hi there everyone 😀

It seems like an absolute age ago that we were in Bude with the family for a week of sunshine. 

This post finishes off my series and covers our last full day, which saw us heading a little further down the coast for a visit to the beautiful fishing village of Port Isaac.

It’s another favourite spot, with its winding streets, pretty cottages and picturesque harbour. We’ve been regular visitors when staying in Bude for many years … long before the arrival of Doc Martin 😜 

It was quite a busy day but we were lucky enough to find the very last parking spot in the bottom car park, which always makes for a lovely walk into the village along the coastal path …

First stop was one of our favourite shops for mooching. Whilst we don’t normally buy anything we always have to have a bit of a look. This cafe also looked very inviting but it was too early for a pit stop …

We also always have to stop and take in the view across the harbour to that, now, very famous doctor’s surgery …

We carried on down into the heart of the village, across the harbour and up the other side …

… where we decided it was now time for a pit stop. We ended up in somewhere we’d not tried before … The Chapel cafe and we were both very impressed with the interior. It was just lovely …

Fortified … it was time to start to head back … but there plenty of time for a wander on the beach, a bit of beach combing and a sit in the sunshine first …

From Port Isaac we made our way back to Bude for some more family fun. Crazy golf was on the agenda …

… before hitting The Brendon Arms for a family meal. 

After we’d eaten we all had a wander down the canal to the sea lock to watch a very high tide … which was pretty impressive …

The following morning it was time to pack up, say our goodbyes, and head for home. Saying good bye to Bude is always a little bit sad as we never really know when we will back. It never disappoints and we’d had a lovely week in one of our favourite places, with plenty of sunshine and family time ☀️☀️☀️

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A Big Job Out of the Way

Hi there everyone 😀

Today saw the arrival of the ‘tree men’. If they’d been Irish I may have made some kind of joke about ‘tree fellas’ as there were three of them 😜 … or would that be considered very politically incorrect these days?

Anyway … for me … any visit by anyone doing anything in the garden is always met with a bit of trepidation as there’s always a bit of worry about how the job will go. You know the kind of thing … will they cut too much off? Will they clear up properly? Will there be any traumatic incidents? 

Well I’m pleased to report that all went well. My wedding present magnolia and my self set rowan had their first formal haircuts and are looking very tidy …

The maples and prunus along the back wall had a far more pronounced trim … with the height being brought down by a good four to five metres …

In the above photo the climber is in the tree and you can just see how far he brought the maple down in the middle 😲. The rest was all brought down to that level. 

As you can probably imagine there were a lot of branches to be disposed of …

And this is where they all ended up …

It was most definitely a very good job done and out of the way ready for winter. 

The only problem is … it opens the way now for a long list of other jobs that we need to get cracking on with 😀

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