At Home for the Summer - #1 Back to Coughton Court, NT

Hi there everyone 😁

I'm sure you will all be aware that over the last 12 months Martin and I have put a lot of time and effort into improving our garden. Well, this year we both wanted to be able to make the most of it, enjoy spending time in it and keep it at its best over the summer, so we decided that it would be a year for spending the best part of the summer months at home.

That’s not to say there wouldn’t be a few trips out and about ... and I’ve tried to arrange some kind of day out for each of the weeks that Martin isn’t working. You may remember that at the beginning of May we visited Coughton Court (NT) with our good friends Jackie and Phil.We'd been intending to make a return visit to try and catch the walled gardens at their best as there hadn’t been much to see on our first visit, as we were just a few weeks too early in the season for the herbaceous borders to have really got going. One of the gardeners had told us that late June was the best time to see see them looking their best, but for one reason or another we didn’t manage to get back until the first week in July.

As the gates don't open until 11.00am and we were a bit early we decided to head up the lane at the side of the estate and through the ford again. On our last visit we had been hunting for a Geocache but hadn’t been able to find it and we wanted to give it another go.

This time we were with mum and dad and, after a bit of persistence and widening of the search area for the access we needed, we managed to find what we were looking for, which was a great start to the day.

By the time we had finished our hunt the gates were open and our first stop, as ever, was the cafe for a bit of a pit stop. We very rarely have breakfast when heading out for the day, much preferring to avail ourselves of the local facilities for a bit of a treat.

It was another scorcher of a day and we decided it was too hot to explore the woodland so we wandered down past the chickens to the river ...

From there we had a good walk round the gardens, taking in the changes since our previous visit.

The goslings are definitely growing up and were having a good old splash about ...
The views across the lake, as we headed towards the bog garden, were just lovely ...
I think it would be fair to say that the bog garden had filled out somewhat ... There was barely any sign of water and if we hadn't been before we wouldn't have known there were statues to be seen.

And the gunnera ... well that was as high as an elephant's eye ...

Back across the other side and we were really pleased to find the vegetable garden open for visitors, as this has been closed on our previous visit.

It was a lovely little garden, with a real mixture of planting, with clematis climbing through the fruit canes ...
The apple blossom had long gone but there were little green apples started to swell on pretty much all of the trees ...
There were plenty of ripe and juicy raspberries and fat pods of the sweetest garden peas, all growing under the watchful eye of this wise fellow ...

Finally we were at the walled garden and it was absolutely scorching hot. Martin and dad decided to stop for a breather and sat admiring the daisies and listening to the sound of the fountain ...

... whilst mum and I headed in to the left side of the walled garden, excited to see what we would find ...
We could see, straight away, that we were really just a couple of weeks too late to see the borders at their absolute best, though there was far more to see than there was when we'd visited back in May. It was definitely looking like we would have to be back in June 2019.

Saying that there were some real displays of hot summer colour going on. More of the red/orange palette than my preferred purple and blues, but pretty impressive just the same ...

Walking back past the fountain and the daisies and picking up Martin and dad on the way we headed into the right hand side of the garden. We were so pleased to see that we hadn't missed all of the wisteria ...

 

Whilst the rest of the garden still held plenty of colour, again, we were just that couple of weeks too late to see it at its most glorious ...

 

 We came out of the walled garden at the front of the house where, on our last visit, we had been blown away by the tulip display ...
If I'm totally honest today's display was a bit of a disappointment, though that is more of a result of our timing, rather than from the planting. I'm sure at its best the display of white shrub roses and lavender would have looked just as spectacular as the tulips ...
We found a spot in the shade for a quick breather before heading inside ...


It was so hot that Martin couldn’t face another walk round the house so mum, dad and I had made the quickest visit ever. We did make it right to the top but neither of us had the energy to spend long in any of the rooms and couldn’t face reading any of the information boards, so again a return visit us definitely on the cards.
We just about managed a quick ice cream before we headed off.

Have I said it was hot! Well it was 31 degrees in the car and I just mentioned how I would love to dip my feet in the ford as they were absolutely roasting. Whilst dad and Martin weren’t keen on the idea, mum was well up for it, so that’s exactly what we did.

I can not tell you how wonderful it was to dip our feet into the cool, clear water and wade across the ford. It was crystal clear and we watched the little fish swimming about as we had a really good cool down. It was definitely the highlight of the day for me.

Feet dried off, I just happened to have taken a towel with us, and we headed over to the Throckmorton Arms for doorstop sandwiches and pints of ice cold lime and lemonade, which went down an absolute treat.

We’d had a lovely day and we shouldn’t complain about the weather but it was really too hot for wandering about, though perhaps if it hadn’t been that hot we wouldn’t have got to have dipped our feet it the ford.

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Big thanks again to Coughton Court for another lovely day out ... 

we will see you again in June 2019 😀

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A Big Day out - Coughton Court - NT

Hi there everyone 😀

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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