Beautiful Britain - Canons Ashby NT - Northamptonshire

I still have plenty of posts to share from our recent holiday in The Cairngorms but I thought I'd have a bit of a change this week to let you know about one of our recent  National Trust visits.

We were meeting up with Sue and Ken, family from Peterborough, for lunch and we tend to try and find a meeting point about half way between us. The last couple of times we have met at Foxton Locks but this time we just fancied a change. As we are all National Trust members, we decided to see if there was anywhere that met the bill.

Canons Ashby near Daventry seemed to be exactly what we were looking for. It was Ideally placed, about an hours drive for all of us, and none of us had visited before, so it would be a bit of an adventure.

The Trust describe the property as "A tranquil Tudor manor house set in rare terraced gardens, with the 'antient' Dryden family at its heart." I won't lie, I had to look up what on earth 'antient' meant. Apparently it's an obsolete way of spelling ancient ..... Who knew?

Anyway, the main thing was that there were tea rooms, so that was lunch sorted and there was somewhere to hang out if we were early.

We had a really good run along the A5, though it does look like there are some serious roadworks under way, which I would guess would make for a heck of a journey when they are in full swing, though, being a Sunday it was nice and quiet.It took us just over an hour from Tamworth so definitely doable for a nice day out from our part of the World.

We were a bit early so parked up and headed for the tea rooms, via the plant sales area, which would definitely be getting a good look at later. 

The weather was lovely so we managed to sit outside and chill whilst waiting for Sue and Ken to arrive. We didn't have to wait long and after a good catch up, accompanied by drinks and snacks, it was time to explore.

The house doesn't open till 1.00pm so we had plenty of time for a good wander round the gardens first.

We all loved the gardens, there is definitely more to them than first meets the eye, and we all took lots and lots of photos, especially of plants that we might like to try and find for our own gardens back home.

When you first enter the garden you are at the top of, what seems like, a very formal terrace.
There were some great views to be had of The Priory Church beyond the garden wall.

Wandering down the slope, from the formal part of the garden, into the vegetable patch, the formality completely disappears, with lots of fruit and veg growing alongside cottage garden plants all watched over by Mr and Mrs Scarecrow.
We made our way down to the bottom of the garden, through the middle of the vegetable patch ...
... past the most beautiful of sweet peas ...

... and then came back up along the wall of the garden, where we found plenty of photo opportunities within the herbaceous border. You know you are getting old when you know what the majority of the plants are, though there were a few that none of us had come across before.

Back at the top of this part of the garden we headed left around another patch of garden, where we managed to dodge a quick shower by taking cover in the rain shelter.
The view of the house itself was really good from this side of the garden and I did manage to catch a shot with no people in ... result!!
Once the rain had passed it was back out and up to the back of the house, where a gateway draws you into yet another part of the garden - Green Court. This court originally served as the main entrance to the house until 1840, when it was turfed over.
This part of garden is at the far side of the house and was completely different to what we'd seen already. There are two fabulous borders to admire. One with more herbaceous planting leading your eye to the side view of the house ...
The border on the opposite side of the garden was completely different. The fern border contains over 31 different varieties of fern and there is lots of lush greenery ... and as you can see we had to break out the brollies again ...
In between the two borders were rows of neatly clipped yew hedges, framing a statue of a shepherd boy which apparently honours the actions of a shepherd during a Civil War skirmish at Canons Ashby.
We followed the fern border, along the wall and back to the gateway leading us back into the main part of the garden.
There was then just one more bit of garden to admire as we made our way back, past the croquet lawn and along the side of the house, where there were more fabulous views of the church, across yet more herbaceous borders.
We found more plants that we had no clue as to what they were, but took pictures in the hope that all may become clear via Google once we returned home.

We'd spent a good hour wandering around the gardens and the house was now open. We decided to miss the initial rush and headed back to the tea rooms for lunch. There isn't a massive choice on the menu but we all made do very well with jacket potatoes and a good opportunity to shelter from another rain shower.
Refreshed, we headed back to the house to explore.

It's what I would call a medium sized property with a good few rooms to explore.

There wasn't much opportunity for photos inside, but there was plenty of evidence of the garden fulfilling its role for providing cut flowers.

After our look around the house it was a short walk across the road to have a look in the church, which was very simple and calm, with plenty more flowers from the garden.Other than our last call at the gift shop and plant centre, where we couldn't resist the tall spiky flowers of the Francoa Sonchifolia, that was the end of our visit today.

So that's another NT property off our list and another that we would all be more than happy to recommend as being well worth a visit for a lovely day out.

Beautiful Britain - Braemar to The Linn O'Dee

Our second big day out on our recent trip up to Royal Deeside found us retracing our steps from .
Braemar to The Linn O'Dee

We had loved both Braemar and The Linn O'Dee when we last visited during our stay back in 2015 and we really wanted to re-visit and show mum and dad around, as we knew they would love them both too.

We had a quick stop off at Braemar Castle for a few photos, including the first selfie of the day.

We then drove on through Braemar village and on to The Linn O'Dee. The weather was not so good and we arrived in a heavy drizzle, but that wasn't going to stop us from exploring this beautiful spot.
We wandered down to the bridge from the car park to see and hear the raging torrent of The Dee as it channeled its way through the narrow gorge beneath the bridge. It was an awesome sight.
For us, its when you cross the road and see The Dee, before it hits the gorge, that is the best sight. From seeing the river come through the narrow gorge its difficult to begin to imagine how broad the river actually is, but as you cross the road this really becomes clear.

It was no less of an amazing sight when seeing it for the second time. The river is so calm and wide, it's hard to imagine it's the same beast that is raging through the gorge. We love the calmness and beauty of this side. You can really get up close and personal with the river and we spent plenty of time just standing, watching and taking it all in.
Apologies for the photo overload but it was just sooooooo beautiful ...

All too soon it was time to be on our way. We followed The Dee, as it meandered its way back to Braemar, with a stop off for an in car picnic and a few photos of the valley.

Back in Braemar we had a good wander around, before making a hot chocolate pitstop for refreshments.

Whilst Braemar is only a small village, it is really pretty and there are plenty of interesting bits to stop and have a look at, including the railway station that has never seen a train, the remains of Kindrochit Castle and the RAF memorial, made from one of the engines from the wreckage of a Wellington R1646 found locally, which stands in memory of all airmen losing their lives in The Cairngorms.
We had one final stop off on the way back to Garnshiel Lodge. We've spotted this bridge from the road lots of times and today was the day that we decided to stop and have a closer look.
We were able to pull in a little further along the road and you can actually walk to the bridge. It turns out it is the 'Old Brig O'Dee' or 'The Invercauld Bridge' and the views of the river in either direction are spectacular. It's definitely worth a stop if you are passing.

So that was it, the end of our second big day out, pretty much spent the whole of it alongside The Dee, just beautiful 💜💜💜

Beautiful Britain - Ballater & The Burn O'Vat

Our first day out on our recent Scotland holiday with mum and dad found us back in Ballater, which is the closest village to the Garnshiel Lodge Estate, where we were staying.

It wasn't the brightest of days but it was lovely to be back and we were looking forward to showing mum and dad around.

Since we'd last visited someone had set up a new Geocache. It was what is kown as a 'multi' and involved us identifying the locations of a number of photographs around the village.  It really gave us a good wander around and took us to parts of the village that we hadn't explored before.
We had been looking forward to showing mum and dad the old station, we knew they would have loved it. We had found out before visiting about the fire that pretty much destroyed the whole of the station a few years back and it was so sad seeing it all boarded up, though it was good to see that rebuilding work was under way.

Here is a picture I took on our last visit, compared to how it looks at the moment ...
After a bit of a pitstop for hot chocolate we decided to head out for the Burn O'Vat, another spot that we'd really enjoyed on our previous visit.

We weren't disappointed, and neither were mum and dad. After a nice walk through the woods and a bit of a scramble over the rocks, we were soon through the gap in the rocks.We were greeted with the rushing sound of the waterfall, which was in fuller flow than we had last visited.

It was as awe inspiring as the first time we'd seen it and is definitely somewhere that you can't visit too many times.
It was then time to head back for home, but not without a stop at a roadside AA box for a sneak peak inside and a closer look at some of the horse's hoof fungus, which were just everywhere.

Our last stop of the day was at the Cambus O'May bridge and, again, we were sad to see the damage that had been impacted by the floods back in 2015.

Here is the bridge as it looked on our previous visit, earlier in 2015 ...
... and here is what it looks like now ...

A quick Google search found this image of the level of the flood and it is hard to imagine the beautiful and peaceful Dee as we saw it today to this raging monster in full flood.

Whilst we were sad to see the evidence of the area suffering from a number of devastating incidents since we'd last visited, we were so glad to be back. The area is so beautiful with so much to see and explore. I'm sure this isn't the last time that we will visit Ballater.