Beautiful Britain - 3 Castles in One Day, Aberdeenshire (Part 1)

Hi there everyone

We are back in Scotland for this week's post, still catching up on telling you all about our holiday with mum and dad, back in June.

When we were last up this way back in 2015 it was May and we paid a visit to Crathes Castle. We really enjoyed our visit, but we were just a little too early to see the June border at its best, though it did look as though it would be pretty amazing a few weeks later on.

As we are all members of the National Trust, we had a day of castles on the cards, starting with a return visit for us to Crathes.

As we arrived we had a real treat as there had been some serious 'yarn bombing' occurring and we agreed that we would definitely be parking up on the way out to have a closer look.

We decided that, as the weather looked a bit iffy, we would head straight for the gardens whilst it was dry.

We started off in the walled garden and though it was a dull day we were not in any way disappointed by what we found. The garden was absolutely spectacular and I have to apologise now for what is going to be a serious photo overload. If you don't like plants and flowers you may want to look away, but if you love them as much as we do then grab a cuppa, put your feet up and enjoy ...

The June borders, in both directions were absolutely breathtaking, one of the gardeners confirmed that everything that should be in flower was, so we were seeing the borders at their very best, be it a dull day ...

 As a whole these borders jam packed full of absolutely beautiful and vibrantly coloured flowers ...
There was just so much to look at. We were particularly taken with the Irises and came away inspired to find some similar for our own garden back home ...

We also loved the white borders and we were all surprised to find so many plants that we'd never seen before, even mum, with her encyclopedic knowledge of plants didn't know what a fair few were ...

Whilst these borders were the highlight of the garden for me, there were still lots of really beautiful plants and flowers to be seen. We'd never seen blue poppies before and there were some gorgeous peonies and roses. There was inspiration everywhere ...

From the walled garden we made our way round the back of the castle and the croquet lawn to more gardens to the rear of the castle ... 

We then left mum and dad to have a quick wander around the castle, whilst we opted for a quick breather in the cafe, before we headed off for castle number two.

But we couldn't leave without a stop along the driveway to capture some shots of the yarn bombing which was pretty spectacular in itself ...

We are so glad that we made a return visit, it was totally worth it. I can't see it being our last visit either. I really want to see it at this time of year again, but with bright sunshine and blue skies.

I think I'll save the other two castles for my next post, you can only take so many photos of flowers 😊🌷🌸🌹🌺🌻🌼

Beautiful Britain - Hidcote Manor Gardens NT, Gloucestershire

A few weeks ago now I literally had the loveliest of days ... meeting up with an old friend at Hidcote Manor Gardens, a National Trust property in Gloucestershire.

We chilled, we chatted and we ambled the day away, it was a real treat.

We were so lucky with the weather, it was just glorious, which made everything look so vibrant and colourful ... and feel just sooooooo relaxing.

I had been to Hidcote before, but at a different time of year, and it is just one of those gardens you could visit every month and see something different.

It is tucked away down narrow country lanes in the heart of The Cotswolds, with an old manor house made of honeyed cotswold stone surrounded by the loveliest of gardens, being divided into a series of ‘outdoor rooms’, each with its own character. The formality of the ‘rooms’ melting away as you move through the garden away from the house.

We started our visit with cups of Earl Gray and flapjack for me and a scone for my friend in The Barn Cafe.

It had been a while since we'd met up so we had a good old chinwag over our cuppas, catching up on all the news of becoming grandparents and aunties, garden projects and just life in general

We started our visit in the laundry room garden, listening to a short introductory talk about the history of the garden, its owners, and the work that the National Trust is doing to help restore it back to its heyday of the 1930s.

We then spent a good hour or so having a really good wander around exploring every corner.

We started our meanderings by wandering through the Pine Garden, past the Lily Pool to the Plant House.

  The border at the front of The Plant House just looked amazing ...

We spent a good while in The Plant House, taking inspiration for what to do with a stack of succulents that Martin and I bought recently for our own garden, knowing we wanted to do something with them, but not quite sure what.

We made our way through The Plant House and into The Long Borders, where the summer planting is just starting to go over but there is still plenty to catch the eye.

It was then on to the Kitchen Garden, with plenty of fruit, veg, herbs and flowers for cutting, being tended to by what seemed like an army of Gardeners. 

It was then on to the myriad of garden rooms, with shady doorways and gaps in the hedging just drawing us in, wanting to see what was hidden beyond.

Hidcote just does this absolutely brilliantly, each area feels so self contained and separate from the rest of the garden but it all flows on beautifully from one room to the next, each with something unique to wonder at and to set it apart from the rest.

There are some lovely views of the manor house, looking back through the planting from The White and The Old Gardens ....

I was well chuffed to find some Franco Sonchifolia in The White Garden, having just bought some of this on a recent visit to Canons Ashby, another NT property near Daventry. It was good to see how it would look in situ.

From The Old Garden we made our way through to The Circle and The Fuchsia Garden, passing more beautiful views looking back at the house on our way.

 

It was then down the steps made of old roofing tiles laid edge on, to The Bathing Pool Garden.

We lingered a fair while in The Bathing Pool garden, both desperate to catch a good picture of the steps, framed by topiary, with no other visitors just poking their heads into the shot from behind the hedges. I think it was worth it ...

As well as the old bathing pool we found the tallest delphiniums that either of us had ever seen and and, through the hedge under the cover of the rain shelter, a fabulous mural of how things must have looked in days gone by ...

We then headed down through The Wilderness, via The Upper Stream Garden and Hydrangea Corner ...

... to the extremity of the garden on this side, where there were wonderful views of the bordering open countryside to be had ...

We made our way back up The Long Walk, desperate for people-less photos, but having no luck whatsoever ...

The Red Borders were looking very impressive in The Summer Sunshine and, as access was closed off, it was nice and easy to get some good shots ...

 

Having covered nearly every inch of footpath and seen all that there was to see it was time for lunch and we were lucky enough to bag a table outside in the courtyard.

Lunch was a very chilled out affair. Quiche, salad, coleslaw and new potatoes, with lots of produce coming from the kitchen garden, followed by our second helping of cake for the day.

Time to exchange photos of new babies and projects under way, enjoying the warm sunshine, before heading for the shop and plant sales.

The plant sales area is laid out beautifully and we were reliably informed, by the ladies responsible for displaying them, that Hidcote has one of the best plant selections of all of the National Trust properties and in our experience we were both in complete agreement.

Everything was laid out creatively, giving lots of inspiration for what could be replicated back at home. There was a huge variety of plants, all looking very healthy and all displayed beautifully and imaginatively. 

I just couldn't help but treat our newly renovated garden with a rustic metal plant display stand, which I am hoping will be just the job for displaying some of those succulents that we don't quite know what to with. 

Here's how its looking now ...

I only wished, after I'd got home, that I'd also purchased some of these pots, which are the prettiest I've seen in a long time and are nowhere else to be found at all on the World Wide Web.

By the time we were ready to head for home it was about 4pm, so we had easily managed to spend a full day at the gardens, so we would both definitely recommend a visit.

There is another garden just down the road ......, which one of the nice plant ladies told us was completely different to Hidcote, but beautiful too and well worth looking at, so definitely one to add to the list for another day.

A big thank you to The National Trust for yet another lovely day out.

Beautiful Britain - Balmoral - Royal Deeside

Hi there Everyone

It's back to Scotland for this week's post for the next big day out we had on our week's holiday, with mum and dad, back in June.

This time we are back to Balmoral for a second visit, having also visited on our previous holiday back in 2015.

It was as impressive an arrival as we remembered, walking from the car park, across The Dee to the gatehouse, where we caught the trailer for a ride up the drive.

We had a good look round the exhibitions, seeing all of the photographs used for the royal Christmas cards dating right back to the beginning of the Queens reign.

It was the gardens we had really come back to see again. We had purposely come a bit later in the year this time, in the hope that there would be more to see in the gardens and we weren't disappointed.

There was a lot more colour than there had been on our previous visit and we spent a lot more time exploring the gardens and took lots more photographs.

It was surprising to see how far behind us things are in flowering, our allium came and went back in April/May time, but they are still giving a really good show here ...

The same is true of the laburnum arch, which is still to reach its best. Ours always has its best show in May time ...

We managed to get some more good shots of the castle, though we couldn't manage the full building without any people in at all, however long we waited.

We had a little more luck from the side...

There was a lot more to be seen in the sunken garden this time too. 

This time we walked down to the river and we are so glad we did. It was absolutely beautiful. What an amazing spot to have at the bottom of your garden.

We had another look round the exhibition in The Ballroom, which was completely different to our last visit, and we came away knowing that we had to visit both Glamis and Mey Castles, which have both been added to my list of 50 things to do before I am 60.

There was just time for a quick visit to the cafe for a piece of cake, shared with some of the locals, before heading off.

Mum and dad had really enjoyed their first visit and we were no less happy with it being our second. It's definitely worth visiting at different times of the year 😀