Easton Walled Garden

We are having the most unseasonal weather this February and today saw us visiting Easton Walled Garden for their annual Snowdrop week.  The day has been beautifully sunny and warm so much so that we barely needed coats on.  It has been wonderful watching the gardens change and grow over the years and this year the display was superb.  The air was full of birdsong and bees and butterflies flying around.  Clouds developed a little during the morning but they added to the beauty of the day.

The visit started with a blast from the past.  Anyone remember Hector's House?  I've been singing the tune ever since.

https://youtu.be/K7Co2tdaPjg

I don't think the young gardener had a clue what I was talking about!

Looking across the parkland I could see a host of escapees in a hollow.

If you look towards the top of this image you'll see the blur of a very busy Brimstone butterfly.

The skies were really beautiful today.

I loved the beautiful lichen on the branches and the sight of the snowdrops glimpsed on the floor.

This structures are waiting for sweet peas to be planted out when it warms up some more.

An extra treat was an art exhibition in the stables at Easton with paintings by Dawn Wright and by Val Littlewood.  Val's paintings were beautifully detailed studies of various species of bee and their preferred food plant.  You can read about her paintings and about bees on her blog. 

Easton Walled Garden snowdrop week continues till this Sunday 24 February so you still have time to visit and enjoy their lovely snowdrop bank.  They open for the season the following Sunday 3 March.  How can it be nearly March already?!

Easton Walled Garden

We've been out to Easton Walled Garden today, a very blustery but mostly sunny day, for a bit of a photographic foray of the late Spring/early summer flowers.

 The terraces below where the house would originally have stood have been planted as wild flower meadows and the wind today made the grasses look like they were windblown water.  The ox-eye daisies were beautiful.

There were lots of allium in various stages of flowering and seed both in the borders and among the wildflowers.

These guys were having a breather from zooming around capturing flies.  (Swallows).  A red kite made several passes over the gardens but I wasn't able to capture him with the camera.

 This intrepid photographer kept getting in my way!

The gardens are about 7 miles or so south of Grantham just off the A1 and they have a great tea room.    Unfortunately they don't take passing trade at the tea room but it's well worth paying the garden entry, you'll find you'll stay longer than you intended.

Autumnal Easton

The sunshine this morning drew us out to a local garden for some autumn colour and lunch out.  Easton Walled Garden is just off the A1 about 8 miles south of Grantham and has been a work in progress  2001 and every visit brings something new.

Today the gardens were very quiet and the staff outnumbered the visitors which made it all the more pleasant to wander around with unhindered views.

 This lovely Virginia Creeper greeted us as we entered the gardens.

 I didn't know they flowered but I suppose logically they must!

We had lunch outside as it was quite warm and the light was catching trees in the distance.

 By the time we'd eaten the clouds had built up and veiled the sun.

 This border still looks very elegant as it slips delicately into Autumn.

 This espalier (pear?) had a magical quality to it.

 Looking back to where we had lunch.

 I'm sure the children will enjoy this display when the gardens open again on Sunday.  They'll also enjoy gathering lots of conkers in the carpark, they were falling everywhere.

 Not sure who this guy was, paparazzi no doubt 😜

 Beautiful mosses atop a low wall.

Just to taunt us the sun popped out again just as we made our way out.  Starting on 19th and running till the end of the month there's going to be a pumpkin rolling event to coincide with half-term.  I'm hoping we'll find time to pop out there again as it's bound to be a good photo opportunity.  I think they have 200 pumpkins for the children to roll.