You Can Leave Your Hat On...

... I believe he sang, Joe Cocker, all those years ago... 

And here, in my favourite garden, a hat may be advisable to shield you from the sun, but on some days you need not worry about any other clothing, as The Naked Gardeners welcome visitors in their birthday costumes on certain dates throughout the season...

However, on Friday last week when I revisited Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, it was a normal day, where the only nudity on display was offered by a few statues in the glorious, creative and inventive gardens that constitute this green gem. The photo above was taken from the tiny island in the river, a perfect spot from which to admire the majestic backside (no pun intended!) of the house.

I love the contrast of the wilder, "junglier" area down by the river, after having admired the slightly more formal garden rooms in front of the house. 

 

The sun loungers looked very appealing on this sunny day, as did a game of chess...

The front of the house is covered in an array of gorgeous green leaves and more colourful floral phenomena...

And when we sat down for a drink in the café by the koi carp pond, Robbie came to say hello. Well, Robbie admittedly seemed more interested in the biscuits my fellow garden admirers were munching than in any real bird-human bonding, but even so, I fell in love with this little feathery fellow!

Now look at those curves! I LOVE this section of the garden, with the funky gigantic green head, the lollipop trees and all the shaped box hedges and trees...!

Gorgeous giant poppies, red, pink and white, all looking as if made of silky paper...

Now, I am not the kind of girl who forces people to do things, nor do I tend to give unsolicited advice to my friends, but I may just have to make an exception here... You simply HAVE to visit this garden one day! It is a very special place and if you do not find at least one spot in the five acres of green loveliness that makes you weak at the knees or at least filled with a desire to plant your bottom on the lawn and just be for a moment, soaking up the view from your tranquil spot, well, then I am not sure what to say!

There are loads more photos from this garden under the heading Abbey House Gardens in my Categories - please feel free to browse them should you like to see more.

Blog posts are not exactly bombarding your screens from The Swenglish Home at the moment. Summer hibernation has set in, I am afraid, and I spend more hours outdoors than in at the moment, far, far away from screens and keyboards. I hope you are also enjoying the warmer season. A special thank you to all of your who still pop in to visit my quasi-dormant corner of the blog world, and a special-special thank you for kind comments!

With much love,

Helena

Clothes optional...

Have you always dreamt of a horticultural outing wearing nothing but your "birthday suit"...?

Perhaps longed to come close to...not little green men, but one LARGE green head...?

Would you like somewhere to explore an abundance of floral "fabulousness"...

...and finally find a cauldron large enough for your secret potions...?

Well I, or rather Ian and Barbara Pollard, have got just the place for you!

Just 25 minutes up the road from us, in Malmesbury, is Abbey House and Gardens, a k a "The Home of the Naked Gardeners". It has a five-acre garden so full of interesting "rooms", beautiful flowers and playful elements, that it makes you want to explore every corner and every path. Oh, and did I mention the waterfall, the small island in the water, the stepping stones, the oversized chess game, the stricter park character mixed with the wild and untamed - a perfect marriage of styles, if you ask me!

...and one or two roses too... or 2200 different varieties, to be precise!

Should you feel that you are not quite ready to explore nature "au naturel"...

... you are welcome in clothes too!

Which, if you feel like sitting down to rest your feet on an inviting wooden bench, 

might turn out to be a jolly good idea...! ☺

More images from this garden in previous posts here, here, here, and here. 

Or visit their website.

Garden love to you all, and especially to our friends in Norway, 

whose lives have been shaken in such unimaginable ways.

Helena 

The Naked Gardeners revisited, part II

Continued from yesterday... 

The Brits have a thing about walled gardens. Many of them seem to find it hard to imagine the garden I had in Sweden, wall-less and fence-less (but with complementary deer and moose...). Perhaps it is a privacy thing. Perhaps in a country this size, with sixty million people fighting for an inch each of privacy, there is a natural, almost genetic penchant towards net curtains and walled gardens...? This claustrophobic Swede is only now, four and a half years into her Swenglish existence, beginning to come to terms with our garden walls and fences, and only because they are only waist high.

However, in a garden of this majestic size, a wall is actually not only acceptable to me, it is appreciated and applauded. All these doorways and arches in the wall are like spell-binding calls of temptation, and transfixed, I am drawn towards them, with held breath and heart pounding audibly. What lies on the other side? What fairies inhabit the next 'room'?

                

Throw in a water fall (above) and an oversized cauldron (below), and I am ready to move in!

And while I begín to stir my witch's cauldron, I wish you all a lovely Wednesday!

Revisiting the Naked Gardeners...

At the end of March, I visited Abbey House and Gardens in Malmesbury for the first time, a k a The Home of the Naked Gardeners (images from that visit can be found here and here). Ever since then, I have been wanting to go back, explore more of this amazing and playfully planned garden, and to see some of the many roses they are so famous for. And last Saturday, we were not disappointed...

        

                    

        

                  
                      

                      

Even the man in the house, who is much more of a "come and explore me" garden lover, than a "here I am"  garden type admirer, fell in love instantly. There is so much to explore, and even if most of the roses were already a little past their prime, this is - dare I say - an enchanted garden.

The children love it too, despite a total lack of purpose-built play areas - except, perhaps, the giant size game of garden chess. The whole garden is such an exciting maze of paths and secret passage ways, stepping stones across the little river, a water fall, small bridges and corners to hide in, all begging to be explored. Or, to quote our six-year-old son, a great fan of the Harry Potter books: "Oh, this place is definitely going to be in the Harry Potter book I am going to write!". No offence, JK Rowling, but I think he might be on to something here...

Tomorrow, more images from The Naked Gardeners.


There seems to be a problem with the comment feed today. I receive your comments via email, but they don't show up here - would anyone happen to know what I can do about it? 

A spot of green nudity...

Mmm...












Five acres of green fabulousness, lovingly brought to life by the owners, Barbara and Ian Pollard, a k a The Naked Gardeners. 100 000 tulips (a few of them greeting us yesterday), UK's largest collection of roses (soon, soon in bloom), water features, wildlife and a garden so beautiful, so interesting, with so many rooms, stunning focal points and small still lifes I found myself nearly hyperventilating whilst photographing like a mad woman worried it - or I - would all disappear if I were not quick enough... Wow. Lots of wow.
Fancy a bit of horticultural wow, but live too far away? Try http://www.abbeyhousegardens.co.uk/ or see the book The Naked Gardeners. And yes, on certain days, expect to see Ian and Barbara in the most natural of costumes.
Wow.