Garden Visits

There is a scheme here in Scotland (and also in England) where private gardens are opened on certain days to the public to raise money for charity and as luck would have it, John was off work so we could visit Biggar Park yesterday and Newhall in Carlops today. We have been to see them in earlier years and it's always interesting to see how gardens grow and develop over time. Also, the weather was gorgeous both days and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and stocked up on more plants for our own garden too.

Almost the first thing we saw in Biggar Park was an orange rhododendron, although to just call it orange is such an understatement. The whole bush just blazed away, displaying a breathtaking amount of different tones, tints and shades of tangerine. It looked good enough to eat!

Another plant which really drew my eye was this one with its stunning complimentary colour scheme of green (in a very pale tint) and red (again in a paler shade of pinkish). This is normally too sweet for me but the spiky shapes of the plant stopped it from looking sweet in any shape or form.

Today it was the turn of Newhall which is just down the road in Carlops and which offers apart from a wonderful walled garden, a really delightful walk around the glen of the North Esk river with glorious views among which this one from a little stone building knows as Mary's Bower is a spendid exemple. I could have sat there all afternoon and sewn away but helas, I had no hand sewing with me and we were there for a walk!

At the end of the walk we encountered a wonderful sundial in the shape of an obelisk with these wise words on it by R.B. written in 1810 which you can also find in the quotation in the sidebar of this blog at the moment. I feel that the way we spend the last 2 days was very much in keeping with making the most of our time!