Traquair Snowdrop Festival

We visited Traquair House today, the oldest inhabited house in Scotland according to their brochure. The house is not officially open till the beginning of April but the gardens were as part of the Snowdrop Festival for the very first time this year. The Snowdrop Festival is part of Scottish Open Gardens (previous known as the yellow book but the most recent edition is pink).

The woodland walk gave us the opportunity to pop into the maze and the picture above is taken from there. It took us quite some time to make our way back but as the house is visible from the whole of the maze. making your way back to the entrance/exit is not as hard as it might otherwise be.But of course it was the snowdrops we really came to see. And how is this for a snowdrop walk? This was the most spectacular sight and made me think of Tennyson's poem The Snowdrop. Here it is:

Many, many welcomes,

February, fair-maid!

Ever as of old time,

Solitary firstling,

Coming in the cold time

Prophet of the gay time,

Prophet of the roses,

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid

Sadly Traquair too has lost many old and beautiful trees in the recent gales but this tree has been down for a long time already and is now lovely again with it's mossy coverings. In the background an African hut dating back to the 19th Century.

The Traquair Yew is protected and there were 4 of these giants all together in a circle. They must have been there for as long as the house has been standing and will probably still be there for centuries to come. Would love to see these in their full summer glory too.

Any lifestock is always an added attraction as far as I'm concerned and Traquair helpfully informs you of their names. May I introduce you to George, a beautiful angora goat. This is where that wonderfull soft angora wool comes from.

I was also very taken by the little cottage in which George lives, what a delightful dwelling for a goat! And he looks suitably pleased with it.

I took some great photographs of both the snowdrops and the other attractions at Traquair but only spotted this weathered statue just before we were about to leave. It seemed to be echo with Tennyson's poem of the "February fair-maid", and became my blip for the day.