Wayside Market

Although not strictly speaking a garden visit, this afternoon still finished by walking around a garden! We went to a Wayside Market in support of the local church. Not that we are members but such events are to me (still after all those years of living in the U.K.) quintessentially British and thus Must Do's. There are plants for sale, bric-a-brac, and also home made jams and preserves as well as cakes. And of course you get to enjoy a cream tea featuring scones, cream and jam! The market which takes place yearly moved venue this year to Kirkton Manor and we hoped that would mean a nosey around the place.

And we weren't disappointed. The garden was gorgeous and so, surprise, surprise, was the weather. It was in fact warm, warmer than it has been for most of this summer. So we took full advantage and wandered around to our heart's content. As you can see the garden is surrounded by the beautiful Borders landscape and had many picturesque spots such as the bench shown at the top. You might no longer be able to sit on it but it looks completely lovely, and became my blip for today.

I'm also developing a real taste for dovecots! I'm hoping we might one day have our own, with doves needless to say!

A lot of the plants were flowering. Everything is very late this year due to the cold and wet we had earlier this summer, but we are being rewarded with a longer season. In fact I fear that some of my own plants will never make it into bloom this year, but this garden was sheltered and thus a bit ahead of us.

 This is a gorgeously coloured daylily.

And how could we possibly resist visiting the Manor graveyard that's right next door. John and I had paid a previous visit during the winter months but it looks spectacular in the sunshine. Above is the railed enclosure of the Forrester family.with both George (a surveyor general of customs Scotland) and his son William Alexander Forrester, esquire of Barns. George died in 1829 and William Alexander in 1866