Stobo Water Garden

After a most enjoyable morning at the Thistle Quilters meeting I came home swiftly to grab both a bite to eat and John so we could go off to the Stobo Japanese Water Garden. At this stage the rain was coming down by the bucket load but I wasn't prepared to give up on the chance to revisit this garden dressed in autumnal colours! It was today or wait till a future year.

The gardens are a very rare example of its type in Scotland. It was laid out in the early 1900s during a period when Japanese influence on garden design was very strong. There are cherry trees, maples, Japanese lanterns and a tea house, a humpback bridge and the influence of water, forged by frequent stepping stones. Today it was definitely too wet to venture onto them, even with my trusty pink wellies.

This garden always reminds me of Monet's garden in Giverny. Not that I have ever been there (still on the wish list!) but I have read virtually every available book about it. Partly this is of course as Monet too was heavily influenced by Japanese gardens and the self same shaped bridge can be seen in his garden too.

Stobo garden was very quiet today, due to the weather, and although I'm sorry for them as far less money was raised for charity, I was rather pleased on a personal level as taking photographs was so much easier without people finding their way into them. Most of my photographs have a very impressionistic atmosphere with the mix of different colours, shapes and sizes. I felt Monet would have approved.

The garden finishes in an artificially made loch made by damming the Weston Burn which flows into the river Tweed. The loch is so serene and on a calm day such as today full of beautiful reflections.

 No need for words with pictures like this!

 The garden relies for it's beauty on the overall effect but the details too are delicious.

Despite the fact that we started out in a downpour it was dry all the time we were in the garden. The light improved and we even saw the sun occasionally.

Just enjoy!

 This is the old teahouse which you will see again in a further picture below from a different angle.

No apologies for this overload of pictures for this post. I took about 70 pictures in all and these are what I consider to be the best out of them. Now I have to make a choice from these for my daily blipfoto. Wish me luck!