An Open Garden

Hello Lovelies,

I do love the open garden scheme....where owners welcome you into their gardens and the modest entrance fee goes to a charity of their choice. Every time I notice there is an open garden in our area I write it down on the calendar, hopeful that I'll get chance to visit.

Mostly other things end up taking priority and the visits never happen....but on Sunday I managed to make my first visit to an open garden this year.

This was a large garden behind a wonderful old house.......laid out on the table were photos of how the owners had developed the space over many years.........

The first area we came to was this lawn.....the lovely blue cat mint was covered in bees..........

They were buzzing around so quickly that I couldn't get a photo , but I did manage to take a picture of this tiny moth close by..........

 I had no idea what it was, but a google search revealed it to be a Mint Moth....very aptly named it seems.

There were many mature trees in this garden and as we wandered away from the house the areas became more natural............

 The "we" I'm using here refers to just Hubby and myself. This garden was not that far from our house, and the boys were not keen to join us, so we left them at home.

 It's quite a new thing for us ....having children who are old enough to look after themselves for and hour or so. ......I do have pangs of melancholy about the passing time, but on this occasion I was glad to sit companionably on this bench without anybody telling me they were bored.............

This was the view........

Very green........the Mr said he wasn't keen on the un-mown areas, but I can see it being a wonderful haven for wildlife.

As must this lovely pond ..........

It looked so natural and I was happy to notice a gorgeous water lily flower...........

After a while we wandered past the croquet set and down a narrow path at the side of the garden.........

We squeezed through a gap in a high yew hedge .....and into this wonderfully secluded garden room........

It was filled with Roses and other cottage garden flowers......I particularly liked the old fashioned Roses with their simple open flowers, so easy for the bees to collect their nectar..........

The bees were also loving the gorgeous blue Geraniums...........

Some of the Roses already had interesting rose hips..........

There was a little bench in an alcove...........

So we sat a while and enjoyed the view. It was a sort of timeless, hidden place that reminded me of a favourite FILM..............

You can just see one of the narrow  gaps to get in and out on the right of this picture.

After a while we squeezed through that gap and came upon a lovely tree swing...........

which was at the edge of the vegetable garden.............

I peeked inside the fruit cages..............

To find yummy looking Raspberries ready to pick................

In this space there was also a small orchard. The trees were really old and this one was being given a helping hand to stay upright..............

It may have been old but it still bore lots of fruit and the apples were growing nicely...........

Then we came upon another "room" filled with the scent of Philadelphus. It's supposed to smell like oranges and is also called MOCK ORANGE, but I find it a bit overpowering and the smell is more like moth balls to me.........

I did love the Rockroses though..............

By this time we were back in the part of the garden nearest to the house. I really liked all the rustic brick and wood supports for the climbing plants to scramble over............

This bright pink rose shone out on the dull day...............

And this old gate, just leaning against the pillars, made a great plant support too..........

The building you can see in the background of this photo was quiet new, but old materials had been used and it fitted in so well............

it was the blousey  pink Poppies here that really caught my eye though...............

Teas were being served, and it would have been rude not to buy some yummy home-made cake to go with them, wouldn't it :0)

There were so many places to sit and enjoy the lovely views , we chose to go back to the first lawn we had passed through.

I had Carrot cake.....my favourite cake ever....and this was an excellent version. The Mr had Banana and chocolate, he said it was good.

  It was such a lovely way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon.... I do love the month of June.
Jacquie x