Tag: gardens

Unusual Things You Find Inside a Garden

Ailsa of “Where’s My Backpack?” has been pondering her visits to gardens around the world this week. If you would like to join in with her challenge then please do. Everyone is welcome.

And I am combining this with the Weekly Photo Challenge from WordPress: Inside.

As some of you will know I do have another blog which is specifically for flowers – Earth Laughs in Flowers – and if you click this link you will be able to read about some of the gardens I have been enchanted by and see some lovely flowers and plants.

But for this challenge I am going to show you some of the odd sculptures and statues that have caught my eye whilst wandering inside the gardens, beginning with the infamous Eden Project in Cornwall.

(click on an image to enlarge)

The Bee
The Bee
The Rites of Dionysus by Tim Shaw
The Rites of Dionysus by Tim Shaw
WEEE Man, Outdoor Biome
WEEE Man, Outdoor Biome
spider
Incy Wincy spider…or is it a crab?

Next is a visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Welsh Black by Sally Matthews
‘Tawr’ A Welsh Black by Sally Matthews
'Pi' by Rawleigh Clay
‘Pi’ by Rawleigh Clay
Circle of Decision
Circle of Decision

And finally a few sculptures that have appeared in my favourite garden, RHS Wisley in Surrey.

Doves
Doves
Henry Moore's Arch
Henry Moore’s Arch
Wicker 'Pear'
Wicker ‘Pear’
Wicker Sculptures
Wicker Sculptures

What unusual things have you found in a garden?

Spring in North Devon

A couple of years ago we went to North Devon and stayed in a National Trust Cottage near the pebbly Peppercombe Beach.

The cottages were traditionally built out of cob in the late eighteenth century, to house the officers of what was then called the Preventive Service – tasked with policing this wild stretch of coast to prevent smuggling – and later evolved into the life saving Coastguard Service Continue reading Spring in North Devon

The Butchart Gardens

Although we didn’t visit the Butchart Gardens on this trip, it would be remiss of me not to mention it as it is possibly the most spectacular floral display on the continent. It began as a limestone quarry in 1904 established by Robert and Jennie Butchart. They created a family home nearby with sweetpeas and rose bushes. As Mr. Butchart exhausted the limestone deposits his wife began to create a sunken garden in the abandoned quarry and went on to develop other areas such as the Italianate, Japanese and Rose gardens. Successive generations of the family have cared for the gardens which attract  a million people annually. Continue reading The Butchart Gardens