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Are you sitting comfortably – no 14 in a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 1, 2020
1 Comment on Are you sitting comfortably – no 14 in a very occasional series

Back with another set of garden seats for you to enjoy. Imagine yourself taking a seat for a rest, to take in the view and appreciate the comfort of the seats themselves.

Firstly let me share a few seats from the gardens at Ivy Croft in Herefordshire, a garden open for its huge snowdrop collection and interesting winter plants.

We recently visited John’s Garden attached to Ashwood Nursery in the West Midlands, and being in February seats became very obvious features. They varied so much in style!

Next I want to share with you seats from the gardens at Erddig, a Welsh National Trust property.

So that is it for this collection of garden seats. More to follow in the future!

Tags Ashwood Nurseries, garden features, garden furniture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of the National Trust, gardens of Wales, John's Garden, National Trust Gardens, The National Trust, Welsh gardens

autumn autumn colours colours garden design ornamental grasses Shropshire South Shropshire Uncategorized walled gardens

Seasonal Visits – Wildegoose – Winter Weekends

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 2, 2019
1 Comment on Seasonal Visits – Wildegoose – Winter Weekends

We were so pleased to get the opportunity to visit Wildegoose Nursery Garden this weekend a time when it is usually closed but two special “Winter Weekends” have been arranged. We arrive in fog which added so much to the atmosphere of the walled garden borders. We felt calmed by the muted sound that fog and mist gives us.

The borders were full of seed-heads of perennials and grasses and even a few rogue flowers. Tiny raindrops hung from every seed and stem, giving plants extra life.

Sometimes in gardens especially in winter it is the tiniest details that are the most beautiful, spidery stems, individual seed-heads and even out of season blooms.

Euphorbias are loved for their chartreuse, lime and lemon coloured bracts and tiny flowers but when these fall in the autumn they reveal the brightly coloured stems which brighten winter borders.

Sedum varieties have the same powerful coloured stems as their seed heads turn black and purple.

I shall share the rest of my photos below – I hope you enjoy looking at all the pics as much as we enjoyed our misty winter garden wander.

It will be a few months now before we next get the chance to explore Wildegooose Gardens and Nursery, as it stays closed now until April.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, autumn gardens, autumn plants, gardens with nurseries, grasses, nurseries, ornamental grasses, seed heads, the garden in autumn, Wildgoose Nursery, Wildgoose Nursery and Garden

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Are You Sitting Comfortably – no 23 in an occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 14, 2019
2 Comments on Are You Sitting Comfortably – no 23 in an occasional series

Here we are back with a collection of photos of garden seats that inspire me to record them and share them. Enjoy!

The first batch are from the National Trust garden at Biddulph Grange.

So I don’t know when my next post in this series will appear – it will simply when I have found enough garden seats to create a little gallery.

Tags Biddulph Grange, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of the National Trust, National Trust, Staffordshire, Staffordshire Gardens

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Garden Walls and Steps – No 6 in a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 12, 2019
1 Comment on Garden Walls and Steps – No 6 in a very occasional series

Back again with no 6 in this very occasional series of posts looking at garden walls and steps that we find our garden wanderings.

First wall is one we found and walked alongside at an NGS garden at “The Citadel” near Shrewsbury and the second very different wall at another NGS garden at Wildegoose Nursery and Garden in South Shropshire.

So I am off now in search of another interesting selection of walls and steps in every garden we visit.

canals countryside hedgerows pathways Powis Powys trees Uncategorized Wales wildlife

A spring time canal walk

We love to take gentle strolls along canal towpaths once stepped on by the large feet of horses pulling barges. At this time of year leaves are coming out from their buds, wildflowers are beginning to flower and birds are becoming more active.

We began just outside the Welsh market town of Welshpool and walked away from the town. As we moved further away more wildflowers were showing themselves, some plants of the hedgerow or woodland edge. They seemed happy living by a canal.

We walked past a swing bridge, a beautifully balanced piece of machinery. Later we found another which proved too much for Jude and Vicky to resist trying out.

Not long after we reached the point at which we planned to turn back, Pool Quay. We stopped for a coffee before making the return wander back along the towpath. We found a few surprises, an old door with no purpose and a beautiful nesting swan who gave us a hard stare as we walked past. Her partner hissed and flared his wings at us when we met him further along the canal.

We love canal side walks and often return to this path to stretch our legs.

Tags canals, Powis, Powys, Welshpool, wildflowers

colours garden photography gardening light ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs Uncategorized

Simply Beautiful – more catkins – No 28 in a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 3, 2019

Simply beautiful no 27 was about the catkins of Hazel and as a follow up to that here is Simply Beautiful no 28 where I share my photos of the beautiful catkins of one of our Salix shrubs, Salix gracilistyla Melanostachys. A willow with a mouthful of a name but also the most amazing of all catkins coloured black and red.

Tags catkins, flowering shrubs, salix, shrubs, shrubs in winter, willows

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Simply Beautiful – no 25 in this occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 9, 2019
1 Comment on Simply Beautiful – no 25 in this occasional series

So here I am with number 25 in this occasional series of posts entitled Simply Beautiful where I share a few photos of something or some place that takes my eye. Here are 4 photos of a caramel coloured Heuchera plants lit up by sunlight.

Tags foliage, foliage colour, foliage plants, heucheras

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A family holiday in Scotland – Part 1 – Pooh Sticks in the park

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 18, 2018
1 Comment on A family holiday in Scotland – Part 1 – Pooh Sticks in the park

Back in the summer of 2018 we spent a family holiday up in the Scottish Borders. Jude and I with our children and their spouses, Jamie and Sam, Jo and Rob and our granddaughter Arabella stayed in a beautifully converted Scottish longbarn. So here is a series of posts all about a super week.

“Pooh Sticks” is becoming a bit of a family tradition and a favourite activity wherever a stream and bridge can be found. Such an opportunity was presented to us at the beginning of our family holiday in Scotland.

A beautiful little clear stream made its way through the public park, which was at the centre of Biggar village, close to our family holiday home. This was just what we needed for our Pooh Sticks challenge fun. We have taken part in the World Pooh Sticks Championships in the past which was great fun but somewhat marred by some entrants who took it far too seriously, so we decided a family version would be far more leisurely and enjoyable.

We prepared about colourd 50 sticks (a very time consuming job!) and cut them to length. The whole group then did a serious check of the stream and bridge.

We were then ready for the off! Two at a time we each skillfully dropped a stick into the stream. Little Arabella soon grasped the rules and won a few rounds. As we slowly worked our way through many heats contestants got knocked out and our numbers reduced until the grand final when just two contestants were left. Tensions ran high!

After we crowned Vicky the champion we celebrated with a picnic at the huge table just a few yards from the stream and its bridge. Arabella always loves a picnic and was ready and waiting even before Graham arrived with the picnic from the car.

After a picnic break and a quick game of family football with Arabella’s little plastic colourful ball it was time to explore and enjoy the playground, swings first, with Arabella calling out “Higher! Higher!”

The

Followed by the crows’ nest.

We spent hours in the park that day and really enjoyed family time. It was to prove a great start to a great holiday. See part 2 for the next adventure.

Tags Biggar, family, family time, playgrounds, Pooh Sticks, Scotland, Scottish Borders

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A Short Break in London – Part 5

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 1, 2018
3 Comments on A Short Break in London – Part 5

Here we are back with my final post about our short break in London, looking at the day we visited Carnaby Street a fabled street when we were teenagers. It was strange though how wide it seems now and how commercialised. And so busy! That aspect of its character certainly has not changed. We were sad that it was our last day, we had loved our hotel and every aspect of our capital city. These great chairs were the highlight of the hotel foyer! Great shape and super colours!

But first we were treated to a special breakfast at TheWolseley, once the showroom for theWolseley Car company. What an impressive building, and so easy to imagine it lined up with glossy black limousines and ultra-smart salesmen. Today it makes an equally impressive restaurant, smart throughout including the crockery and cutlery and of course the waiters and waitresses, dressed as smartly as possible. What a treat indeed!

So now for a wander at London’s well-known buildings, Hatchards the booksellers, Liberty’s, The Royal Academy, Fortnum and Mason’s and Carnaby Street itself. We had a tour of places we wanted to see and places that Jo and Rob wanted us to see. Quite a mixture! It was the day of the great march when nearly 700 000 people called for a new and more honest Brexit vote. We discovered odd placards which we enjoyed agreeing with.

The buildings housing The Royal Academy were proud and imposing. We walked beneath a gateway into an internal courtyard which surprisingly displayed a strange wooden house. I enjotyed spotting a statue of one of my heroes, Carl Linnaeus.

Crazy Carnaby Street was busy, colourful but not quite what we were expecting and it was hard to explain why.

A taxi back to the hotel to pick up our gear then another to run us to the railway station ended our greatly enjoyable weekend break. We just have to go back in the spring and/or summer over the next couple of years. Thanks to Jo and Rob who gave us the confidence to return after so long.

Tags architecture, Carnaby Street, London, The Wolseley

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A Short Break in London – Part 1

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 20, 2018
2 Comments on A Short Break in London – Part 1

Since I had a major operation to rebuild my right leg, I find myself being able to tackle things I have not done for years and I am gaining confidence to have a go at them. Jude and I have not visited London for decades because of my disabilities, but the time came in early autumn to give it a go. So we relied on daughter, Jo and son-in-law Rob, to organise our London adventure and guide us through our time there.

We managed and it felt wonderful! I think Jude, Jo and Rob were as delighted by it all as I was. I also realised a life’s dream! We spent an evening at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho. It was just as good as I expected and an experience that stays with me every moment.

But lots else happened, not just the world’s most famous jazz club!

The hotel we stayed in, Citizen M Tower Bridge, afforded us the most special of views looking out over the Thames and straight at The Tower.

On our first evening in the Capital we wandered towards the Thames to dine in a restaurant on its banks. There is something very special about cities at night.