Tag: The National Trust

Bodnant Garden – a magical place in North Wales

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 7, 2017

For my last post of 2016 I thought I would share a visit we made to one of our favourite gardens, Bodnant Gardens in North Wales. A great way to celebrate our garden visiting exploits in 2016 and to look forward to visiting many more wonderful UK gardens in 2017.

Bodnant Gardens, a National Trust Property in North Wales, is described as a “glorious garden nestling in the Snowdonia foothills of North Wales and one of the world’s most magical gardens. With its dramatic scenery, historic plant collections, Champion Trees and myriad horticultural styles, it will capture your heart and live in your memory.”

It is just possible for us to get there, enjoy a day wandering and then return on the same day. So this is a day trip we have made many times over the years in different months but never before in November. We were not sure exactly what to expect but our expectations were definitely high. We were not to be in for the slightest disappointment!

After a two hour drive we arrived as mist and drizzle did its best to hide the garden but after our usual half hour sit for a coffee and cake we were pleased to see the beauty of the garden revealed as the autumn sunlight brought the garden to life before our eyes setting the scene for an afternoon of pure magic, which we will share with you in a couple of posts.

Firstly this post will be all about the special nature of the light and how it added extra magic to the scenes unfolding before us.

After showing our membership cards we left the reception and upon entering the garden itself we only managed a few steps before the special light stopped us in our tracks. A long border running alongside a tall stone wall was on fire with the rich colours of late perennial flowers and the red and orange leaves of shrubs. The overnight dew was still hanging on the grass and every droplet became a jewel.

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From the path running along the centre of the hot fiery bed we could look across towards the main garden where the light caught Acer foliage and wispy perennials.

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Individual flowers among this beauty, shone like jewels in a jeweller’s shop window display. Water droplets sat on the red blooms of this Fuschia and Salvia.

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We had plenty of choices of pathways to follow but the choice was an easy one – go where the colours shone the brightest – off in to the newly created Winter Garden beneath a halo or red glowing foliage.

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With so much colour and texture surrounding us it was hard to home in to see the special beauty only to be found by looking closely and deeply searching for the detail.

Bodnant proved itself a most worthy contender for garden visiting late in the year and could well join the little group of special places we visit annually. In part two of my Bodnant posts we will share other parts of the garden with you, the places further afield than the Winter Garden.

flowering bulbs garden photography garden ponds garden pools gardening gardens gardens open to the public National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs photography Shrewsbury Shropshire shrubs spring bulbs The National Trust trees water in the garden winter gardens woodland woodlands

A Walk in the Park – Attingham Park – The Woodland Walk

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 5, 2017
3 Comments on A Walk in the Park – Attingham Park – The Woodland Walk

Back to our March visit to Attingham Park when we decided to take the Woodland Walk Trail.

As we left the walled garden clumps of the clearest yellow daffodils lit up shadows beneath shrubbery.

We were anticipating expanding buds on some shrubs and trees and maybe a few in early leaf. We both love the sticky, brittle toffee coloured buds which are early to burst. Other buds shone bright green!

We soon encountered signs of the work of Storm Doris, a huge mature tree had been ripped from the ground. We imagined how frightening the sounds of the tree being torn and wrenched from the ground must have been. The gardeners had been hard at work tidying up the mess of her destruction.

Places that usually look boggy looked much wetter on this visit with tiny ditches and streams full of water and flowing into larger areas of clear standing water with wetland plants looking full of life and thriving.

We passed beneath mature deciduous trees as we followed the woodland trail. On the ground beneath them the bright green freshness of this year’s herbaceous growth shone out. But an even brighter red patch caught our attention, a small group of fungi.

We came out into the open, which appeared much brighter as as we left the trees behind, and made our way back across the deer park back towards the house.

A bridge took us over the river which was flowing quickly in a light flood. Weeping willow branches were being swept along and the water was lapping at the feet of a row of elderly pollarded willows. The pollards looked so sculptural.

Next month’s visit to Attingham Park should feature more signs of spring becoming established.

Tags gardens of the National Trust, National Trust, The National Trust, wetland, wetland habitat, woodland, woodland gardening, woodland gardens

log piles logs National Trust outdoor sculpture The National Trust trees woodland woodlands

Tree Trunks at Attingham

On our monthly wanders through the parkland at Attingham Park, the closest National Trust property to us here in Plealey, we spot many dead trees left standing to benefit wildlife, insects and birds in particular. But we simply enj0y their shapes as they decay and the textures created as fungi and small creatures eat them and erode them away.

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We came across a pair of old diseased beech trees both of which had been worked on by tree surgeons. One looked as if it had been made safe to be left for the wildlife of the woods but the other treated in a manner that would save it for years to come.

When we went closer to look at this stump of an old rotting tree we noticed that someone who has passed before us had added a few pieces of wood creating a piece of outdoor sculpture. A surprise for us and other visitors lucky enough to spot it. And a little humour!

Trees that have to be felled when they are in a dangerous place are felled, cut into logs which are stacked to create log piles for wildilfe.

The slow decay and death of trees keeps the woodland changing for ever. They support many forms of wildlife before rotting away beneath the power of fungi to return to the woodland floor adding nutrients and humus to the soil.

Tags Attingham Park, National Trust, The National Trust, trees, woodland, woodlands

colours garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs Shrewsbury Shropshire shrubs The National Trust trees Winter Gardening winter gardens woodland woodlands

A Walk in the Park – February at Attingham Park – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 4, 2017
2 Comments on A Walk in the Park – February at Attingham Park – Part 2

After enjoying time exploring the walled garden and its outbuildings we continued our wanderings towards the beginning of “The Mile Walk”, passing along the way this tree half covered by orange lichen, which looked so colourful on this dull day.

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On the way we noticed how much moss was growing at the bases of the mature trees and how bright their green colours were. Of course we enjoyed the white sparkles of snowdrops on the way.

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There is a wide variety of coniferous evergreens growing close to the path, collected centuries ago under the guidance of Lord Berwick, a keen tree and shrub collector. We looked closely at the freshest of branches to compare colours and shapes.

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It is only in the depth of winter that we can really appreciate the beautifully gnarled lower stem structure of rhododendron bushes.

Old tree trunks hollowed out over centuries always bring the child out in us. We were drawn to it as soon as we spotted it along the riverbank.

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Closer study revealed wide varieties of texture and pattern.

It is always good to find a little humour in gardens and parks. This worm was enjoying nibbling away at the big apple. What a great way to take advantage of an old uprooted tree stump. The final photo shows a seat which we imagines was rarely used particularly as it was just a few feet from the river!

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Our next visit to Attingham Park will be in March so we are already looking forward to searching for changes. Of course we will be full of anticipation knowing that the new coffee shop is getting close to its opening date!

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Tags Attingham Park, gardens of Shropshire, gardens of the National Trust, mosses, National Trust, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, shrubs in winter, snowdrops, texture, textured bark, The National Trust, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter shrubs

birds flowering bulbs fruit and veg garden buildings garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public kitchen gardens National Trust Shrewsbury Shropshire spring bulbs The National Trust walled gardens walled kitchen gardens winter gardens woodland woodlands

A Walk in the Park – February at Attingham Park – Part 1

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 2, 2017
2 Comments on A Walk in the Park – February at Attingham Park – Part 1

It is mid-February and time for our second visit to Attingham Park, our nearest National Trust property. We awoke on the day of our planned visit to a dark overcast sky and light rain hanging in the air, but we set off nonetheless, determined that the weather would not spoil our plans. We started with a quick coffee break but the rain had not improved when we set off on the actual walk to the walled garden and onwards along “The Mile Walk”.

We were on the look out for signs of fresh growth and early signs of wildlife activity. We were not expecting to find much change in the walled garden. Leaf buds were opening on several trees and shrubs, the first signs of fresh growth, as well as a few very early flowers on shrubs.

As we left the coffee shop in the courtyard we made our way towards the walled garden following the soft bark path beneath extremely tall trees, where odd leaves brown from autumn were still caught in their lower branches. Up above in the uppermost branches Jackdaws were busy tidying up their nests from last year and noisily chattering away as they did so.

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Snowdrops carpeted the floor beneath tall trees looking at their brightest in the shade of hollies which are a feature of the woodland garden here. After enjoying the snowdrops and the variety of hollies we soon found ourselves in the protection of the Walled Garden.

The volunteer gardeners had been working hard skillfully pruning the fruit and we really enjoyed appreciating their skills. A neat layer of compost provided a warm protective mulch and gave an extra level of neatness.

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In the very centre of the four segments of the walled garden a dipping well is conveniently placed. Alongside waits an old wheeled water bucket cart beautifully crafted in iron and galvanised metal. Today it is more decorative then functional.

New life was showing in the herbaceous borders running along both sides of the main centre path.

As we moved into the glasshouse yard bright blue splashes of colour showed strongly in the borders and in pots, diminutive Iris reticulata.

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We never fail to be impressed by the workmanship evident wherever old glasshouses have been restored to their former glory.

We exited the walled garden via the doorway leading to the orchard, which also gave us access to the lean-to buildings outside the walls themselves. We explored each building and recess to discover old clay pots, the old boiler and an apple store.

So leaving the warmer atmosphere found within the walled garden, we returned to the path that would take us to The Mile Walk. That will be the subject of my Attingham Park February walk part two.

Tags fruit and vegetable growing, fruit pruning, gardens of Shropshire, glasshouses, hollies, iris, iris reticulata, National Trust, old glasshouses, productive gardening, pruning, pruning fruit, Shropshire, Shropshire gardens, The National Trust, walled garden, walled gardens

light light quality National Trust Shrewsbury Shropshire The National Trust wildlife

Simply Beautiful – 7 – Fallow Deer

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 19, 2017
2 Comments on Simply Beautiful – 7 – Fallow Deer

While walking around our local National Trust parklands, Attingham Park, we usually finish our regular wanderings by walking along the wide paths mown and nibbled short and neat by the teeth of the parkland sheep. This is the deer park and we do indeed regularly enjoy watching the large herd of Fallow Deer who wander confidently close to the many visitors walking their territory.

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The low December sunbeams give them coats of gold. Their mottled, spotted and dashed patterning is beautiful but developed to be functional, as camouflage against their habitat background.

Tags Attingham Park, deer, fallow deer, light, light quality, National Trust, NT, parkland, The National Trust, winter

fruit and veg garden buildings garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens gardens open to the public kitchen gardens National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture The National Trust walled gardens walled kitchen gardens Winter Gardening winter gardens woodland woodlands

A Walk in the Park – Attingham in January – Part Two – Woodland Walk

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 6, 2017
2 Comments on A Walk in the Park – Attingham in January – Part Two – Woodland Walk

Back with the second part of our report of our January visit to Attingham Park we find ourselves taking the path into the woodland at this Shropshire National Trust property.

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When leaving the walled garden the visitor has the choice of two walks and we decided to follow the 3 mile “Woodland Walk” as the weather seemed set dry for the day. Next month when we make our February visit we will follow the “Mile Walk”.

Just a short way into our walk we came across the “Burning Site” marked by a wooden deer complete with impressive antlers. We like gardens with a touch of humour so we were delighted to discover this family of owls created from wood offcuts left after trees surgery work. They were created by the gardeners as a competition. We loved them all!

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Walking in woodlands in the winter helps highlight textures and patterns not easily spotted when the trees and shrubs are in full leaf. The gentle colours of lichens and mosses are more easily appreciated too as they carpet tree trunks. Please follow the gallery below featuring bark textures and the colours of lichen and mosses. The texture of fallen trees is changed over the years by the huge array of hard-working fungi present in the woodlands. Without these fungi the fallen wood would pile up so the fungi’s function of breaking down the dead trees is essential to the well-being of the woodland ecosystem. Click on the first photo and navigate using the right hand arrow.

Woodland walks are made more interesting by the manner in which rays of light penetrate the canopy, creating patterns and patches of strong contrasting light.

After enjoying exploring the woodland following the Woodland Walk way-marked path we cut back across the parkland to the house itself. First glimpse of the house is through a framework of Cupressus trees. To find this view we crossed over two stone bridges which took the path over water and the stonework attracted as much lichen as the tree trunks did.

Our return to Attingham Park will be in February when we will look at the Walled Garden again and then follow the much shorter walk, the Mile Walk.

Tags Attingham Park, gardens of Shropshire, gardens of the National Trust, lichen, mosses, National Trust, parkland, Shropshire, Shropshire gardens, texture, textured bark, textures, The National Trust, woodland, woodland garden, woodland gardening, woodland gardens, woodlands

autumn autumn colours colours gardens open to the public Land Art light light quality logs National Trust outdoor sculpture photography Shrewsbury Shropshire The National Trust trees woodland woodlands

The Line – a simple tribute to Richard Long

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 21, 2017
1 Comment on The Line – a simple tribute to Richard Long

Jude and I are great fans of land artists and are proud of our British contingency of these sculptors with big ideas. We have sought out pieces around the UK and loved the work of Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash and Richard Long in particular.

Leaving a wooded shaded area and entering a open grassland mown short by the munching mouths of deer and sheep, the sunlight caught the purity of the white fibres of the sheep wool. A simple white line, a reminder of the work of Richard Long.

Richard Long and his landscape art would soon come back to our thoughts and eyes, as we continued our wandering in the woodlands at our local National Trust property with its wonderful parkland, woodland and walled garden, we had to take a detour veering away from our usual routeway. We took a poorly marked diversion beneath open woodland of long stretched trees with narrow trunks and branches way up creating a high canopy.

Some of these trees, although relatively young tend to weaken due to competition from their neighbours simply growing too closely, and then either die off or get blown over by strong winds. On this day in late November the bright sunshine shone so low down that it lit up the felled trunks. Below I share my photograph of a thin silver line lying beneath the narrow black verticals, a broken birch bough beneath living conifers stretching to reach the light.

It put in my mind the work of Richard Long, the part played in his creativity of lines and paths. I took a few shots to put together as a short appreciation of his work.

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sb1-18 The end of the line ………………..

……………………… for now. Soon more broken bright green moss covered fallen boughs cut across our pathway. the richest green cutting through the deeply carpeted dried browns of fallen autumn leaves.

More lines appear before your eyes when you have Richard Long’s work in your mind, the wash left as a white line across the dark surface of the river, the bright line of light vertically drawn down the trunk of an ancient proud tree.

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So our visit to Attingham Park was made even more special and the experience raised even higher by linking it to Richard Long’s creativity. What a surprise!

Tags deciduous trees, land art, lines, National Trust, outdoor sculpture, Richard Long, The National Trust

architecture buildings gardens open to the public landscapes log piles logs National Trust Shrewsbury Shropshire The National Trust

A Walk in the Park – 3 -The WW2 Walk

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 5, 2017
2 Comments on A Walk in the Park – 3 -The WW2 Walk

In readiness for my new monthly visit blog postings for 2017 we have visited Attingham Park our subject for next year a few times during the late autumn and early winter to walk the paths and introduce them to you.

Today it is the turn of the World War II Walk, a walk we had never tried before, so we set off not knowing what to expect.

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During World War Two Attingham Park was the site of an RAF airfield, which was built over existing smallholdings. It began life as an RAF fighter station but during 1942 it was handed over to the USAAF when it was used as a training station for American fighter pilots. It closed in the Autumn of 1946. We were not really sure what to expect so set off full of anticipation.

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We set off on an overcast chilly day for our walk and the weather was to remain dull for the whole walk.

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We first crossed the corner of the Deer Park and made our way alongside ancient dying or dead trees. We were pleased to see that plenty of new young trees have been planted to replace them. The old trees were left after they had died to become valuable wildlife haunts from woodpeckers to beetles to myriads of micro-organisms. This is a healthy way to manage woodland and parkland. Fallen wood has been left where it dropped or piled up to create wildlife shelter and food. A local beekeeper has established a good colony of bees with several sorts of colourful hives set alongside the woodland fenceline.

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Jude the Undergardener and I are both very imaginative and love looking for shapes in clouds, flames and here within the shapes of fallen rotting wood. The tree trunk in the photo below reminded us of a Komodo Dragon!

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We love the textures in rotting tree wood – the patterns, lines and colours creating works of art.

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We wandered along a woodland path beneath dark tall conifers, the path soft beneath our feet made from chipped bark and topped with a layer of pine needles.

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Site Number 10 is where we found the evidence of the Atcham Airfield, ruins of barrack huts, officers’ quarters and latrines. To begin with an odd brick or two then signs of an old wall and then even the ruins of a building.

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After experiencing the discovery of the ruins of the airfield complex, we left the artifacts behind us and made our way back through the deer park towards the hall.

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We will no doubt re-visit this walk and its WW2 ruins during our monthly visits in 2017.

Tags Attingham Park, NT, parkland, Shropshire, The National Trust, world war, world war 2

autumn autumn colours colours garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public light light quality National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs Shrewsbury Shropshire The National Trust woodland woodlands

A Walk in the Park – Part Two – The One Mile Walk

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 3, 2017
1 Comment on A Walk in the Park – Part Two – The One Mile Walk

Returning to a second post about Attingham Park, we would like to introduce you to another part of this Shropshire National Trust property. The One Mile Walk was our chosen walk on a November afternoon visit to Attingham Park. We only had a short amount of time available as the light disappears far too early for us outdoor types at this time of year. Attingham will be our featured monthly visit during 2017 when we will chose one walk from the several available, clearly marked throughout the parkland and woodlands.

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We decided that our chosen walk would give us the chance to relish in the beauty of autumn, trees and autumnal sunlight all working together especially for us. Come with us and see!

The Mile Long Walk begins close to the stableyards and is a circular walk which has distinctive characteristics for the clockwise or anti-clockwise directions. So far on our many ambles around this path we have always followed it in a clockwise direction, really simply because given a choice we always go clockwise. So for this visit we broke our habit and took off in the anti-clockwise direction, and we were amazed how different it not only looked but also felt.

For a while we ambled riverside, getting glimpses of the shining blueness of the surface of the little river.

Some trees look special in so many ways. Sweet Chestnuts grow as tall as giants reaching for the passing clouds so have a magnificent presence. They have deeply textured striated bark of delicate grey. On the floor below them they carpet the floor in golden long-fingers of leaves and the spiky cases of the nuts, mixed up like a tasty granola.

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Lime trees decorate the tips of their branches with delicate seeds partnered with seedleaf wings which have the translucence of clear local heather honey.

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The surprise trees for us though were the Tulip Trees which dropped their leaves at all stages from the palest green to the darkest brown. Combined with the unique leaf shape it all added up to a great carpet.

We had to look all about us as there was so much going on to catch our attention, lovely tree silhouettes against the blue sky right down to dried multi-coloured fallen leaves which became kaleidoscopic like pictures as the beams of the sun kissed them.

We would love you to come with us and explore the wonderful “One Mile Walk” at our favourite parkland, Attingham Park. As usual start the gallery by clicking on the first photo then navigate by clicking on the arrows.