Tag: travel

Winkworth Arboretum

We have never been to an arboretum quite like this before. There is no big carpark, no impressive welcoming signage, no fancy visitor centre with comfortable restaurant. Instead we parked roadside on a area of gravel, a sail flag as a sign and after a few yards found a clearing in the trees with a shed acting as ticket office and cafe. This was not like any National Trust property we had visited before. Picnic benches were scattered in the clearing – all very rustic really but the area had its own charm. It didn’t matter being outside with our coffees because our visit was much earlier this year as you will tell by which shrubs are in flower. So we enjoyed a very good coffee while listening to birdsong as we waited for my brother Graham to arrive as he lived close by and had enjoyed his several previous visits here.

Looking at the very good map supplied we soon realised Winkworth was going to be an excellent day out. We knew we could rely on Graham to be our local guide. It had a very atmospheric feel to it as we started off following a rough track trying to follow our chosen route. In places the track had been eroded by heavy rain and feet.

We love fastigiate trees and have several in our own garden so we were pleased to spot this specimen in a small clearing. With clear blue skies above we were walking over shadows created by dappled shade and here we could smell the strong aroma of our native Wild Garlic. Most flowers if they smell are best described as scented but not these alliums. They definitely had an odour! These were not flowers deserving of a close up look!

Whenever I walk beneath trees I try to take a photo looking straight up to the converging tree tops. The foliage was so bright when the sun caught it. In this clearing the main flower giving a blue haze is our native Bluebell which is worth a close look and then their unforgettable scent can be fully enjoyed.

In any woodland there are unexpected delights that attract our eyes, a burl on a tree trunk, or a carved tawny owl on another tree trunk or ferns decorating tree roots alongside the track.

An opening on our left afforded us a colouful view of the valley down below, the colours coming from azaleas in a multitude of bright colours. The narrow track took us slowly down to the colours, passing a few acers on the way, with deeply cut leaves creating a lace effect.

The brightest flowers were on this orange deciduous azalea. We like the deciduous varieties far more than the evergreens and grow a few in our own garden.

We walked along the flat of the valley bottom where the path felt much more level. We continued until we spotted a colourful patch of yellows and oranges partway up the valley side.

We slowly made our way up the slope until we realised that all the colour that we had spotted was another patch of deciduous azaleas. Their scent reached us before we had reached them.

We then made our way back to the car, after a wonderful day at this unique arboretum which felt more like a woodland garden. There were no identity labels on any of the shrubs and trees so it didn’t feel like an arboretum. Of course we also enjoyed spending time with my brother who loves trees as much as we do.

Tags arboretum, azaleas, gardening, nature, photography, plants, rhododendrons, travel, winkworth

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Our Week on the North York Moors – Visiting Villages – Danby

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 23, 2025

As we crossed the moors driving towards Danby we could see and smell where the heather was being burnt to encourage new green shoots for grouse to eat. I really disapprove of this practice because it must destroy habitat for lots of creatures and the grouse are encouraged so that they can be shot.

After coffee and cakes (fancy brownies) we followed a footpath out towards Danby Castle. We crossed over a river after only walking for five minutes or so and nearby we found a sculpture depicting the river bailiff.

After crossing the river over the wooden bridge we followed the footpath onwards until we met a narrow country lane. On the footpath we found plenty of wildflowers, although mostly now turned to seedheads, and rich hedgerows.

One feature of the North York Moors is the big skies and on the day we walked this path they were blue with small white clouds adding extra beauty to the landscape.

The moors also boast some beautiful single span stone-built bridges with flood river depth signs nearby. This bridge no longer carried traffic which instead had to cross by ford.

The two padlocks locked together to the metal fencing are a traditional symbol of love. They are known as ‘love locks’ and often locked to fences or bridges so this one must be double strength as it is on a fence on a bridge.

We turned back at the bridge and retraced our steps back to the centre. We decided to look for seed-heads and berries and perhaps an odd late flower or two.

We had a surprise, well two actually as we returned to the information centre as we spotted a large dragon created in metal and wood and behind that a circle of leaning posts to encourage visitors to lean back on a post and look upwards.

With those two surprises we ended our walk and made our way back to the car.

Back at the cottage I took a photo of this railway poster featuring Goathland/Aidensfield.

Tags canal, hiking, photography, travel, walking

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Our Week in the North York Moors – Our Holiday Home on the Moors

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 1, 2024
1 Comment on Our Week in the North York Moors – Our Holiday Home on the Moors

We made the long journey up to the North York Moors for a week’s holiday. I had just had an operation on two of my fingers on my right so was not allowed to drive so Jude had to take on all the driving.

In order to get to our holiday home we had to follow google map directions sent to us by the owner. She said that if we used our satnav it would take us to wrong side of the valley. However google maps diverted us along tiny bendy lanes with hairpins and steep gradients. We even had to stop at odd gates to open them up to allow us to pass through. It did take a long time to cross the moors and finally we had to follow a very rough and steep farm track, frequently having to brake to avoid running pheasants over who walked along in front of us.

But it was worth it because the barn conversion was beautifully executed. Our cottage home was called ‘Foxglove’.

The ram’s head metalwork was the handle of a boots scraper. The gateway in the stone wall was the way to get to the rear of the property.

A really special feature of the barn was the view out the back over to the far side of the valley. Along the valley the steam engines pulled their long snake of carriages. We could hear them long before we could see them among the wooded valley side. It was the North York Moors Railway, which we aimed to travel on later in the week.

Tags art, photography, postaday, travel

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Our Week in North Yorkshire Moors – Part 1 Stopping off at RHS Bridgewater

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 21, 2024

As September ended and October began we took a week’s holiday in the North Yorkshire Moors where we stayed in a cottage on an isolated mixed farm hidden in the wilds.

We decided to stop on the journey up at RHS Bridgewater, the newest RHS garden, on the outskirts of Manchester. We had visited twice already so looked forward to seeing how it had developed.

The car park, roads and paths surrounded by gardens designed by Tom Stuart-Smith afforded visitors a very warm welcome, with grasses in their biscuit, coffee and ginger colours of early autumn, sitting below young deciduous trees.

We did not have long enough to explore the whole garden so decided to concentrate on just two areas, the walled garden and the Chinese Stream Garden. To get to the walled garden we walked closely along colourful herbaceous borders with occasional shrubs.

The photos below show tall white-flowered actaea to the left while on the right the border featured geranium and

Below one of my favourite perennials, sanguisorba is mingled in with an umbel possibly Selinum wallichianum to great effect. The small tree to the right is a Zanthoxylum simulans or the Sichuan Pepper.

We turned left into the first part of the walled gardens, the vegetable garden designed by the design team Harries Bugg. Sadly weeds had invaded several of the raised beds and the overall effect was of sadness and neglect. I did find a few interesting places though.

In total contrast to the garden above the Tom Stuart-Smith designed area of the walled garden was as good as we expected after enjoying it so much on our previous two visits. There were so many highlights deserving of a closer look.

The lean-to greenhouse in this part of the walled garden was a contrast to Tom S-S’s design around it.

The rest of Tom S-S’s area is so satisfying that picking out highlights is difficult, but I shall have a try.

We then made our way across the gardens towards the Chinese Stream Garden, which we had heard had moved on nicely now, so we arrived there with eager anticipation.

We were not disappointed. We saw how well the plants had become established and the stream had become a sparkling central feature running down the slope through the garden.

To make our way back to the car we approached the welcome building taking a circuitous route through the ‘Worsley Welcome Garden’.

From RHS Harlow Carr we made our way northward towards the North Yorkshire Moors, where we were going to stay in a converted barn in a valley side.

Tags england, garden, gardening, travel, Yorkshire

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A Short Break in Devon Yeo Valley Organic Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 11, 2024

On the final day of our break in Devon we visited the organic gardens at Yeo Valley. The weather was far drier and warmer than the previous two so this visit seemed so much more casual.

The garden here was divided into several different ‘rooms’, each with its own atmosphere, design and planting choices. Quirkiness however featured throughout so it was a garden of surprises.

The beautiful planting throughout the gardens is full of inspiration. Planting combinations are a real feature of the garden.

Sculpture has a big part to play in making the gardens at Yeo Valley as interesting as they are. The pieces are in many different styles and are positioned to enhance the spaces around them and vice versa.

Several of the different planting areas featured large clumps or blocks of one or two plants, such as the grass border and this meadow. This makes for strong planting design.

Equally single plants can attract us in the same way. These individuals draw you in and entice you to take their portraits.

After we had explored what we thought was most of the garden, we discovered a couple of completely different areas, a meadow with a yurt and a gravel garden affording the opportunity to grow such different plants. We continued to come across more pieces of sculpture.

The gravel garden covered a larger area than most of the other areas giving opportunities to plant many different and interesting plants.

We enjoyed this garden because it was full of fun ideas, interesting planting and joyful sculptural pieces. We were so glad we finally made it to the Yeo Valley Organic Gardens. They were as good as we expected them to be!

Tags garden, gardening, nature, plants, travel

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A Short Break in Devon – A Walk on the Wildside

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 3, 2024
1 Comment on A Short Break in Devon – A Walk on the Wildside

Our short break in Devon in mid-June presented us the chance of visiting a garden I had wanted to visit since it was first open, Wildside, the creation of the well-known horticulturalist Keith Wiley. Keith was originally head gardener of the nearby Garden House, a garden we really liked when we visited several years ago.

Keith moved to a flat site on which he and his wife would develop a garden and build a house. Sadly his wife died before the garden was completed, but Keith carried on with their plans. The key to his design ideas was to shape the land into hills and valleys, which created more habitats for planting.

Even on the short walk walk from the carpark to the garden entrance we found these stunning hydrangeas in flower.

Keith’s first purchase had been a small JCB style digger which allowed him to shape the land and start planting trees and shrubs. Gravel pathways meandered throughout the landscaped areas enabling us to see so much of his planting close up.

We arrived in torrential rain which just refused to stop or even give over a little, so it was no surprised that we were the only visitors. But this did mean that we were greeted by Keith himself. He gave us a lot of his time, telling us about how he had developed the garden and advised us on the best routes to take to enjoy what was currently looking at its best. The planting was on different layers with herbaceous plants looking colourful beneath shrubs and small trees.

We returned to the the garden entrance before exploring the opposite side of the garden following more instructions from Keith who suggested areas that we just had to see. Several parts of the garden on this side were planted to remind him of his travels.

The furthest parts of the garden illustrated just how serious some of the earthmoving exploits were.

As we were wandering around these parts of the landscape the winds increased and the rain became even stronger so we returned to the garden entrance and made our way back to the car. At the garden entrance we admired flower arrangements using materials from the garden.