A Garden Day

Celia and I went to two gardens today. The first, Ickworth House, could be used for one of those BBC dramas where everyone sweeps about in gowns or brocade footman’s outfits, and there’s lots of intrigue but they don’t actually do much.

It was fascinating to see, but I wouldn’t have wanted to live here, whether I was royalty or a servant.

Then we went to Wyken Vineyards.

This is the house. I’m told it’s a “gentleman farmer’s house” and not a grand estate. Really? (By the way, although the grounds are open to the public, this is a private home.)

The garden designer is a master of color and composition. I’ve never seen a garden with these hues of reds, oranges, maroons, yellows and greens. With sharp blue for punctuation. It worked! Every bit of it. Here’s the back of the house.

Better yet, hens live here.

And showy peafowl.

There’s also sheep and llamas, turkeys and guinea fowl. Vegetable gardens, a nuttery, and a maze. And a meadow planted with wildflowers.

I didn’t see any ponies or goats. But that could be easily remedied. And then it’d be perfect.

Comments:

  1. Hard to rival the Brits for gardens. Magnificent. Bet they have some good stories about where they have found eggs in the garden. Could do without the peacock noise, though.

  2. Beautiful gardens. My question is, Are all the hens in England so robust looking? They are big girls!

  3. Yeah! What do they feed those girls?…They are enormous! My garden at home is looking very sad compared to those!

  4. I’m amazed they have chickens/poultry running loose in these gardens and they look untouched by scratching claws.
    It would take my hens all of about 10 seconds to have that the gravel spread to the back hedge and another 10 seconds to have the lillies and hostas smashed to the ground.

  5. I’m told that the British love their pantalooned hens. They like the fluffy bottomed big birds. Very few of the Mediterranean type here. The hens aren’t all perfectly behaved – Celia’s have dug up a bit under her tree, but they haven’t ruined her flower beds!

  6. Those colors look very south/southwest Americas to me. A nice surprise of bright in an English garden.

  7. Caught the timing on the cam today to say “goodnight” to the goats. Love your cams, thanks for having them.

  8. I rather live next door to peacocks and rooster than Guinea hens, know those things are annoying.