Escape to the country

Everyone needs to recharge their batteries from time to time. We love our garden but keeping it looking good involves working in it rather than lying back and relaxing. This week we turned our backs on the weeding and watering and escaped to visit one of our other favourite places. Stockton Bury Gardens are a real treat this time of year and a great place to seek creative inspiration.

There were dramatic poppies in many colours - these dusky pink ones were real show stoppers. Everything about them was beautiful, the delicate papery flowers, the fat buds, the hairy stems and the seedheads.

I think these woven beehives nestling in their brick arches were decorative rather than functional but they were still a lovely feature.

This dark Aquilegia isn't an unusual plant for an English cottage garden but who'd have thought the buds could be as elegant as this?

Looks almost like a bird in flight - I feel the urge to get my watercolours out and get painting!


Hope you're in creative mode this weekend!
Bye for now,
Linda