Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Open Gardens

It seems the quintessential English garden never really died (perhaps I was going to the wrong gardens?). These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago, when I went on a dash around eight gardens over the course of a Saturday and Sunday. This involved driving up to North London and down to the New Forest area down in Hampshire. They are in no order, and will remain un-credited, unless anyone particularly wants to know where these gardens are.

Starting the tradition of a Cream Tea and a slice of cake...


A traditional English cup of tea.
This garden was no-where near the seaside!
The first evening opening I have been too. A great time of day to see a garden.

After much cake eating over the open garden weekend, I've just sent off for a pilchard-based diet scheme. I'll let you know how I get on...

5 comments:

Victoria Summerley said...

What is it with flies and tea? And why don't they ever land in your tea indoors? It would save me a lot of time rushing around trying to swat bluebottles.

Unknown said...

I would love Doves!! So beautiful in the garden but probably no good for your Brassica's lol.

Also whats the deal with a seaside garden no where near the sea? Slightly strange!

Great post!

Ryan

Rob said...

Victoria, this fly in my tea was none other than a greenfly, which found itself liberated on the nearest rosebush.

Ryan, cheers! I agree the doves are a nice touch. A lot of the time gardens don't tie in with their surroundings. The seaside garden was quite surreal, but fun with it.

Ms B said...

It was lovely meeting you today! I'm delighted my hunch was correct.

Open Gardens are just brilliant aren't they. I am only sad that I have not managed to get to any this year. We don't go as far afield as you. The best 'tea' we had was a very large & reasonably priced Pimms!

Rob said...

It was great to meet you too Ms B!

I think I may have been to one or two open gardens around here, but not many. Perhaps the London Bloggers can club together at some stage and do an "Open Garden Crawl"?

As for opening my own garden - no chance! A bit too much work. As it is I spend more time watering than sleeping this time of year!