Saturday 6 November 2010

A tour of The Dartington Estate

I promised you all a walk around the gardens of The Dartington Estate near Totnes in Devon.
It's a calm and peaceful place which I love.

This is the entrance to the gardens. The arch leads to a beautiful quadrangle with The Great Hall at the end.
                               I love this building, it looks like something from a Harry Potter film.


This is the long border as you walk into the garden. Those conifers are kept well clipped I think there are twelve. They look like a row of fat ladies sitting on the grass. The colour scheme on the herbacious border is yellow and blue. It is a really nice place to sit when the sun is shining.

The colours on trees are so pretty, the leaves made a wonderful frilly carpet underfoot.



            Aren't Cyclamen great, they start to flower when all around is starting to sleep for the winter.


                                                                                 
There are even signs of some things waking up, amongst the lichens are the buds of the witchhazel waiting to open and send out there amazing perfume on those bare winter branches.
                                                                                  
This hydrangea flower is a gorgeous shade of lilac, I so wanted to bring it home.
The last bit of the walk takes you past these fabulous old trees, hollow inside but carefully maintained and still majestic.  They stand next to a Henry Moore sculpture.
This lady has her back to those twelve fat ladies sitting on the grass.


I collected some lichen covered branches and twigs on my walk. Check in on White Wednesday and I'll show you how I used them.

Best of all there's a pub in the grounds, it's a good place to sit and enjoy a coffee before the drive home.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of autumn in Devon!
xox Angela.








1 comment:

Soggibottom said...

Thanks Angela. I enjoyed every step :-)x x x
Full of colour at the moment. X