A visit around Cranborne Manor House Gardens in Dorset...

Happy Summer Solstice to you.


As promised a trip around Manor House Gardens Cranborne in Dorset..

Vast walled vegetable gardens...

Lots of creative sitting ideas... 

Lovely borders of love-in-a-mist and poppies...

Lots of fabulous gates...

Topiary...

Bulls in wild flower meadows...

Acres of pathways to explore... Can't you just imagine ladies and gents on horseback... and all those big gowns swishing!

And in the middle a fantastic moving Water Feature..

I did manage to video the opening of this but I've no idea how to get it on here to show you...
Any ideas?

Set in a lovely Rosemary turret edged hedge...

I loved all the little ferns growing up the walls...

Sorry there aren't many close ups... my spine no longer allows me to squat or lean so I'm rather limited... it is a great shame as I also have a fab SLR digital camera but I just can't hold it any more... Photography was a great passion, I did a photography degree and have worked in that field too so I am always a tad disappointed by the quality I get with my little camera...

But nature never ever disappoints...

Around to the side...

In front a huge Croquet Lawn with these interesting Topiary Houses...

Then a walk through lawns with huge trees  to find a beautifully clear stream...

Old planks to cross to find secluded spaces...

Or more open seating if you weren't meeting a lover...

Then around to the North Front...

Beautiful old lichen..

Into the blue and white garden...

Amazing old gnarly fruit trees...

Walls with names and dates carved into the stone from 1600's...

The view from the top of the steps....

Catmint and Alliums covered in Bees...                                                                                            

                                                                                  

The Irises were past their best but I just loved this pathway...                                 

                                

The grounds are truly vast, I didn't make it all the way round, I left my parents to wander through the rest, more vegetable gardens and then on to find the church...

I limped back to Maud to crashed out for hour.

If you can go to Cranborne take a picnic and spend the day... normally the gardens are only open on Wednesdays but we were lucky to find a coach party had booked for that Tuesday afternoon (I was heading back home the following morning to the dentist!) so it was a real treat...

Well worth a visit... for those more able there are walks around the estate too...

Hope you are having a splendid weekend out in the sun...
Smiles Cass x

Away with Maud...

A visit to Dorset... Maud was a star sadly my body not so and then there was a stone in the spinach ouch... so I had to cut the holiday short coming back home for two chipped tooth fillings... I couldn't eat without getting an electric shock...

I did make it to a bootsale and saw two stunning gardens, one was next door to our cottage but the rest of the holiday was spent in bed with.... can you guess... yes... migraines...  my neck was catching a nerve again....

The bootsale outing, the first for me this year, was very successful... thank you Elaine... huge so I didn't make it to every stall but I came away with...

Two splendid blankets the blue one is a perfect fit for covering Maud's bed and the other needs a bit of tlc...

I picked up a few other things...  and met some lovely locals too.

The linens could do with a soak but I seem to have run out of ecover bleach powder...

Some more embroidery hoops and a couple of pretty embroidery pieces

And a thin long hanging you may have spied in Maud?

Oh yes and a rather useful National Trust walking stick... all in all not bad for just under £10 and I was back in the holiday cottage before 9 o'clock for breakfast...


Next time a post about the trip around Cranbourne Manor Garden now if you haven't been there you are in for a real treat..


Here's the entrance to the gardens just to wet your appetites... and yes they are chives!!

Thanks for popping by till next time smiles Cass x