My Garden Comes to Life

After such a cold, wet and destructive Spring the garden at last comes to life

Herb Garden too

Just made a 'peep hole' from the top patio

Blue skies today and sunny but with a brisk cold wind

The bottom patio coming along too but still have things to finish and add to my quirky corner

Looks so much better than the old shed and greenhouse

Wickham Place Farm Garden - Wisteria Time - Pt. 1

Had a delightful visit yesterday to this privately owned garden

The owners bought the house and land (19 acres of woodland and 4 acres of garden) in 1987 in an overgrown and dilapidated state knowing it would be a 'job for life' 

They allow the public access on certain days as part of the National Gardens Scheme and the proceeds go to a local Hospice

As I have so many photos of this lovely garden I am concentrating on the Wisteria for this post and will post the rest of the garden in part 2 with some more information

The front of the house

This is part of the outside of the walled garden with a

250 foot long Wisteria show

There is Wisteria growing in many places but sitting inside this brick pergola the perfume was intoxicating 

climbing to the top of this very tall tree

The way in and out to the back of the house for visitors

so the perfume hits one immediately

May Colour

 I noticed the variety of pink and red last night and zoomed in onto the tops of the trees on one side of my garden from a bedroom window 

The countryside is amassed with cow Parsley

and Horse Chestnut 

and May Blossom

and this picture that I found on Facebook is typical

Just a little aside before I sort some pictures from a lovely garden we visited today. If you like Wystera then you will love it

The Old and the New with a Walk thrown in.

These photos were taken in September 2011 and have been waiting on the 'back burner' to be posted

Regular followers of my blog will know that I have posted on Leigh-on-Sea many times,

the reason being, that our closest and most long standing friends lived there and we stayed there over many years when they were away. It is also only 40 minutes from home

Summer 2011

This is the home that they rented for many years but had to leave when the owner died

The property originally consisted of 2 semi-detached homes which were eventually turned into 4 apartments, our friends living in the ground floor on the left

Summer 2012

As there were no children the property was left to 2 nephews and the above photo shows the two new houses that they built for themselves after demolishing the original property

Very modern and with great views over the estuary

I do miss the old one though as it was like a second home

Having parked the car we begin with a coffee

over looking the Thames estuary

We leave the restaurant and take a walk into the town from the parade where our friends lived

before returning to the top of the cliffs

and make our way down into the old town over the bridge on the left which crosses the railway line

It is high tide so the fishing boats are in

A restaurant selling freshly caught fish

and then we come to several outlets that sell all kinds of seafood

and beer and drinks

looking back

and here a tea room and ice cream parlour

next to a quaint cottage

and now the HQ of the local Sea Scouts

till we reach the beach 

in re-tracing our steps we take you down this corridor

onto the deck of a restaurant

where many people are enjoying drinks

The restaurant which is on the right is quite upmarket so a dress code essential but lounging out on the deck is casual

Hope you enjoyed yet another walk around Leigh-on-Sea