In the spring garden

Before I start, I have to tell you that this is not my garden. I so wish it was, but a girl can dream :-) It is a source of inspiration though. I hope that one day my garden will look a bit like this.

At the end of April last year,  my youngest daughter and I visited Great Dixter house and Gardens in Northiam, England. It was my third visit, having been there before in late spring and summer. I wrote a post about it before. If you are interested, please have a look here.

The Tudor house was once the home of Nathaniel Lloyd, who bought it in 1910. It was restored by the well known architect Edwin Luytens.

LLoyd and Luytens designed the framework for the garden, but it was Nathaniel's son, television presenter and author Christopher Lloyd, who made the garden what it is today: a fine example of an arts and crafts garden. Christopher Lloyd passed away more than ten years ago, but his head gardener and friend, Fergus Garrett, still keeps up his good work.

Although it was icy cold on the day of our visit, the garden was a riot of colour. I don't want to use too many words describing it. My photo's will tell you what it is that I saw.

If you would like to read more about Great Dixter house and gardens, please have a look at their website.

Have a great few weeks!

Love,

Madelief X

* Thank you for your kind comments on my last blogpost. I will try to reply them the coming week. 

Stop and smell the roses

If you like to find satisfaction in life, it is said that you have to acknowledge the value and meaning of simple things, like stopping on your garden path to smell the roses, and admire the beauty of the flowers, standing proudly or tumbling down the trees, like a waterfall of flowers. 

Perhaps I am a hopeless romantic, but I try to do just that, to take it all in as much as possible. It's only two weeks that the roses in my garden are at their best, and that's not long.

When I was in the garden today, the rambling roses (Veilchenblau & Paul's Himalayan Musk) are already losing their petals and delicious scent. Last weeks rain speeded things up considerably. They both gave an abundant display of flowers. Paul's Himalayan musk has taken over one of the trees in the middle part of my garden completely. It's breathtakingly beautiful.

The roses in front of my garden house: New Dawn, Rhapsody in Blue and Pink cloud, are still in flower. In the back a simple dog rose, I once took a cutting from when on a walk, and some roses I bought for a Euro in a dump store, look magnificent. 

In other parts of the garden, Belinda's dream, Constance Spry, Waltz Time, Heritage and Leonardo da Vinci make me smile. How elegant they look.  

My experience is that working in a garden does not only have physical benefits, it heals, clears the head, gives you the peace and quiet that you need, and makes you appreciate simple things more. Above all, it makes me a happier person. I can recommend it to you all.  

Stop and smell the roses.

Wishing you a lovely week!

Madelief x