Wimpole Hall continued .................

At last some time to blog as I am still busy working on orders and the next on line show is suddenly just around the corner.

I did not think that I would turn into one of those grandmothers who share pictures of their grandchildren at every opportunity.   But I do have to include these pictures of two very precious little girls, Victoria and her new baby sister Alexandra.

 

and then as promised so more pictures of my visit last month to Wimpole Hall. 

The entrance to the large 'walled' garden with a sign on the gate requesting that the gate be kept closed to keep out the rabbits.

 

An ideal place to situate a hive,  lots of pollen right on the doorstep for all the bees.

One of the many beautiful flowering trees on the estate.

Bright colourful Californian poppies.

An intriguing find hidden under a tree,  no mention is made of it on any of the web sites I researched so I have no idea what it is or where it is from.

Idyllic English countryside with a changing rather threatening sky in the late afternoon.

This is the view from the front on Wimpole Hall looking down what used to be a driveway accessed some distance away with very grand gates.   As I pass these gates and the very beautiful gate house, each time I drive to London I think I might have shared a picture of some time back but just do not have the time to look back through literally hundreds of pictures to find them. 

I could not resist this picture, a window to heaven with the sun shining through dark rain clouds.

One final picture of the which I found on the 'net.  The estate covers many acres and we only managed to explore a small section as my husband is now too frail for long walks.  Something for a future visit.

Finally two of the handful of peonies from the garden this year.  The wind has not been kind to my spring garden this year and I think that the plants will need to be re-potted next season.

Last year I ordered two pink miniature standard roses.  They arrived in a rather damaged condition with the plastic pots broken and squashed and with one 'white' flower.  My complaint netted me two further plants which arrived in a considerably better state and are now thriving.  I did manage to salvage the two damaged plants,  one of which is a lovely apricot colour and the other is extremely interesting.  Presumably two different graftings have created a rose with both white and pink flowers.

 

The garden is thriving but this year we have had a major infestation of aphid on many of the plants.  Spraying with strong soapy water has not achieved very much so I will be buying some ladybird larvae to deal with the problem,  much better than using toxic sprays.

.................and now back to work, next time pictures of some new bears.

Hurt no living thing:

Ladybird, nor butterfly,

Nor moth with dusty wing.

~Christina Georgina Rossetti