First Garden Visit 2016 part one

I set out with my friends Katy and Alison for our first garden visits of the year two weekends ago.  It was a bright day with some sun, but we also got some snow showers during the afternoon too. The first garden we visited is a particular favourite of mine, Brightwater Gardens (it used to be The Garden House, Saxby).  I like visiting a garden when there are not so many plants in flower as you can see the 'bones' of the garden.  Brightwater has very good 'bones'.  There were lots of new things in place and a lot of work has been done since I last visited.  For one, they are now an RHS partner garden and for another, a barn has been converted into a dining area with a lovely wood burning stove (which we enjoyed!).  Above can be seen a mass of crocuses which had obligingly opened on seeing the sun.

 Another mass planting of crocus - this one is 'Cream Beauty'.

 The obelisk garden always looks good.

I liked that the miscanthus heads had been left over winter.

 Ipheion flowers were blooming.

I was intrigued by the red fruits against the blue sky.  On discussing this tree with one of the owners, he thought it was probably a crab apple.

 The view across the pond with the cornus stems shining out.

The cornus stems do look amazing grouped like this.

 This area was new to me, with a formal pond replacing previous one and the stone sculptures casting some lovely shadows,

 I always like the paving in these side gardens and the sun and shadow areas work very well in this photo.

There were nice contrasts of sun and shadow here too.  In the summer, this will be a mass of flowers, but the structural elements create a strong background, which will show them off well.

 I always go and see the Tudor gardener, often hidden in the foliage.

This Cathedral Garden is one of my very favourite parts of the garden, which is unusual for me as it has no flowers.  It is a quiet and meditative area, well named,  with the hedges, grass and trees creating a repeating rhythm which was enhanced by the shadows cast by the trees.  They look like the stone tracery of stained glass windows and this is really evident in the photo.
I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around the garden which was topped off with tea and cake (very delicious it was too) in the toasty warm barn.  I look forward to visiting again.
The afternoon wasn't over though, as we then headed to another garden, open for the snowdrops.  That will be in my next post...