A Walk round the City (part two)

Continuing my walk around the city to find interesting patterns and architecture, I was up by the Cathedral, where there are lots of patterns in the stonework.

Leaves made some lovely shadow patterns on the paving.

More granite setts caught my eye.

As did the brickwork and the grill on this window.

A stone archway with its crenellations.

Looking down some steps through another arch.  I do like an arch!

Lots of lovely patterns of more arches, windows, panes of glass, brickwork, and mouldings.

This dome is on a very run-down, but architecturally interesting building.

This pattern of fallen plaster against the brick caught my eye too.

As did this Art Deco inspired decoration.

These small mosaic tiles were in a very unprepossessing doorway.

I liked the rounded bay windows and the griffin/gryphon decoration on this building.  The more I looked at this one, the more I noticed, like the little stone canopy under the round window.  

This fabulous stone work was above a bank doorway.

Even the railway lines have some interesting curved and straight lines and patterns.  I was quite surprised by how many things caught my eye and these two posts are just a fraction of the photos I took.  I really enjoyed seeing bits of the city in a new way! 

A visit to Mum and to Barnsdale Gardens (part 1)

I have been a little quiet over the last few days (an unusual occurrence for me!) as I have been staying with my mum.  I had intended to go and stay in June, but she got a cold, so the visit was postponed until now.  It was lovely to be able to spend some time helping her in the garden, re-potting tubs, planting new plants and pottering.  There was just one thing I definitely had to do while I was there and that was to visit Barnsdale Gardens, which belonged to the late Geoff Hamilton and are run today by his son, Nick.  I used to be a frequent visitor to the gardens, but hadn't visited for two and a half years!  I took a mass of photos, but will split them up into a couple of posts, so I hope they will be enjoyable to look through.  The garden above and following was created by Dan Pearson (something I didn't know), who is now known for his prairie style of planting.  This one shows a productive garden with a mini-maze, and the most beautiful rose 'Crimson Showers', entreating the visitor to enter.

 Isn't the rose wonderful?  I do enjoy looking through an arch and wondering what is on the other side.
Barnsdale Gardens are made up of lots of small gardens or areas, showing many different styles of garden design.  Geoff Hamilton built several of them for television series, such as the Cottage Gardens and Paradise Gardens. I always take a few ideas away with me from all the different areas.

 This garden is a complete contrast to the rose filled one, with muted colours and lots of green.  It was a very calm space, with just the trickle of an unobtrusive water feature.

 There was also some artwork on show in the gardens (always interesting, sometimes controversial!) and this was the first piece I spotted, which looked at home in the wooded area. 

This was a new garden to me and did give the feeling of a coastal garden, with a shingle beach.

 Another lovely arch; really dark inside but with the light tempting me onward.

 A productive apple and pear arch, leading towards the allotment area.  It had a lot of fruit on it.

 I enjoyed the 'mad hair' of this ornamental grass, its exuberance contrasting with the formality of the urn.

 One of the vegetable gardens which was also very productive.  Most of the vegetable areas had been companion planted with marigolds in bright yellows and oranges.  Normally, I am not drawn to those colours, but the planting was so cheerful, how could I resist?

 Beautiful bright and cheerful colours.

 My favourite seat in the gardens.  I love to sit here for a while and listen to the birds and just relax...

This is the view from the seat, looking back towards the entrance, which was lovely and restful.
More from my visit in the next post.