A short visit to Elder Daughter and The Poppet brought with it the usual opportunities to call in at other places on the way. Thus we visited Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire, just off the M40 on the way down, dodging the sudden shower to admire the various borders and lily pond…….
….enjoyed the walled garden (especially the white garden and the sunflowers) at Loseley Park near Guildford with aforementioned ED and TP…..
…… before visiting the slightly grander environs of Cliveden, 130 feet above the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire and thronged with families enjoying the freedom and space before school looms again for them in a week or two…..
…. and home again, to ramble in our own garden and check what’s been going in our absence.
Rambling in the Garden 
My kind of tour. Thank you for taking me along.
You are welcome, Cynthia 🙂
I love your collages. What a lovely trip, your daughter and new granddaughter and a jolly good plant fix too. I can’ t think of anything nicer.
A lovely trip indeed, Chloris – and the collages were the easiest way of showing a lot of photos even if things weren’t named (and even though there wasn’t a photo the The Poppet) 😉
You visited some of my old haunts. Cliveden was very close to where we lived so was the place of choice for a quick walk. Try to go back when the bluebells are flowering they are spectacular.
Loseley Park was my favourite of the three, I think. Cliveden certainly was very well used, although it is still school holidays in most places of course. It’s not far off the as-the-crow flies route, so we could perhaps call and see the bluebells one year.
Fab! Been to Waterperry (which I remember as being extremely colourful) and Cliveden (very grand indeed, especially the tulip en masse in spring!) – thanks for sharing your pics. Glad you had a good time 🙂
Yes, bright borders at Waterperry – and can you remember whereabouts the tulips were at Cliveden?
In the Long Garden where the topiary is. It was an all white scheme when I saw it and left a lasting impression.
I can imagine why – seeing massed tulips at Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick was the thing that changed my opinion about tulips.
Ramblings, more like the grand tour! I am sure you travelled in style and came home with a plant or two and a suitcase full of ideas.
Actually, you are wrong, Christine – well, we did travel in style (sort of) in the campervan, but I didn’t even consider buying any plants and as I had left home with a certain degree of dissatisfaction about the garden I wasn’t ready to start taking any new ideas onboard yet…. It was a grand ramble though 😉
Fantastic selection of beautiful plants and all so colourful, you certainly had a super trip.
A few more weeks and they would probably have lost much of their residual colour, although Waterperry had an aster weekend coming up in September
Lovely post, Cathy! I like your collages. I’m experimenting with them myself. It’s nice to be able to squeeze in some garden visits when you’re away from home. Your gardens there are all new ones to me. And how did your garden feel when you came home? Wonderful, no doubt!
Thanks for the whirlwind tour Cathy. I imagine that the Poppet has grown since you last saw her. I like two sleeps away as often it seems that you’ve been away for longer if that makes sense. All places that I’ve not been to except for Cliveden and that was on a February evening! Must try to remedy the situation one of these days.
As NT members we too have visited many places well out of season – which at least is possible at many properties these days. Yes, the Poppet is progressing nicely, thank you 😉
How lovely to combine family and garden visits, lucky you. Waterperry is a good one whereas Cliveden always leaves me wishing they had more flowers. Maybe I should give it another chance. D
Admittedly we looked at the parterre at Cliveden from the terrace and decided it wasn’t worth the walk down there. There were 2 deep herbaceous borders by the house though which were only a little past their best. Loseley was my favourite of the three, I think