Time to sit and chat

I am often asked do I ever sit out and enjoy the garden. Well, today we have both been working hard cutting back the ornamental grasses and pampas in the white stemmed birch avenue and beyond. But at lunch time we sat amongst the aconites beneath the lime trees and dined on delicious bread and cheese with home made chutney. Coffee was enjoyed in another spot and tea in yet another. Yes we do take pleasure in the garden, especially at 'tea breaks'. Then its time to just sit and chat, and savour all the sights around us!

The winter garden has been super this weekend...pity it was not like it on our open days...it should have been, but the insistent snowy blasts meant that flowering was delayed...all the early daffodils are out now, coinciding with aconites and snowdrops, early primroses and fragrant sarcocccoca....such a joyous collection of bright golds, creamy yellows, whites, greens etc etc. Patches of dark hellebores, cyclamen and black ophiopogon add a more dangerous, darker touch.