What's On Your Work desk? Wednesday #683

Morning all deskers, back home now after our little trip to Wales. As there hasn't been much crafting done, I was going to wow you with artistic garden photos - sadly when I looked back, the beautifully framed landscapes I remembered taking were not there. But anyway here goes.

The first garden we visited was actually a very private estate, (no pictures of house pls and we were chaperoned around, all we were told was the owners are Scottish and presumably very, very rich) mainly about ecological management of woodland, fields and wild spaces with a few very well planted designery bits around the house - well with an on site designer, head gardener and 7 staff I would expect no less. Beautiful commissioned ironwork pieces such as this arched walkway. 

Our second garden in contrast was a manageable sized private garden, Stoneleigh Down, Tockington, Bristol. Beautiful garden, lovely people (lovely cake). Open for NGS I think. Well worth a visit. This is a close 2nd favourite. 

We then arrived in Gwent and visited Hillcrest Garden in Blackwood. Delightful and quirky. Award winner, raising lots of money for Cancer research through opening to the public. Just won something - plaque on the front wall but I can't find any photos!! I commented on the huge number of pots and the chore it must be to water them. The owner looked at me and said, well we are in Wales. And there I was not going to complain about the weather. Flaming June my a***.

The next day we visited Aberglasney Gardens in Llangathen. Open to the public. This was very nice, with lots of history including a Tudor cloister garden, a very very old yew tunnel, a nympharium (sp?) and stunning walled and kitchen gardens. Also truly the most beautiful woodland/wet garden I have ever seen. You could have photographed the life out of it Helen.

I, sadly, could not. I think the umbrella was getting in my way.

Our fifth garden, Big House Farm, Gower was absolutely stunning despite the rain. With views over the sea (well jell) and beautifully planted front and back, this was our favourite of the private gardens. Won lots of awards. Photos do not do it justice. Again.

It also had the best cake. I had forgotten that a large part of these tours was about the quality of the tea and cake.

Our 6th treat was the Botanic Gardens at Sketty (or at least I think that was where we were, there was a bit of confusion.....). Very enjoyable, but a lot of walking, wished we'd had a picnic so we had an excuse to sit in a field and enjoy the views (we had good weather this day). On a very large scale, it also has a huge biodome, really stunning, but v hot when the sun came out. (I took photos honest, inside and out. My phone says otherwise.)  Lots of nice planting and we particularly liked this serpentine water feature with a rill that wound along the pathway. (It also has dementia friendly toilets, they have red seats. Never come across that before).

Final day and we visited another private garden. Croesllanfro Farm, Newport. Wow. Super designed. 40 years in the making from nothing, owners are a practising garden designer and a builder so you can guess the standard. They had a robot to mow the croquet lawn, a folly, a wildflower meadow, water features (of course), a barn with indoor tennis court, three garages. The planting was beautiful but not at its peak, I feel this is probably a real stunner in late summer.  But everything looked super healthy - just look at these hostas. 

Our final stop was the American Museum nr Bath. TBH the gardens are very pleasant but not jaw droppingly stunning (or maybe I was getting jaded by then). Lovely nevertheless and the landscape looking out over parkland is beautiful and typical of the 18th century style planting. However did people have the vision!! The Museum itself was really, really interesting (just as well because it poured for 3 of the 4 hours we were there). I had been excited to see the quilt exhibits but they were actually the least interesting part of the whole day. Hubby did enjoy the children's garden though. And in the interest of full disclosure the toilet doors here had 'EXIT' written on them inside. 

Seemed an unnecessary clarification.

So, apologies for such a long post. There's no desk as such this week but here's a quick card I made over the w/e for a friend. He likes B&W cows. I don't know how many more years I can keep this theme going.... 

So, why am I showing you my desk? Well it's our weekly Wednesday Blog Hop - WOYWW. Here's the link to the one responsible, the lovely Julia at Stamping Ground - pop on over and join in, see what it's all about and have a go yourself. 

Happy WOYWW!! Cindy