Days out: Fledborough Viaduct

This wasn't really a day out, but I'd gone to visit Mum over the Easter weekend and we decided to go for a walk to the viaduct close to a local village. Fledborough Viaduct is on a now defunct railway line (once the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast railway), and is now part of National Cycle Route 647. We planned to use a footpath nearby to walk under the viaduct and then loop back round.

The viaduct itself is absolutely huge, and runs for a very long way across the fields even before it crosses the Trent.

This is what was Fledborough Station, now overgrown and with just a station sign and a seat left. The path on what was the track is good and clearly marked and would be great for both walking and cycling.

We walked along the edge of a field and still the viaduct stretched into the distance.

The sheep were very interested in what we were doing, although they ran away if they thought we were too close to their lambs! One of them seemed to have quadruplets!

Unfortunately the footpath got a little, erm, wet, further on, so we had to take a different route.

But that meant we saw a toad!

Our walk ended back where we had started, where we'd parked the car outside St Gregory's Church in Fledborough. The church is huge and echoey, and disused. It's now run by the Churches Conservation Trust, so is open every day to visitors. I couldn't quite see where the original congregation would have come from as there only seemed to be three houses in the village, plus a few farms further away, and the church really is huge!

Have you been on any walks recently?

Days out: Clandon Park & a trip north

Last week we both had a day off and went to visit Clandon Park, near Guildford, where we were hoping to see daffodils. We've been thwarted a couple of times, as four years ago we were too late for daffodils, and last year we visited on a Saturday (without checking opening times) and discovered that the property is closed on Saturdays so we couldn't see the daffodils at all then.

So, of course, this year we were too early.

 Most of the daffodils weren't as far along as they are at home, although I wasn't aware that I'd planted particularly early-flowering varieties.

There was hardly anyone around so we had the gardens to ourselves as we wandered around. This is the Dutch Garden, which is sponsored by the Air Cabin Crew Fund as a memorial to British Airways cabin crew who have lost their lives in service.

 And some woodland looking across towards the daffodils

It will look amazing in a few weeks' time...

I also went up to my Mum's for a few days over the Mothering Sunday weekend. We had a couple of days out too, mainly to Nottingham to go to John Lewis, and then to various Lincolnshire garden centres. ;-) I went on the train so managed to avoid the temptation to buy lots of plants to bring back with me.

Sweep was obviously delighted to see me.

This is the fabric I bought at John Lewis. It seems appropriately Daisy-ish. It's to make a Megan dress, from the Tilly and the Buttons book.

Days out: Waddesdon Manor

We decided to take advantage of having a four day Easter weekend (well, actually mine was a seven day weekend, but the OH only had four days) to have a day out to Waddesdon Manor, up in Buckinghamshire, not far from Aylesbury. We realised it would be really busy so we probably wouldn't get tickets to go in the house by the time we got there, so we stopped off on the way and had an early lunch in Aylesbury.

At Waddesdon they had new, slightly crazy, car parking arrangements - you park on the far end of the park land in a huge mega car park like something on an industrial estate, then queue for a shuttle bus to take you over to the house. It's probably great on a weekday, not so great on a bank holiday weekend when there are a lot of people visiting...

Anyway, we eventually made it over to the house. Which isn't that old, it was only built at the end of the nineteenth century, and has all this towers and turrets all over the place.

I liked the criss-cross ivy they'd got growing up one of the towers.

It must be a bit colder up in Buckinghamshire, as their daffodils were mostly still in bloom (ours were over by the Easter weekend), and formed a spectacular show in front of the house.

This is a bird planted with bedding plants, which I'd seen on Gardeners' World and wanted to see for real. I bet it looks amazing in a couple of months' time!

This ornate structure, believe it or not, is an aviary, where originally exotic birds were kept for pleasure, but which is now an important conservation breeding centre for rare species. Each section is a separate enclosure with birds from different parts of the world inside.

This little chap is very rare indeed. He's a Bali Mynah (also known as a Rothschild Mynah) and, in the wild, this species is hovering not far off extinction.

 

We got away from the crowds by walking through the woodland, where bluebells were beginning to emerge.

And some beautiful views over the surrounding countryside from the more open park land.

Days out: Gainsborough Old Hall

I went up to Mum's for the Mothering Sunday weekend and we had a day out to Gainsborough whilst I was there. We mooched around the newish shopping area, Marshall's Yard, where we had some lunch, before heading over to Gainsborough Old Hall. I think I last went there on a school trip 25 years ago (how time flies).

It's a Medieval Manor House, visited by Richard III and Henry VIII, and also housed some of the Separatists, who engaged in Puritan worship in the hall. Later on some of their group would travel to America on the Mayflower.

The internal photos are a bit fuzzy as I didn't have my flash on.

I climbed all the way to the top of the tower to have a look over the rest of the building and surrounding bits of Gainsborough. It was a lovely day.

Rather unfortunate model of Henry VIII, complete with enormous codpiece!!

I could remember a few parts (mainly the Ghost Corridor) from when I visited years ago, but there's a lot more to see now, and I think it would be a great place to visit with children.

Days out: Clandon Park daffodils

We were getting into the whole daffodils thing, so decided to go and visit Clandon Park, down near Guildford, which has a field of daffodils in front of the house. A few years ago we visited and the daffodils were just over, and we'd always said we'd go back and see them properly another year.

So we did. Except when we got there we discovered that the house and grounds are closed on Saturdays (and Fridays), as they hire them out for weddings (hmm, there is a picture of a bride in a swanky dress in front of all the daffodils on their wedding hire website). Should have checked the website...

We had to admire the daffodils from a distance.

However, we then went on to the wonderful Clandon Park Garden Centre, an independent one, and had a cup of tea in their cafe, before buying lots of plants!

Days out: Valley Gardens daffodils

Last year we heard about the daffodils at Valley Gardens and went to have a look. They are absolutely amazing, and cover a huge area. We went back again this year for another look and a walk along the edge of Virginia Water lake.

Half these pictures were taken with my camera, and half with my iPhone, so apologies if they appear different!

These are the first daffodils you come to. And you think that this is it, until...

a bit further along, there are even more!

And more.

Stream heading down through the daffodils to Virginia Water lake

The shore of the lake

You can tell this side of the river has very different geology - the camellias are HUGE!

Days out: Reading

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of our first date (I know, aren't we soppy?!) the OH took a day off work and we headed off on the train to explore Reading. It's somewhere I've been to many times before, but mainly to change trains or meet up with someone, so I'd never really explored the centre before. 

First stop was John Lewis, to fill up on my free cup of tea and a cake (sign up for a free My John Lewis card and you get vouchers for a free hot drink and a cake each month).

Then we were off to explore. We spent the rest of the morning in the museum, which was quite full of school parties, but fairly well done and interesting. We didn't actually see most of it before we felt hungry and went in search of lunch!

We found Forbury Gardens not far from the museum. The lion commemorates the loss of soldiers from the Royal Berkshire Regiment in Afghanistan in, er, 1880 (some things never change).

The gardens lead to the ruins of the 12th century Abbey. The Abbey Gateway in the picture later became a school attended by Jane Austen.

Later we had a wander round the town centre. This impressive looking church wasn't open, so we didn't find out much more about it. It turned out that it was Reading Minster.

The newish shopping centre (amusing named "The Oracle", which was earlier the name of Reading's Workhouse...) is on both sides of the river, which was looking rather high when we visited.

At some point we'll go back. We've got the rest of the museum to see, and obviously more cake vouchers to use in John Lewis...

Days out: Wisley

Last year I joined the Royal Horticultural Society, which not only provides great gardening advice via their website and publications, but also offers lots of beautiful gardens to visit.

Last weekend the OH and I decided to have a day out to Wisley, the RHS garden in Surrey. There was a "Butterflies in the glasshouse" event on, which meant some parts were very crowded, but it was easy to get away from it all. This is the lake by the glasshouse.

And the view up one of the herbaceous borders towards fruit hill. 

 

It's quite a contrast with this photo I took in July, the same borders from the other direction:

 In the winter garden snowdrops were appearing - it's been so mild they're early this year.

In one of the alpine houses crocuses and cyclamen were in bloom.

We went to the vegetable plot area to have a look. This is set up as examples of different types of gardening. This side is the same size as a half allotment plot, to give an idea of what can be done on an allotment.

The winter crops were in, including some sprouts with an amusing name.

The earliest varieties of rhubarb were beginning to appear.

This is the red and purple vegetables bed, which I thought was a great idea if you have the room!

And finally some Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter fire' full of glorious colour.