An autumnal wander at Belton

After a pretty dismal and completely non-inspiring stop at a motorway services on our trip to West Sussex I was pleased when MOH suggested a detour to the Belton Estate on our return trip. While we stopped earlier on the journey back, we just took a quick break and avoided repeating the previous McAwful experience (something that tasted bland, yet was overly peppery at the same time!), and let’s face it a National Trust cheese scone, pot of tea and a slice of cake would always be a much more preferable option.

Plus we got the chance to properly stretch our legs, the sun was out and it was too good an opportunity to waste. And if I was lucky I’d be able to have a nose around the orangery and see how that had changed since my last visit, and see how it was faring in a different season.

Unfortunately my luck was out, as the orangery was closed for the day - ah well, as Belton is just thirty minutes from home it gives me the perfect excuse to head back another day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Of course, that didn’t stop me peering into through the glass though as you can see taking photos was pretty futile - though I kind of like the effect, but only for a photo or two!

All was not lost though as Belton still has plenty of beautiful gardens (and a large estate) to explore, but we were only here for a short journey-breaker this time, so treated ourselves to a wander around the area at the back of the orangery where the roses grow up the walls, and there’s medlar trees in the quadrants.

It’s also an area of the gardens which have some intricate topiary designs, which you know I’m also keen on.

It’s probably a part of the garden I overlook in my keenness to check out the orangery, so that being closed for the day was really no bad thing. Next time I’ll be sure to head for this bench so I can admire the exterior of the orangery as much as the inside!

With the orangery and the small walled garden behind it checked out, we headed to a golden tree which had caught our eye as soon as we entered the garden with its leaves appearing to burn against the bluest of skies.

The leaves seemed to ‘burn brighter’ the closer we got to the tree.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Google tells me this is a tulip tree and with the, what I presume are, flower heads it’s easy to believe this suggestion. Looking again, it tells me that the tulip tree is part of the magnolia family and again I can see the likeness with the bud/flower head. Either way, it’s a beautiful tree and such a beautiful colour - there wasn’t a tree around it that had the same vibrancy.

There really isn’t anywhere better to wander on a bright autumnal day - let’s hope there’s more days like this to come.

Sliding into autumn

The signs have been coming, haven’t they?

It’s been clear that a change of seasons has been about to take place, not least because of the autumn equinox on 23 September. There’s been subtler ways that our days have changed though over the past few weeks, and I’m sure yours have too.

We’re no longer wearing shorts and we’re sad about that! Now we’re most likely to reach for our jeans and long sleeved tops. My sandals are still there tempting me to put them on - and occasionally I do - but mostly now I’m choosing proper shoes or trainers. I’ve not yet broken into a coat yet - there’s a few months before that’s likely to happen, but a fleece and/or a waterproof is now a consideration when leaving home, though thankfully not always required.

There’s still some sun at times during the day and it’s been great to make the most of that, I’ve been able to time when I leave the house to coincide with the best of the weather, and I’m grateful for that. Just yesterday I spent an hour or so with my head in a podcast walking around a new-to-me local garden, taking pictures as I went.

CONEFLOWERS TUMBLING OVER THE BORDER AT HALL PLACE BEXLEY THIS WEEK

The food we’re eating has changed too - less salads and more heartier food, which is great - even lunches now have something hot, and I know that soup will once become a regular on our table. For me, autumn food is always welcome I think it’s of the best seasons food-wise! The slow cooker is making more of an appearance on my kitchen worktop and I’m regularly cooking recipes from Sarah’s Slow Cooker Series - they’re seriously tasty, and definitely worth a look if you need some inspiration.

The temperature is lower as you’d expect, and we’ve had one much chillier day this week. That’s meant we’re finally using more than a sheet and a patchwork quilt on our bed. The heating isn’t on yet, but we have progressed to the summer weight duvet - we have the duvets that click together, so there’s a few layers to go before we’ve reached maximum levels yet. Even so, the past few winters we haven’t even made it to the winter duvet stage, let alone both clicked together - but we know it’s an option if we need it.

A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF PUMPKINS, SQUASH AND GOURDS AT NT STOURHEAD IN OCTOBER 2021

In the garden the leaves on the sycamores are still green and don’t look as if they’ll be coming down just yet, but there are other changes; the plants that suffered most in the summer drought are recovering, and our grass is finally green again. It’s patchy, but it’s green and patchy - which is good news. The squirrels are collecting food for their winter stores, and annoying MOH by digging holes around the garden - though I’m pretty sure they never come back for whatever they’re digging!

This weekend we need to move some pots and put away the sun loungers for the winter. I’m debating (with myself) whether it’s time to cover up the garden table and chairs just yet, or if we’ll be lucky to get a little bit more use out of them, even if it’s a snatched hour or two here and there.

I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it - autumn is probably my most favourite season, what about you?

An autumnal feel with pops of summer colour

I've been meaning to write this post since last weekend when I popped out into the garden and found more colour than I was expecting to see. I'd convinced myself that everything had turned autumnal almost overnight - and it almost did - but it seems my garden isn't quite ready to give up its colour. With a blast of sun shining on it too, it'd be easy to convince ourselves that maybe it was more like summer after all, but only for a moment!

The blue geranium seemed to be enjoying the sun as much as me, I'd not noticed before but it almost has a white ring at its centre as well as tie and dye like petals!

The patio pots I planted up at the start of June are only just coming into their own, as you can see I've still flowers in bud but these impatiens are doing well, even if they're a bit nibbled. I'd bought some really small lucky dip plug plants and while they were good value, they've taken a while to actually flower in our north facing garden so it's not something I think I'll be doing again next year.

The hardy fuchsia provides another pop of colour as we walk up the garden and despite giving it a serious hacking earlier in the year, it's still flowering and is giving the pyracantha berries in the background a good run for their money.

The sedums are just starting to add some autumnal pink in the garden, we've these throughout the garden in clumps which works to unify our space. I was especially pleased to see these looking so well as these are the ones planted in my gabion planters, I'm taking it that they're happy there!

In the sleeper bed I'd randomly planted some of my seedlings - and then promptly forgot about them - until now that is, this beautiful cosmos has just started to flower and it's great to see its vibrancy as I turned the corner of our garden.  I quite like the idea of forgetting where I'd planted seedlings, as it does bring a nice and unexpected surprise, well as long as MOH doesn't mistake them for weeds as they're not marked that is!

I've also discovered a little friend looking for a new home. It must have been quite traumatic for him/her while I was watering the plants.  I hope I haven't washed away any chance of a family they'd been busy with.  He was persuaded to look for alternative accommodation gently, and encouraged to hop over the lawn back into the beds for safety, so hopefully he'll be fine. We see several toads in our garden, and hear them rustling their way through the garden after dark "on manoeuvres" and we definitely have less slugs and snails where we see the toads, so they're a good thing to have.

Not such a good thing to have right now is squirrels.  They are fast becoming the bane of our garden, what with their digging and sudden penchant for my succulents. I've many leaves that have come away from the plant, and while I know I can grow new plants from them, and I'm in danger of being overrun by succulents, it'd be much better for the leaves to stay attached in the first place.

The squirrel is also popping into the greenhouse and digging, not in a helpful way though. In much the same way as he's - or they've - been digging in the grass. MOH is far from pleased about how many holes he has in his grass at the moment, and if I were the squirrel I would be giving MOH quite a wide berth.

On the plus side I should be able to fill another trug with all these new succulent plants, or start my own succulent business!!

Near the patio the hibiscus has continued to flower, it seems to still be enjoying the weather although I've got my eye on it and the forecast. I'm still in two minds what to do with it over the winter, but a more pressing concern is what to do with it when we're away in October, in case there's an unexpected cold snap.

I found some pots at the back of the garden which I'd also potted up with those tiny bedding plants that are in full flower and conveniently they were red and white so they've been brought down to the front of the garden to keep the hibiscus company, and with the added advantage of giving the illusion of colour throughout the garden when looking from the house.

The pear tree at the back of our garden is full of pears. We gave the tree quite a severe pruning in the Spring and this is how it repays us, I'm not hopeful for the fruits being edible though as we've not had much success in the past. They are rock hard and the longer we leave them on the tree, the more likely that pesky squirrel is to have sunk his teeth into them.  

If you've any ideas on how I can win with these pears, I'd love to hear them.