When we first visited UK in 2010 as members of a garden tour in England from Japan, we met many impressive scenes of gardens. Before departure, I saw one photograph of a bench in a latest issue at that time of magazine 'Bises' (one of the most popular gardening magazines).
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| A photo in Bises magazine 2010 |
In the afternoon of the first day of visiting gardens, We went to Mottisfont Abbey Rose Garden.
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| Guide map at the entrance |
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| The house of Mottisfont Abbey beyond meadow flowers |
We walked along a river and through meadow with big trees to the walled garden, which houses the national collection of old fashioned rose designed by Graham Stuart Thomas, and at last we found the bench with flowering 'Constance Spry'. It was really glorious and we stood still for a few minutes.
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| Edwardian 4 Seater Bench painted White |
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| My wife 'Marple' |
We also found another bench with light yellow roses. I suppose this is 'Lady Hillingdon', but I'm not sure.
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| Another White Edwardian bench. Now I'm using this photo as a icon of POIROT at the Bises photo gallery (http://www.bises.co.jp/photo/) |
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| I sat on this bench |
After we came back, we started re-planning our garden. We found a young garden designer who had learned gardening in UK for a year. She designed the brick wall and terrace. We bought a new lutyens teak garden bench instead of Edwardian one, because we thought that the former is more natural and match well to our garden, and it was more economical :-)
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| Renewed garden in January 2011 |
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| My wife and the garden designer at the new bench |
Three years has passed since the renewal, and the bench color has changed to more natural color.
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| The bench has become well-matched there (May 2014) |
I have a lovely garden seat - mine is actually a swing which belonged to my late mother. I'm not sure which gives more pleasure: walking around the garden and seeing it looking so inviting where it stands or actually sitting on it and savouring the garden.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your garden very much
A swing seat sounds so nice!
DeleteI think it is much precious for you because it belonged to your late mother.
In our garden, I have a bathtub with casters which my late handicapped mother had used in her room. Now it is a small pool for Japanese iris and water canna.
I too have sat on one of those benches in Mottisfont!
ReplyDeleteYour bench looks very elegant.
My wife treats the bench with teak oil every year.
DeleteA wonderful story. That is what is so nice about gardens we visit it can give us an idea that can make our garden an even better place to use. We can see something that we can adapt to suit us.
ReplyDeleteI love how your bench captures the spirit of your visit to Mottisfont Abbey and a wonderful reminder of your visit.
Dee
I really agree with you. Visiting gardens give us inspirations.
DeleteI loved Mottisfont and the roses there. Travelling is special, but better is bringing pieces of our memories to life in our gardens back home.
ReplyDeleteDear Mickie
DeleteThank you for visiting our blog.
Mottisfont gave us strong inspirations, and we have been making our garden since that.
nice
ReplyDelete